This session devoted to Storm de Hirsch starts and ends with her cine-songs and cine-sonnets, two series of films made in the sixties and seventies, which flank a third series, the Hudson River diaries, filmed in 16 mm. The filmmaker created these sketches by modulating the morphology of what she portrayed. In some cases, the surface of things is transformed by colourful, energetic camera movements, evoking both the parataxis of De Hirsch’s poems and her inner voice. In others, as well as the changes of focus or speed of filming, the editing—often in camera—modifies what we see: this kind of improvisation requires us to touch and to listen at once.
In her cine-songs, cine-sonnets and diaries, Storm de Hirsch addresses the chronoatmospheric conditions and possibilities of light. Flowers, trees, cabins, blocks of ice, coves, lakes, tree trunks, stones, balconies, rivers, statues and snow make up one great imaginary garden, a tapestry run through by the seasons.
Cine-Songs: The Reticule of Love, 1963, 3 min; The Recurring Dream, 1965, 3 min; Aristotle, 1965, 3 min; Malevich at the Guggenheim, 1965, 5 min; Silently, Bearing Totem of a Bird, 1962, 6 min; Ives House: Woodstock, 1965, 11 min, silent, Super 8
Cayuga Run, 1967, 16 mm, 18 min
Wintergarden – Hudson River Diary: Book III, 1973, 16 mm, 5 min
River-Ghost – Hudson River Diary: Book IV, 1973, 16 mm, 9 min
Lace of Summer, 1973, silent, Super 8, 4 min
September Express, 1973, silent, 16 mm, 6 min
16 mm screening. Copies courtesy of The Film-Makers’ Cooperative.
A programme by Francisco Algarín Navarro.
