DORSKY & HILER, PGM 3: NATHANIEL DORSKY’S ‘ARBORETUM CYCLE’
"For the past several years California experienced an extreme drought. But this past winter good fortune brought a bountiful amount of storms and liquid refreshment. The spring that followed took on magical and celebratory qualities of energy, joy, fullness, and rebirth. In walking distance from my apartment is San Francisco's Arboretum located in Golden Gate Park. I decided that I would make a film now on a single subject and that subject would be the light – not the objects, but the sacredness of the light itself in this splendid garden. What I did not know is that the great beauty of this magnificent spring would bring forth not one, but seven films, each one immediately following the previous. I began to photograph on the second week of February and finished the editing of the seventh film during the last days of December. These seven films spontaneously manifested as the stages of life: early childhood, youth, maturity, old age, and death. ELOHIM was photographed in early spring, the week of the lunar new year, the very spirit of creation. ABATON was photographed a few weeks later in the full ripeness of spring, the very purity and intoxication of passion. CODA was photographed in late spring, in the aftermath of this purity, the first shades of mortality and knowledge. ODE, photographed in early summer, is a soft textured song of the fallen, the dissonant reds of death, seeds, and rebirth. SEPTEMBER is indeed, Indian summer, the halcyon swan song of earthly blessings. MONODY, shot in the fading autumnal glory is an energized declaration of the end. And EPILOGUE, photographed in early December, rests in quietude, the garden's energy now descending into the dark, damp earth." –Nathaniel Dorsky, 2017 ELOHIM (2017, 31 min, 16mm, silent) ABATON (2017, 19 min, 16mm, silent) CODA (2017, 16 min, 16mm, silent) ODE (2017, 20 min, 16mm, silent) SEPTEMBER (2017, 20 min, 16mm, silent) MONODY (2017, 16 min, 16mm, silent) EPILOGUE (2017, 15 min, 16mm, silent)