Crystals are inherently beautiful. They form our world; they are part of chemical-based photography that images it. They take innumerable forms, their growth is hypnotic, the light they scatter creates amazing colors. Many filmmakers have looked at crystals in myriad ways, and this program strives to capture an element of how the filmic investigation of one subject results in a brilliant array of filmic forms. From early documents to very recent, a well-crafted educational film from the 1950s to a mysterious experimental film and one that positions crystals in a post-humanist world, the program highlights the range of scientific visions and the experimental reuse or repositioning of those visions.
Curated by Adam Hyman
Conversation after the film with Andrew Kim and Deborah Stratman
SCREENING
Crystals
Elwood Decker, 1951, Color, silent, 2:15, Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive
Elwood Decker (1902-1992) was an American painter who also made a few short films. This film emphasized very brilliant colors. Some of the crystals were thin and elongated, almost like needles. Others looked like snowflakes growing. The growing crystals were seen through translucent abstract forms, which drifted over and through them, like ghosts. This was achieved by a making a series of double exposures on the same film print. In his journal he wrote, '...Like the Dunes, the simplicity of crystals make them seem like moving abstraction... ideas, rather than things...'
Elwood's latest abstract movies with growing crystals caused another ripple in the circle of artists he was connected with. He knew he had only scratched the surface and was pioneering with totally new and original concepts.
Crystal Growth Morphologies
Kenneth Jackson and Charlie Miller, Bell Labs, 1974, color, silent, 10:43, Footage Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ
This short, silent film shows fascinating crystal growth under magnification, in real-time. The width of the film frame, for most of the samples, is only 1mm wide (only one, the Tristearin sample, is 1/4 of that). Kenneth Jackson and Charlie Miller were the Bell Labs researchers who made the film to document their work. This film was leased during the 1970s and 1980s for audiences of university students, to complement relevant classwork.
Crystal-growing techniques were very important to technological advancement at Bell Laboratories. Early crystal experimentation to find better rectifiers for radar and microwaves in the 1940s gave way to explorations of germanium and silicon crystals later on. These, of course, led to the development of the transistor, and beyond--in particular, how crystals grow on different surfaces. Later, this research would lead to ways of crafting the layers of silicon chips, such as the molecular beam epitaxy method.
Crystals
Richard Leacock, 1958, 16mm transferred to digital, color, sound, 24:30
This color film from 1958 and made by the Physical Science Study Committee shows Alan Holden from the Bell Laboratories explaining how crystals are formed and why they are shaped the way they are. The film goes on to show crystals growing while under a microscope. Blue Ribbon winner, American Film Festival.
Ricky Leacock (1921-2011) was a major documentary maker, generally in the direct cinema mode. His most well-known film is probably CRISIS (1963), but he was also cinematographer on Robert Flaherty’s LOUISIANA STORY (1946), one the cameramen on MONTEREY POP (1967), and formed Leacock Pennebaker Inc. with D.A. Pennebaker in 1963, making multiple filsms in the 1960s and 70s. In 1969, he was appointed Professor of Cinema at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. CRYSTALS is one of five films Leacock made for the Physical Science Study Committee Physics series. https://www.afana.org/leacock.htm
Alan Holden (1904-1985) was a physicist who helped to develop sonar equipment used to detect submarines during World War II. Born in New York City, went to work for the Bell Laboratories Division of the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation in N.J., after receiving his bachelor's degree from Harvard in physics and mathematics in 1925. Later, in 1935, he joined the research staff where he worked as a physicist until retiring in 1960. During World War II, he helped to develop methods for producing the large crystals that form the heart of the sonar equipment used by the United States Navy to locate enemy submarines. The Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC), made up of a group of MIT scientists, created a series of films in the late 1950s and early 1960s aimed at teaching the physical sciences.
The Arctic
Wenting Zhu,
China, 2019, digital, color, sound, 2:45
The making of THE ARCTIC began in October 2018 and lasted for about seven months. It records the crystallization processes of different salts. During this period, we explored various forms of the crystals and their wonderful growth patterns. Most of the footage was captured by time-lapse photography.
The tile of this film comes from the icy sensation of the Arctic. We hope this film can remind viewers the stunning beauty of the ice world and the importance of protecting our planet.
The Vibrancy
Wenting Zhu, China, 2020, digital, color, sound, 2 min.
Affected by polarized light, THE VIBRANCY records the fascinating crystallization processes of various substances. The crystallization process is increasingly fascinating—the colour is awakened, the crystals seem to be sentient, teasing the light, simple and magnificent colours bloom and shine in the dark, depicting a fascinating source of life with wonder manifested everywhere.
Instant Life
By Andrew Kim and Ojoboca, 16mm to digital, color, sound, 2022
Ludwig Faces produced, directed, shot and edited the film Instant Life (1941).1 On the occasions when he screened the film for an audience, he stated, vehemently, that the film should be understood, principally, as a solution to the problem of moving picture spectatorship.2
After each screening of his film, Faces would hand out a small sheet of colored paper to every member of the audience. On each sheet there was a typewritten riddle. He did not provide an answer to the riddle, nor did he ask for one. Descriptions of the evening’s events come from three filmmakers who were present for three separate screenings.3 Not long after attending the third screening, they began to call themselves The Unholy Three.4
Upon leaving the back room of the laundromat that had served as the evening’s cinema on their third and last viewing, The Unholy Three decided that they had to put aside all of their other projects and dedicate their time solely to cracking the riddle. After a few months they felt they had arrived at an answer. They did not reveal their answer to anyone.5
Shortly after, in the fall of 1979, they began production on a film, also titled Instant Life. Their film, which was originally conceived as a shot-for-shot remake of Faces’ film, eventually became three separate shot-for-shot remakes of Instant Life (1941).6 Upon completing the three versions, they decided that all three should be shown sequentially as a single film.
Last Thing
Deborah Stratman, 35mm to digital, Color, sound, 2023
What happens to us / Is irrelevant to the world’s geology / But what happens to the world’s geology / is not irrelevant to us. - Hugh MacDiarmid
Last Things looks at evolution and extinction from the perspective of the rocks and minerals that came before humanity and will outlast us. With scientists and thinkers like Lynn Margulis and Marcia Bjørnerud as guides and quoting from the proto-Sci-fi texts of J.H. Rosny, Deborah Stratman offers a stunning array of images, from microscopic forms to vast landscapes, and seeks a picture of evolution without humans at the center.
Tickets: $15 General | $10 Seniors | $20 for both programs on Dec 8 | FREE for LA Filmforum Members
via link.dice.fm