Translucent Appearances

Directed by Barry Gerson

"Oblique mattes, instead of blocking the vision, accentuate our ability to see and appreciate details, narrowing and expanding the focus of our attention, rendering symmetry and simplicity simply unbalanced. Through repetition of this approach, the movement and the framing become a sensual force —and the objects appear in all their voluptuousness. Gerson has employed this technique repeatedly. In his Translucent Appearances (1975), thirty-five different shots of Niagara Falls are blocked by horizontal, monochromatic mattes. The object is shaped —water flowing seeking a form that will suffice. These are films that disclose gradually, changing revealed and unrevealed layers of visual information." Mónica Savirón