Joseph Cornell By Night with Torch and Spear (1942)

Director: Joseph Cornell Music: John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Carol Emmanuel, Shanir Blumenkranz Year: 1942 Time: 8 mins Eye of Sound: Foundfootage upsidedown, backwards spinning. Industrialization reversed, or the charm of the noble savage. The films of the reclusive artist Joseph Cornell (19031972) are as unique as his famous box constructions. Though rarely exhibited during his lifetime, these mysterious works nonetheless have had a deep and lasting influence on the world of avantgarde filmmaking. His entire body of film numbers some thirtyodd works, encompassing the incomplete and the fragmentary. It can be said that Cornell made two kinds of films in two distinct periods of activity: collage films, made by recombining found materials, and directed films, where he worked with cinematographers (including Stan Brakhage, Rudy Burckhardt and Larry Jordan) to document his fantasy, experience of wandering in New York. Bradley Eros and Jeanne Liotta