[hockn eye d] (13 min. 2002) Directed, shot, and edited by Lester Alfonso translating to video the photographic technique pioneered by artist David Hockney.
A few days ago, I found an old webpage that had a description of a film that I had completely forgotten about. It said, “Bending the perspective of documentary cinema is what nonfiction filmmaker Lester Alfonso says he’s done with his new project… Ominnimo presents a stream of documentary “portraits” underscored by music, incongruous sound effects or silence. The viewer is encouraged to make an abstract sense of the order that the images are revealed and repeated. It culminates to expose the artist’s life and process.”
Interesting, I thought to myself. The description continued. “It provides something that most TV or film seldom provide for me. It’s entirely spiritual,” said Alfonso. “There’s no discernible plot but the force of the sound and images serve to inspire. I hope it galvanizes the audience to participate.”
That’s some chutzpah, I thought to myself. “Lester Alfonso describes his 90-minute feature film a ‘psychedelic nonfiction’ and encourages viewers to sit back and relax into it. The film also includes parts of [hockn eye d] where he has taken the technique pioneered by artist David Hockney to create his own unique composite images from video instead of photographs. “It truly began as an experiment with Time concepts,” he said. “I was trying to visualize what Time looked like when you tied it into knots.”
Okay you got me, I’m sold. I know exactly where it is but it’ll take some time to digitize. On Archive Upload Day 78, I can Facebook/YouTube premiere [hockn eye d] instead for a little taste. Until next time. More soon so stay tuned! —LA
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