Seven pieces by filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky dedicated to the observation of the relationship of light with trees in the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco.
• Elohim (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017). USA. 16 mm. Color. 31’• Abaton (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017). USA. 16 mm. Color. 19’• Coda (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017). USA. 16 mm. Color. 16’• Ode (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017). USA. 16 mm. Color. 20’• September (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017). USA. 16 mm. Color. 20’• Monody (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017). USA. 16 mm. Color. 16’• Epilogue (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017). USA. 16 mm. Color. 15’
«'I want the film to breathe light'. That was the seminal ambition of experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky when he set out to film, throughout all seasons, a cycle of seven short films at the Strybing Arboretum near San Francisco's Golden Gate. The result, Arboretum Cycle: a film, an experiment, a process of mechanical and symbiotic interaction with nature that, appealing to its ontological essence, subscribes to the potential of cinema to offer itself as a transcendental experience. In his short essay-manifesto Devotional Cinema, Dorsky writes: "Above all, cinema is a screen, cinema is a rectangle of light, cinema is light sculpted in time." The contemplative, transformative experience that Arboretum Cycle proposes predisposes us to freeze the moment of transition, that is, movement, to understand that life is an uninterrupted succession of small, priceless, radical modifications. From light to dark, from growth to decay, under pleasant and wild climates. The microscopic focus acquires a macroscopic dimension over time: everything fits if you fix the camera in front of an organic entity, if you catch its light mutations, its different textures, in whose experience the obligation to project their films in 16 mm. Diving into its seven-film cycle translates into what Dorsky has called "a full year in the world of light and plants," portraying all light and, by extension, all life. " (Carlos Reviriego, Programming Director of Filmoteca Española)
