Ethna’s Suite, So Long (1986) by Phil Wiesman
Thursday, November 13, 1986, 8:00 pm
Phil Weisman/Mark Lapore
Filmmaker Phil Weisman will be present
Tonight’s program pairs the work of two filmmakers currently residing in New York, each artist markedly different in his distinctive personal “voice” and approach.
Weisman will present Threshold (1976-77), an exploratory film dealing with the interplay between conscious and unconscious perception; Ethna’s Suite, So Long (1986), “a film portrait of Ethna Duffy (and myself by implication) summarizing several years between us, our mutual love and lunacy …” (P.W.); and t. and the small picture frame (1986), a home movie portrait of Weisman’s parents within a home movie portrait of himself.
Medina (1983) and Work and Play (1983) by Mark Lapore were both filmed in rural Sudan, North Africa. Lapore’s gift is his exquisite counterpoise with what he is filming. These are not films of ethnographic plunder but of one who is a separate living presence among other living mysteries.