Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son

Ghosts! Cine-recordings of the vivacious doings of persons long dead. Preservation of their memory ceases at the edges of the frame. One face passes “behind” another on the two-dimensional screen. Seven infinitely complex cine-tapestries indicate a narrative-path not taken. My camera closes in to better see the action, playing with fate, taking advantage of the loop-character of all movies. I see a person, confused, suddenly looking out of an actor’s face. But I want to show another kind of screen-action, to “bring to the surface” that multi-rhythmic collision and contesting of dark and light two-dimensional force-areas struggling edge to edge for identity of shape. To get into the grain pattern itself, unique to each frame, each cold still, stirred to life by a successive 16-24 fps pattering on our retinas. The grains! the grains! collaborating unknowing to form the always-poignant-because-always-past illusion.

– Ken Jacobs