Phil Solomon: To a Song Dissolved in the Dawn
Phil Solomon: To a Song Dissolved in the Dawn
Few figures in the experimental film world have left an impact like Phil Solomon (1954–2019), who created some of the most emotionally resonant and exquisitely beautiful film images of the past several decades. Solomon was beloved as an influential film poet and devoted educator with a nearly thirty-year tenure as a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He was particularly known for his singular work as an analog film alchemist, chemically altering and rephotographing images to produce experiences of cinematic rapture. Though the results were visually stunning, his techniques were no superficial gimmick; for Solomon, the manipulation of film emulsion achieved a visceral and affecting form to match the complex personal and cultural subject matter he devoted himself to, from his Jewish American identity to the deaths of his parents and the eerie dreamworlds of childhood vision.
Programmed and note by Senior Film Preservationist Mark Toscano.
All films directed by Phil Solomon. All films courtesy of the Academy Film Archive and the Phil Solomon Collection at the Academy Film Archive.
Total program runtime: 83 min.
The Secret Garden
1988. 18 min. USA. Color. Silent. 16mm.
Remains to Be Seen
1989/94. 17 min. USA. Color. Sound. 16mm.
The Exquisite Hour
1989/94. 14 min. USA. Color. Sound. 16mm.
Night of the Meek
2002/04. 24 min. USA. B&W. Sound. 16mm.
The Lateness of the Hour
1999. 10 min. USA. Color. Silent. 16mm.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
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