im back from a week where i was able to watch 33 16mm prints of Dorsky/Hiler films. an incredibly good way to spend a week.
Hours for Jerome was always one of my ultimate grails of experimental film, and it really is an absolute masterpiece.
Ember Days is a very small film Dorsky made last year, one of his shorter works and just focused on a single idea. one of his best.
Variations is one of the ones that i had managed to see a digital version of before, but it was such bad quality, it never stuck out to me. now seeing a print, i think it is like, the first major work of what would come to be his style. every shot, every cut, every frame is essential and immense.
the first time i saw any Dorsky films screened was in Lisbon in 2015. there were two programmes, each containing four films. i had read about his work for years beforehand, but actually seeing them - especially on film - is an experience unlike anything else, even within a-g cinema. that first programme ended with Winter, i had never seen a film more beautiful and i was not sure if i would ever have the chance to see it again in my life. the final day of this series included that same four film programme. Winter has only grown in power since than. it’s wet, cold and grey. in that grey are shades of blues and greens, the contrast of winter light against shadows. a christmas movie in the same way rival dealer is a christmas record. my favourite movie.
the Hiler films were absolutely astonishing. a few months back i saw Words of Mercury but it was programmed between two Dorsky films, and that really did it an injustice. for someone who’s work has rarely been screened over the last 50 years, and is mostly known as Dorsky’s partner, sandwiching it that way really set it up to fail. it’s incredibly pretty, but felt more in line with something like Paul Clipson’s music videos than something that holds up alongside Dorsky. even having seen it in better conditions now, it’s probably my least favourite of his.
what really stood out from the Hiler programmes were his early works. it’s hard to tell exactly the chronology of when the films were fully edited etc, but at least those shot contemporaneously with Hours for Jerome around the 70s totally floored me. In The Stone House mostly seems to be shot around that same year Dorsky was documenting, but is so hyperfocused on their love and their life together. the house they live in, the space around them, the people coming in and out of their lives. a truly remarkable discovery.
