Music by Tashi Wada

A commission for the San Francisco Exploratorium, this film-collage studies the water systems and architecture of the San Francisco waterfront, in abstract and formal contexts. The musical score by Tashi Wada is performed by cellists Charles Curtis and Judith Hamann.

Review:
"With Light Year (2013), Paul Clipson proves once again to have a keen eye and a wonderful gift for lyricism. He begins with impressive shots around what looks to be a shipyard: iron fences, wooden docks, cargo ships, and the sea. Vertical, dividing columns in many images give way to horizontal pans rightward over ships, tugboats, cranes, pulleys, cables, and electrical towers, many of these superimposed, creating a seemingly seamless panorama, which then shifts into more abstract patterns of color and light. A nautical paean to Apollo, perhaps, Clipson's movie celebrates the source, power, and reach of light as it passes over sea and material surfaces, wheedles between the narrowest crevices of a wooden structure, and penetrates the begrimed windows of a warehouse."
-Tony Pipolo, Artforum

SOUND NOTE FOR PROJECTION: From the title credit "LIGHT YEAR" on, the first 90 seconds of the film is silent. The soundtrack fades in during the shot of a wave.

Xenon balanced print.