Ernie Gehr began making films in the 1960s and has worked steadily since then, completing more than two dozen films. "A self-taught artist, Gehr has established himself as one of the true masters of the film form, and his graceful sense of style and subtle, poetic sensibility have deeply affected the cinematic avant-garde." (hi-beam.net) Gehr was recently honored with a program at the New York Film Festival's Views from the Avant-Garde program that featured a 35mm blow-up MoMA preservation print of Serene Velocity (1970; 23min), perhaps Gehr's most well-known film, "a literal Shock Corridor wherein Gehr creates a stunning head-on motion by systematically shifting focal lengths on a static zoom lens as it stares down the center of an empty modernistic hallway." (J. Hoberman) It will be shown with Table (1976; 16min), the "celluloid equivalent of a cubist still life." (J. Hoberman) and Side/Walk/Shuttle (1991, 41 mins), which "has the effect of a slow-motion roller coaster." (J. Hoberman) Shot in San Francisco from a glass elevator, Gehr "gives us an expansive view of the relationship between architecture, city streets and the movement on them, the medium of cinema, and patterns of thought." (Fred Camper, Chicago Reader) Cosponsored with the CCA.
1 hour 20 minutes, USA