Lawrence F. Brose

Long Eyes of Earth

Combines surreal and psychedelic images of human forms, fire, water, and a dove with the words of Schmidt’s poem “Shaman” and Mikhashoff’s music from the trilogy “Elemental figures”.

Watermark

A sense of something pressing, working its way to the surface. An ever-present fear.

De Profundis

De Profundis is a three part, hand/alternative-processed experimental film based on Oscar Wilde's prison letter De Profundis. Incorporating home movies from the 1920's and early gay male erotica along with images from Radical Faerie gatherings, queer pagan rituals, drag performances and images of confinement, this 65 minute film sets up a haunting investigation of queerness, masculinity, history and sexuality. These images are buttressed against a soundtrack composed of Wilde's aphorisms, a voice and piano setting of Wilde's prison letter, and multi-tracked interviews with a diverse group of contemporary gay men.

Everbest Virgil

Virgil Thomson composed many musical portraits of people as they faced him. Like a visual artist using different visual elements, Virgil established personal sketches using the palette of musical expression. EVERBEST VIRGIL perpetuates this tradition by linking the portrait of a composer to his own composition. I filmed Virgil, in his apartment at the Chelsea Hotel, in Manhattan, shortly before his death. These are the last images taken from the life of one of America's most treasured composers.

War Songs

Paul Schmidt sent me a set of five poems from a series called WAR SONGS. He treats the war in a brilliant and sarcastic way, evokes his seduction. Mark Bennett's score is itself provocative, languorous, and close to a waltz. The whole thing is a series of songs cast in the mode of melodrama, that is to say music in tandem with a narration. My contribution lies in the superimposition of war scenes, coupled with what I called an image of Gabriel: a young and handsome soldier, a personification of the good warrior, a protective image. He gives off strong impressions throughout the duration of the film. She makes him appear sometimes active and aggressive, sometimes asleep or beckoning. The film uses footage from the Vietnam War and World War II. They show soldiers marching, tanks rolling. Explosions reveal in passing our dear “Gabriel”.

Ryoanji

Experimental, 16mm

Long Eyes of the Earth

The object of the film is to apprehend the rite as a mode of seeing. The images of the film try to update the spirits summoned by a berdache. As an elementary figure, the berdache is close to nature and all its components. As a gay man, I'm interested in the relationship between sexual identity, spirituality and creativity. It is in this spirit that I made this film.

Study #15

Each film in this series has been created for a musical score, pre-existing or composed specifically for the project. By way of explanation, the music is often put on a film after it is finished, but in this case the film images and rhythms come from the music. Thus allowing the score to be a sort of script for the film.