May 5, 19h, Centre Pompidou, three short films by American experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky: Song and Solitude (2005-2006), Threnody (2004), The Visitation (2002)
May 12, 19h, Centre Pompidou, four short films by American experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky: Sarabande (2008), Compline (2009), Aubade (2010), Winter (2008)

Long a figure of interest to many contemporary American poets, Nathaniel Dorsky has been making and exhibiting avant-garde films since 1964. He now lives in San Francisco, where he makes a living as a film editor. His works have been shown internationally and are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley, California), Image Forum (Tokyo), Les Archives du film expérimental d’Avignon, and Le Centre Pompidou (Paris) as well as many universities. Among his better known works are Summerwind (1965), Hours for Jerome (1966-70, 82), Pneuma, Alaya (1976-87), Variations (1992-98), Arbor Vitae (2000) and The Visitation (2002). He is the author of Devotional Cinema (Tuumba Press, 2004), reprised from his lecture on religion and cinema at Princeton University, a reflection upon the role of filmmaking in faith, prayer, pleasure, and the renewal of the human spirit. Says Dorsky: « On a visceral level, the intermittent quality of film is close to the way we experience the world. We don’t experience a solid continuum of existence. Intermittence penetrates to the very core of our being, and film vibrates in a way that is close to this core. »

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Some comments about Dorsky’s work:

« Old School doesn’t describe it. Dorsky has achieved such a subtle mastery over the most basic means of cinematic expression – composition, duration, juxtaposition – that he can squeeze a wealth of emotional vibrations out of the silent, seemingly banal interplay of foreground and background objects. A formalist with a brimming, elegiac soul, Dorsky will gently rock your attitude toward cinematic landscape. His world is a sublime mystery measured by patience and unmatched visual insight. » – Paul Arthur, Film Comment

« The films of Nathaniel Dorsky associate a magnificent celebration of the sensual world with a profound sense of introspection and solitude. His films are an opportunity for reflection and meditation on light, landscape, time and the movement of consciousness. Their luminous photography highlights the elemental shimmer that separates solidity and luminosity, mind and matter, while the singular montage gives rise to a fluid and fluctuating experience of time. » – Steve Polta