Nathaniel Dorsky: The Arboretum Cycle

137 minutes

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

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.