Owen Land

Film in which there appear edge lettering, sprocket holes, dirt particles, etc.

On the marriage broker joke, as cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious.

An illustrator drawing figures that resemble Tibetan deities can't believe his eyes when they appear to come to life and dance on the paper; trapped between 2D and 3D space, the characters' eerie limbo is amplified by the sinister loop of the soundtrack. (hcl.harvard.edu)

In his first 16mm film, Landow proposes that if we accept the reality offered to us by the illusion of depth on the flat plane of the screen, we can then assign reality to anything at will. A cinematic equivalent of the illusionistic portraiture of the Flemish painters. (hcl.harvard.edu)

A shot of a Southern Belle waving to a group of tourists on a pleasure boat ride is looped, multiplied and then melted, creating psychedelic abstract images. "A paraphrasing of certain sections of the Tibetan Book of the Dead in motion picture terms." (hcl.harvard.edu)

Constructed around a found soundtrack in which a strict female voice delivers a test of perception and comprehension, Institutional Quality's sound and image relationship become detached as the filmmaker loses interest in his subject. (hcl.harvard.edu)

Landow rejects the dream imagery of the historical trance film for the self-referential present, using macrobiotics, the language of advertising, and a speed-reading test on the definition of hokum. The alienated filmmaker appears, running uphill to distance himself from the lyrical cinema, but remember, "This is a film about you, not about its maker." (hcl.harvard.edu)

A found, utilitarian object, the overtly moralizing educational film "How to be a Good Citizen," is elevated to the status of 'art'. First presented unaltered and then in Landow's color facsimile, the film is further modified by applying an opaque matte that creates a spatial paradox. (hcl.harvard.edu)

As Landow and his students were testing a new video camera, an elderly man began to talk to them about new technology. This impromptu conversation forms the basis for a comparison of spoken and written language. (hcl.harvard.edu)

An interpretation of The Confessions of Saint Augustine featuring an ordinary middle-aged man who undergoes a conversion experience whilst watching an experimental film. (hcl.harvard.edu)

A reworking of an earlier film, Institutional Quality, in which the same test was given. In the earlier film, the person taking the test was not seen, and the film viewer in effect became the test taker. The newer version concerns itself with the effects of the test on the test taker. An attempt is made to escape from the oppressive environment of the test -- a test containing meaningless, contradictory, and impossible-to-follow directions -- by entering into the imagination. (ufilmguide.com)

A filmmaker returns from a year in Japan to Los Angeles has experiences with real and imaginative women. (imdb)

"A man on the roof making flying gestures with his hands. Film is preceded by a picture of an object of 'L' shape shakingly moving. At the end of the film, image of 'Kodak girl' briefly appears." (Electronic Arts Intermix)

A rapturous audio-visual mix that "deliberately seeks a hidden order in randomness." The film combines the face of a woman in ecstatic, contemplative prayer with shots of an animal rights activist, and a scantily clad model advertising Russian cars at the International Auto Show, New York.