NYAB Event - Ken Jacobs "Anaglyph Tom"

Ken Jacobs "Anaglyph Tom"

Anthology Film Archives

This event has ended.

In 1969 Ken Jacobs broke new cinematic ground with TOM, TOM, THE PIPER'S SON, a feature-length work produced by re-photographing a 16mm film print of a 1905 Edison short. In that now classic film, Jacobs zooms into the image, exposing the inner workings, minor movements, background actors and bustling energy contained in the antiquated celluloid frames. Added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2007, and included since 1970 in Anthology's ESSENTIAL CINEMA repertory collection, TOM, TOM is an acknowledged masterpiece of 'structuralist' and found-footage cinema and has had a major impact on multiple generations of moving image artists and aficionados.

40 years later, and now camera-free, Jacobs revisits the original Edison footage with entirely new digital tools in hand. ANAGLYPH TOM is a state-of-the-art, delightfully disorienting 3D take on a very old subject. Rather than delving deeply into the image it brings the image off the screen to the viewer, presenting the ancient actors and antics in vibrant close-ups that literally dance in mid-air when watched with 3D glasses. Interweaving up-to-date footage of our current economic downfall into these timeless diversions, Jacobs crafts utterly mesmerizing manipulations throughout, pushing the limits of his software and our notions of the cinema.

"The real subject of ANAGLYPH TOM is depth-perception itself. Our beloved performers from the 1905 TOM, TOM, THE PIPER'S SON again encapsulate human absurdity for our amusement but this time in entirely illusionary 3-D. They step from - and back onto - the screen surface. This is cosmic play with all strings pulled." -Ken Jacobs

Media

• Film

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