FYI:


Devotional Cinema
by Nathaniel Dorsky

        Tuumba Press announces the publication on December 31, 2003 of
Devotional Cinema, by Nathaniel Dorsky


About the book: 
Kathleen Tyner (author of Literacy in A Digital World), writes of this
book as follows: “Devotional Cinema, reprised from filmmaker Nathaniel
Dorksy’s lecture on religion and cinema at Princeton University, is a
rare treasure of penetrating insight into the language of film. In a
compelling style, somewhere between a Zen koan and a Victorian love
story, Devotional Cinema makes the case for mindful viewing as a
transcendent experience. In the process, Dorsky reflects upon the role
of filmmaking in faith, prayer, pleasure, and the renewal of the human
spirit. For Dorsky, the material nature of film illuminates a path to
devotion. Devotional Cinema is a guide for makers and viewers who, like
Dorsky, seek the ‘elemental glory’ of film.”

In this perspicacious text, Nathaniel Dorsky discusses the conjunction
of religion and film from the vantage of a devotee. The crux of his
discussion is a nuanced understanding of “devotion” not as an experience
specific to religion but rather as “the opening or the interruption that
allows us to experience what is hidden and accept with our hearts our
given situation.” 

Moving through meditations on image-moments in works by certain key
filmmakers (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Yasujiro Ozu, Michelangelo Antonioni,
and Roberto Rossellini), Dorsky arrives at the heart of what constitutes
a devotional practice. It is metaphysical and technical; this lovely
little masterpiece is about the medium of experience, the projection of
devotion, the making of art.


About the author: 
        Long a figure of interest to many contemporary American poets,
Nathaniel Dorsky has been making and exhibiting avant-garde films since
1964. He now lives in San Francisco where he makes a living as a film
editor. His works have been shown internationally and are in the
permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the
Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley), Image Forum (Tokyo), Les Archives du
film expérimental d’Avignon, and Le Centre Pompidou (Paris) as well as
many universities. Among his better known works are Summerwind (1965),
Hours for Jerome (1966-70, 1982), Pneuma, Alaya (1976-87), Variations
(1992-98), Arbor Vitae (2000) and The Visitation (2002).


About the press:
        Tuumba Press was founded by Lyn Hejinian in 1976, and between
then and 1984 Hejinian produced 50 handset letterpress chapbooks. Tuumba
was revived in 1999 to publish (in conjunction with Leslie Scalapino’s O
Books) Uxudo, by Anne Tardos. A second major publication, Red Car Goes
By: Selected Poems of  Jack Collom, followed, and since then Orchid
Jetsam (by Leslie Scalapino, writing under the name Dee Goda) and Slowly
(by Lyn Hejinian) have been published by Tuumba in its current
incarnation. Lyn Hejinian remains the editor; the artistic director is
Ree Katrak; Colin Dingler serves as editorial and production assistant.

Ordering information: 
        Devotional Cinema may be ordered from Small Press Distribution,
1341 Seventh Street, Berkeley, CA 94710-1403; phone 510-524-1668 or
toll-free 800-869-7553; e-mail: [log in to unmask]


Title: Devotional Cinema                        Contact: Lyn Hejinian
Author: Nathaniel Dorsky                        phone: 510-548-1817
Price: $10                                              fax:
510-704-8350
Pages: 56                                               Tuumba Press
Publication Date: December 31, 2003             2639 Russell Street
ISBN 1-931157-05-7                              Berkeley, CA 94705-2131

# # #

*
*
*
*
***

Film-Philosophy Email Discussion Salon.

After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to.

To leave, send the message: leave film-philosopy to: [log in to unmask]

For help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon.

***