Water and Power at Speed Cinema

Lamplightings

Water and Power
Directed by Pat O’Neill

Sunday, April 26, 1 pm

Free, first come, first served

“The continuous shifts and surprises that lie at the heart of the film’s form make a kind of grand metaphor for the never-ending change that underlies nature, civilization and the multiple symbiotic interchanges between them.”—Fred Camper, Chicago Reader

Its title comes from the Los Angeles water district. Much of the film was shot in the Owens Valley and in an old office building in downtown LA and is metaphorically about the exchange of energy between two places. It is also about water, in all of its states, and about cyclical motion: the planets, the tides, the implied rotation of the camera on its axis, and the repetitive actions of the performers. There are also quotations from older movies and their soundtracks: at times their landscapes become continuous with those of the present. Human habitation in this wilderness is tenuous and risky. 1989, U.S., 35mm, 54 minutes. Recommended for 16+