Tonight’s program celebrates the beauty of cinematic seeing with three masterful films: Chartres Series (1993, 7 min., premiere), Stan Brakhage’s latest hand-painted film, was inspired by the stain-glass windows of the Chartres Cathedral; Nathaniel Dorsky’s Alaya (1976-1987, 28 min.) is a miraculous dance intermingling sand, wind, light and emulsion—”…there is the distinct impression of watching air blowing sand, yet the air is as transparent as the viewer’s mind.” (Konrad Steiner); and Endless (1987-90, 45 min.) by Daniel Barnett-—”Although constructed from thousands of still images of Chicago, Endless maintains a complex relationship to the photographic image. Time and space seem to compress or implode into a contradictory experience—one which is fluid yet static, sculptural yet two-dimensional, of the present yet of the past. The images are layered both horizontally and vertically, creating ‘endless’ variations of time and space which are unable to be contained within the fixed boundaries of the film frame.” (Kathy Geritz)