"Philip Hoffman's PASSING THROUGH/TORN FORMATIONS is a wide open ramble through the labyrinth of memory, considered primarily as a family affair. The film deals with the life and history of Hoffman's Czech-born mother and her family, presented as a kind of polyphonic recitation - of words, of images and of sounds." - Robert Everett-Green

"PASSING THROUGH/TORN FORMATIONS extends from Eastern Europe and back again - an unravelling tapestry of family relations that speaks of migration and translation." - Marian McMahon

"PASSING THROUGH/TORN FORMATIONS accomplishes a multi-faceted experience for the viewer - it is a poetic document of Family, for instance - but Philip Hoffman's editing throughout is true to thought process, tracks visual theme as the mind tracks shape, makes melody of noise and words as the mind recalls sound." - Stan Brakhage