PASSAGES


Passages is a visual orchestration akin to music, done in almost completely abstract form, though all material was shot with a camera, the imagery on screen is often unidentifiable and highly abstracted.

The structure of the work is composed in a manner related to music, with recurring motifs, passages of differing tempos, movements all formed to provide a trajectory through time.
It is deliberately slow and it is hoped will lead the viewer into a meditative state.

While not a film in the least bit psychedelic, Passages became a far more serious film, a meditation on the process of accepting the harsh realities of life - both for myself and my daughter. Clara was kidnapped by her mother from our home in Rome on Nov 1, 2000, and following numerous court hearings in Portugal, where the corruption was as transparent as it has become in America, despite chronic violations of her illegally gained right of custody, Clara was turned over to her mother who subsequently, with the tacit support of the juvenile courts of Portugal, has blocked all contact between Clara and myself - the father who had raised her almost single-handedly for 3 and a half years. Passages addresses this without rancor, and is more an act of grieving for a child than "a film." It is among my work unique in being almost completely abstract and is in my view one of my best films, without any question.




2006 | miniDV | Color | Sound | 62 minutes

Concept, camera, edit and sound : Jon Jost

Premier at the Rotterdam Film Festival, Jan 2006. Shown at the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival, April 2006


 

 

 

   

 

 

REVIEWS

"I ruined my old DVD player trying to get your "Passages" to play. God in His Infinite Mercy led me to a replacement that plays your gorgeous, heartfelt film perfectly. The film seems, if anything, more extraordinary now than when I first saw it.

Experimental stuff is mannerism unless it's expressive. Your "Passages" is to-the-bone for you and, also, for me. It is a WHOLE thing..
.

Dennis Grunes's review. Read more