Moth-Eyed Man, The
- Gary Doberman |
- 1978 |
- 9 minutes |
- COLOR |
- SILENT
Rental Format(s): 16mm film
"This is a portrait of Brakhage in Brakhage's style. I can't see any justification for making this film." - Ken Jacobs
Jacobs was correct in his description, but he missed the implicit boundary question. A viewer described the film as "seeing yourself seeing through someone else's seeing." This film puts mediation into question; it talks in someone else's tongue while maintaining its own ontology. As a film preoccupied with mediation and boundary distinctions, the film is related to DOMICILE, Silent Window Thinking, FULL MOON NOTEBOOK, MARKS OF REFERENCE and consequently foreshadows the APORIAS.
"You have shown us the theatrics of discipleship ... the disciples like moths circulating around a flame ... the sensation that the entire film takes place in a cave illuminated by a central light .... If one were a disciple, the spell could never be broken, but the spell is broken in your film because you are not a disciple, rather your subject is discipleship, the theater of discipleship made conscious. It is very clear, it is a made thing, of discipleship, we are not asked to enter the web or to have a religious experience, but to think." - Ed Schwartz