"Michael Wallin's DECODINGS is a profoundly moving, allegorical search for identity from the documents of collective memory, in this case, found footage from the '40s and '50s. ... The search for self ends in aching poignancy with stills of a boy and his mother at the kitchen table, catching the moment that marks the dawning of anguish and loss; desire becomes imprinted on that which was long ago." - Manohla Dargis, The Village Voice

"DECODINGS is a magical, seamless work that manages to beguile even as it probes areas tender to the touch. Its tale is beautifully told ...." - Patrick Hoctel, SF Weekly

"Explodes with Buñuel's sensuousness and a Hitchcockian narrative irony ...." - Doug Sadownick, LA Weekly

"Wallin's achievement in DECODINGS is to create a powerfully inventive work that conveys with dramatic intensity strong feelings of remembrance and loss from images that have been extracted from the culture. ... Wallin has succeeded in creating from various film sources a work that emphasizes the fragility and ultimate vulnerability of human expression and relationships." - John G. Hanhardt, Whitney Biennial catalogue, 1989

Awards: Grand Prize, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, 1988; Special Jury Award, SF Int'l Film Festival, 1989; SECA Film as Art Award, SF Museum of Modern Art, 1990; Bucks County Film Festival, 1990; Humboldt Film Festival, 1990; NY Short Film/Video Expo, 1989; Chicago Int'l Film Festival, 1989; Athens Int'l Film and Video Festival, 1989; SF Art Institute Film Festival, 1989.

Exhibition: Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1989