Heaven and Earth Magic
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 12, 2004
Thursday, February 12, 2004, 8pm
A magician dismembers a woman and tries to put her back together. Such is the plot of this unique feature-length animation, created with 19th-century engravings and compulsive single-mindedness by Harry Smith (1923-1991), beatnik musicologist and one of cinema’s greatest outsiders. As its cutout protagonists undertake mystical journeys of uncertain purpose, viewers may imagine they are watching a complex and mysterious civilization flourish and self-destruct. Like a Cornell box come to life, but with a strange, hostile energy all its own, Heaven and Earth Magic is absorbing and endlessly interpretable. 16mm (Jim Trainor). 1962, Harry Smith, USA, 66 min, 16mm.
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Conversations at the Edge is a weekly series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists.
CATE is organized by SAIC's Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC's Video Data Bank.
Programs take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State / Chicago, IL / 312.846.2600), unless otherwise noted.
