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  • Watch Online / Acts of Light (1974)



    Desc: Acts of Light: Directed by Bill Brand. This is a trilogy consisting of Rate of Change , Angular Momentum and Circles of Confusion . Together they develop a study of pure color based on the notion that film is essentially change and not motion. The films build one on the other as first pure change, then relational change, and finally, irrational change. They can be seen together or as separate works. Rate of Change (16mm, 18 minutes, 1972) is a film that has no original, no frames, only slow continuously shifting colors, cycling around the perimeter of the spectrum. The changes are so slow as to be unseen, yet they alter perception of the color. In Angular Momentum (16mm, 20 minutes, 1973) nearly continuous color changes rotate around a spectrum, but this time at varying speeds of rotation and degrees of intensity. The colors on the left start white and rotate very slowly. As the film progresses the color values become darker and the speed of rotation increases until, by the end, the color is nearly black and rotates around the spectrum about once per second. On the right, the opposite occurs, starting black and progressing nearly to white. The film has an improvised electronic soundtrack by Richard Teitelbaum. In Circles of Confusion (16mm, 15 minutes, 1974) circles of colored light (red, green and blue) pulsate and flicker as they move around the frame. Where they intersect, they display a variety of secondary colors. The term "circles of confusion" comes from the physics of lenses. There it has to do with the focus of light. Here it refers to the focus of mental and emotional energies as an irrational system for composing a film.