SFCINEMATHEQUE

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Sunday, May 4, 1997

Phantom Cinema

Co-pesented with the Pacific Film Archive and the S. F. International Film Festival

Sundance Kabuki Cinemas





Cinema by its very nature is ephemeral, ending when the theater lights come up. “Phantom Cinema” investigates the mysterious territory between absence and presence, loss and times past. In The Secret Story by Janie Geiser, decaying toy figures, and old illustrations suggest lost narratives which are re-pieced together. Kerry Laitala’s Secure the Shadow uses antique medical images of the disturbed body to develop a haunting meditation on mortality. Stan Brakhage’s The “b” Series, is a hand-painted introspection on ephemerality and impermanence. The inevitability of loss also figures in Timoleon Wilkins’ MM. Fragments of a life are re-exposed in Greta Snider’s Flight. Dominic Angerame’s Line of Fire links telling details of his damaged body and destroyed home. Guy Sherwin’s Under the Freeway is a subtle record of an urban site in daily flux. Finally, images culled from cinema’s earliest days are magically transformed in Ken Jacobs’ The Georgetown Loop.