Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays.
A Review by David Finkelstein.
Green Eye is a beguiling seven minute abstraction by Walter Ungerer. It does indeed begin with a green eye, and the visual compositions of the video revolve around a central circle, at times resembling an eye, at times a fetus in the womb. Groups of nesting squares expand and contract, circles and ovals spin around the center, fields of gold, rose and mauve pass over the screen. Long sustained tones mix with fragments of sitar music and the sounds of geese. Images of water are layered over forms which could be jewels or galaxies in space.
Ungerer has a beautiful way of assembling forms and allowing them to evolve organically over time, so it is enthralling and mesmerizing to watch him as he follows his visual and musical thoughts. The generally symmetrical forms give the feeling of a mandala, but they avoid religious clichés. The images of the eye and the fetus bring to mind the origins of human thought and vision. I found the experience literally psychedelic, despite the absence of psychedelic art clichés, because it reminded me of actual psychedelic experiences I have had, in which my mind felt active and creative, as if my brain had hands and was reaching out into my visual field, molding and shaping it. Green Eye presents us with an eye looking simultaneously outward and inward, tapping into an organic flow of creativity.
David Finkelstein is a filmmaker, musician, and critic. For more information on Film Scratches, or to submit an experimental film for review, contact lakeivan@earthlink.net.
3 thoughts on “Film Scratches: Looking Inward – Green Eye (2012)”