Nathaniel Dorsky & Anne Waldman, The Poetry Project, New York, NY

THE POETRY PROJECT PRESENTS: NATHANIEL DORSKY + ANNE WALDMAN

This fall New York City will be treated to a plethora of opportunities to see the work of Nathaniel Dorsky, who since 1963 has crafted a body of work comprising an astonishing number of exquisite and luminous experimental films. The subject of a career retrospective at this year’s New York Film Festival (September-October), Dorsky will return to NYC in November for this very special event, presented in conjunction with The Poetry Project.

Born in NYC in 1943, Dorsky is both an experimental filmmaker and a film editor, as well as the author of the seminal book, DEVOTIONAL CINEMA. As Richard Suchenski writes, Dorsky employs objects in his films as “decontextualized and sometimes unmoored from their surroundings, allowing connections to develop which resonate not only between shots but also across the films as a whole, encouraging more active forms of awareness.” Dorsky’s work asks the viewer to consider the film’s object to be irreducibly human. In DEVOTIONAL CINEMA, he writes, “In a flash, the uncanny presence of the poetic and vibrant world, ripe with mystery, stands before us” and, indeed, his films evince a form tantamount to a filmic poetry.

This event will showcase three films (two of them among his most recent), as well as featuring the filmmaker in conversation with poet Anne Waldman, for a discussion of his work’s relationship to poetry and language.

SARABANDE 2008, 15 min, 16mm, silent
PRELUDE 2015, 20 min, 16mm, silent
INTIMATIONS 2015, 18 min, 16mm, silent

Total running time: ca. 55 min (plus discussion)

The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church
131 E. 10th Street, New York, NY 10003

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