The BQE
Sep 20 - Sep 22, 2009
(Sufjan Stevens, USA 2009, DVD, 40min)
Join us for the Seattle premiere of Sufjan Stevens' The BQE, a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Hula-Hoop. Commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The BQE was originally performed in the Howard Gilman Opera House in celebration of the 25th anniversary Next Wave Festival in October of 2007. The BQE is a hand-made home-movie, exhibiting all the architectural colors of Brooklyn and Queens, fabulously intersected by a ramshackle artery of highway traffic.
The film includes animated footage of grid-lock crisscrossing the brick and mortar of Brooklyn flickers and cascades Koyaanisqatsi-style on between three simultaneous screens. 16mm cinematography heroically shot by Reuben Kleiner on a 1960s Bolex, utilizes time-lapse photography, in-camera editing, slow motion, and post-production mirror effects to transform urban blight into a splendor of graphic compositions. Beverages will be served before and after the screening.
“The BQE is Mr. Stevens’ equivalent of the Godfrey Reggio-Philip Glass film collaboration Koyaanisqatsi: a skeptical view of development that eventually falls in love with sheer motion." —The New York Times
And if you needed more convincing, here's the stellar trailer:
