'Liquidambar' ... a Homage to Stan Brakhage

In 2003 after hearing the news that the godfather of experimental cinema, Stan Brakhage had died, i was inspired to pay homage in film form and thus made a short film called 'Liquidambar'.

In many ways it is my companion piece to Stan's film 'Mothlight' and was made using similar production methods of sicking pieces of leaves, petals, dead insects, etc directly onto strips of clear 16mm film and then optically reprinting them.

The end result when viewed is fleeting 'impressions' that bombard the eyes, leaving a slight buildup of afterimages on the retina, creating a montage effect.


I also liked the idea of long dead insects being preserved in ambar for thousands, if not millions of years in the solidified sap of ancient trees.
My film title of 'Liquidambar'...makes reference to this preservation but the remnants of the dead being preserved as images within the 16mm film emulsion instead.






The top image shows some of the original clear 16mm film srips with all the bits and pieces i stuck on them. The other two images are close ups of the 16mm film frames.