SFCINEMATHEQUE

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Saturday, October 10, 2009

My Hand Outstretched…

Films of Robert Beavers: Program IV

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts





Robert Beavers in person
(See Thursday October 8 for Series Overview)
[members: $6 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.

Ruskin foregrounds Beavers’ love of literature, architecture and landscape — the filmmaker’s hand rests on a volume of John Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice and much of the film is shot in the environs of Venice, London and the Swiss Alps. Elegant cinematography and innovative sound construction — Beavers’ films are as beautiful to listen to as they are to see — build the foundation of this ode to an earlier era. The Ground uses seemingly simple components — the sun-baked landscape of a Greek island, the blue waters of the Aegean Sea and images of a man chiseling stone — to conjure the fundamental experience of holding something close to one’s heart. A repeated close up of a man pounding his bare chest, then gesturing with hand outstretched, lends dramatic tension to the film’s expression of devotional love. (Susan Oxtoby)