Nathaniel Dorsky: The Arboretum Cycle

Acclaimed experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky’s luminous, silent masterpiece shown on 16mm film.
137 min.

Shot in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Arboretum following a period of rain that ended an extreme drought, these seven films explore shifting patterns of light on plants and the changing seasons, spontaneously manifesting as stages of life.

Reel One:

Elohim (31 min.)
Elohim, or divine beings, the energy of light as creation. N.D.

Abaton (19 min.)
Abaton, a sacred place, a sanctuary for dreaming and healing. N.D.

Reel Two:

Coda (16 min.)
Coda is an afterword to Elohim and Abaton, the first shades of death and knowing. N.D.

Ode (20 min.)
Ode is the fourth section of the cycle. There is now the presence of death and dying as the dry summer begins. N.D.

Reel Three:

September (20 min.)
September’s ripeness, a blessing on earth, our Indian summer… N.D.

Monody (16 min.)
A monody is an ode sung by a single actor in a Greek tragedy, a poem lamenting a person#s death. In this case, the sixth section of this Arboretum Cycle, the death of the garden itself. N.D.

Epilogue (15 min.)
Epilogue is the seventh film in the Arboretum Cycle, a descent into the dark damp earth, a period of dying. N.D.