"The newspaper page ... you have very loud and noisy headlines ... you have a mosaic space made up of unconnected items from every part of the world at once ... the total discontinuity, the total lack of storyline in (telegraphed) news ... is as sophisticated as Picasso ...." - Marshall McLuhan
1980, 16mm, b&w/so, 10m, $30
Themes of earth, air, fire and water amidst the rhythms and confused intense sensations of modern life. With commentary by Marshall McLuhan.
1981, 16mm, color/so, 14m, $40
From there to here ... from then to now.
The soundtrack features 33 frogs, 22 birds, lion growls, bomb whistles, a heartbeat and the chromatic scale.
1983, 16mm, color/so, 13m, $40
EVERYWHERE AT ONCE is a musical montage, a synchronized symphony composed from an infinity of elements at hand: piano chords and cable cars, cocktail jazz and broken glass, looney tunes and telephones, elephants and xylophones, violins and vultures, orchestras and roller coasters .... A journey in images at the speed of sound.
These collage films are drawn from a vast personal library of sounds and images, steadfastly accumulated over many years. This randomly assembled and ever-expanding pool of elements serves as the basis for a form of bricolage - cultural artifacts and residues, odds and ends accumulated over time and transformed into works attempting to bridge a wide range of poetic horizons: the actual with the possible, pre-history with science fiction, magic with science fact, the medium with the message. Ultimately these films document my need to put order to my universe, a place burdened by my need to make the puzzle fit the pieces.
1985, 16mm, color/so, 10m, $30
INTIMATE STRANGER is the story of my grandfather Joseph Cassuto, a Palestinian Jew raised in Egypt whose lifelong passion for Japan created confusion and conflict in his post-World War II Brooklyn home. What emerges is a curious legacy - admiration and love from his Japanese business associates; resentment from his family. Depending on who you ask, my grandfather was either a romantic adventurer or a shirker of family responsibility; a man at the center of historic events or a nobody. INTIMATE STRANGER walks the fine line between sorting the dirty family laundry and polishing the precious family jewel.
Awards: First Prize Blue Ribbon, American Film/Video Festival; First Prize Nonfiction, USA Film Festival; Special Jury Award, Cinema du Reel, Paris; Special Jury Citation, Black Maria Film and Video Festival; Audience Award, SF Int�l Film Festival.
Exhibition: NY; Sundance Film Festival; Cinema du Reel, France; Jerusalem; London; Rotterdam; Yamagata, Japan; Wellington, New Zealand; SF; Miami; Denver; LA; Philadelphia; USA Film Festival, Dallas; Margaret Mead; Black Maria Film and Video Festival; Citylore.
1991, 16mm, b&w/color/so, 60m, $180