PARACME presents LUMINOUS ALCHEMY: The Films of Jerome Hiler and Nathaniel Dorsky [In-Person Only]
Saturday, July 20 -- 2pm, 4:30pm, 7pm
Sunday, July 21 -- 12pm, 2:30pm
SINGLE SCREENING
Scroll down to purchase individual tickets for each program!
- $14 General Admission
- $10 Student/Senior
- $7 NWFF Member
SERIES PASS >
brownpapertickets.com/event/6335980 >
- $55 General Admission
- $40 Student/Senior
- $30 NWFF Member
On Film
For more than six decades, Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler have created extraordinary works which evoke entrancement and fascination. Shortly after they met—at a mid-1960s New York screening of Dorsky’s INGREEN—their lives became inexorably entwined. They relocated together from the opposite coast to the Bay Area in the early-1970s (where they have lived and worked ever-after). Their distinctive filmmaking practices proceeded independently, yet in parallel, with intermittent screenings of their own shorts and others within their respective homes for themselves and, less frequently, a handful of assorted friends. LUMINOUS ALCHEMY, in essence and intention, is inspired by those intimate occasions.
For the uninitiated, the films of Hiler and Dorsky are miniature masterworks of cinematic transmutation, summoning ideal avenues for deep-viewing. Each short, generally twenty minutes or less in duration, is a visual expedition through collocated scenes of intuitive interconnection. The filmmakers both exhibit their work devoid of a soundtrack and at a speed slightly out-of-step with perception, decelerated to eighteen frames-per-second. Therein, their films propose far more than mere representation, constructing a collage of incandescent imagery that transcends the limitations of our perceivable world. Their transcendent work becomes a temporary gateway into an illusory realm.
While their films are often exhibited in individual programs dedicated to either one or the other, this quasi-retrospective intermingles the works of Dorsky and Hiler into five concise programs, each with an interrelated faux-prologue by Sophie Michael (Program I), Margaret Rorison (II), Christopher Harris (III), Maïa Cybelle Carpenter (IV) and Paul Clipson (V).
Twenty-five films in all! Many screening in Seattle for the first—and potentially only—time and nearly all (with one or two exceptions) unavailable online! Each exhibited on the format of its creation: 16mm.
Header image: Still from Words of Mercury (2011), by Jerome Hiler.
Ticketing, concessions, cinemas, restrooms, and our public edit lab are located on Northwest Film Forum’s ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible. All doors in Northwest Film Forum are non-motorized, and may require staff assistance to open. Our upstairs workshop room is not wheelchair accessible.
The majority of seats in our main cinema are 21″ wide from armrest to armrest; some seats are 19″ wide. We are working on creating the option of removable armrests!
We have a limited number of assistive listening devices available for programs hosted in our larger theater, Cinema 1. These devices are maintained by the Technical Director, and can be requested at the ticketing and concessions counter. Also available at the front desk is a Sensory Kit you can borrow, which includes a Communication Card, noise-reducing headphones, and fidget toys.
The Forum does NOT have assistive devices for the visually impaired, and is not (yet) a scent-free venue. Our commitment to increasing access for our audiences is ongoing, and we welcome all public input on the subject!
If you have additional specific questions about accessibility at our venue, please contact our Patron Services Manager at suji@nwfilmforum.org. Our phone number (206-329-2629) is voicemail-only, but we check it often.
Made possible due to a grant from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, in partnership with Sensory Access, our Sensory Access document presents a visual and descriptive walk-through of the NWFF space. View it in advance of attending an in-person event at bit.ly/nwffsocialnarrativepdf, in order to prepare yourself for the experience.
NWFF patrons will be required to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them. We are not currently checking vaccination cards. Recent variants of COVID-19 readily infect and spread between individuals regardless of vaccination status.
Read more about NWFF’s policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations here.
Presented in absolute gratitude for the persuasive enthusiasm and generous support of longtime NWFF member Glenn Fox and with genuine appreciation to the associated filmmakers and the illustrious Canyon Cinema Foundation.
All shorts in this series were filmed within the U.S., with the exceptions of VINDMØLLER (Copenhagen) and THE WATERSHOW EXTRAVAGANZA (England), and are presented on 16mm sans dialogue.
![Presented with support from Interbay Cinema Society](https://nwfilmforum.org/wp-content/themes/nwff/img/blank.gif)
Presented with support from Interbay Cinema Society
https://interbaycinemasociety.org
https://www.instagram.com/ics_film
ICS was founded by filmmakers Jon Behrens and Caryn Cline. Our mission is to provide material support for filmmakers working experimentally with celluloid film. Our organization includes:
- Lightpress Grants providing artists with the means to digitize their film work,
- Engauge Experimental Film Festival, showcasing sprocket-driven, artist-made work on screen, and
- the ICS Educational Initiative, hosting workshops and screenings to practice and understand experimental filmmaking techniques.
We support emerging and established filmmakers through the grant and our festival, and we encourage new filmmakers with our educational initiative. Our ultimate goal is to foster more work on celluloid and to help offset the enormous costs of making film work available in high quality digital formats.
SATURDAY, July 20
![](https://nwfilmforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/events_dorsky-hiler-luminous-alchemy_carousel_still-from-interval.jpg)
Still from Interval (2021), by Nathaniel Dorsky.