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Water and Power

| 01 October 1989 (USA)

Pat O'Neill, one of the most interesting filmmakers in America today, offers a dazzling reflection on the conflict between nature and man in Los Angeles, or the desertification of the city's surroundings due to its enormous water consumption. More interestingly, it is also a film in the age-old tradition of city symphonies: a film about LA's foundation myths and the dreams it embodies, about its history and (grim) future, its topography and ethnography. O'Neill uses footage from several classic films to recreate the several layers of meaning emanating from the city, juxtaposing images and fantasies and hardly ever allowing one picture to go untouched. George Lockwood's swarming soundtrack is likewise composed of conflicting languages, an elaborate work of plunderphonics in which snippets of sound stolen from movies collide with electronic soundscapes, contemporary chamber music, improv, and what not.

Michael Neumann

After ten years in production this eye-opening, experimental mini-feature gives new meaning to the phrase 'state-of-the-art' (circa 1987). Using time-lapse photography, multiple exposures, animation, and other computer-controlled optical effects, director Pat O'Neill takes the viewer on a hypnotic tour of the Southern California power grid, exploring the collision between humankind and nature with a dazzling array of playful and enigmatic images. The film is a (strictly non-narrative) visual showcase, but what might have been merely a technical exercise in virtuoso FX wizardry becomes an exciting and challenging work of art, combining a sophisticated, choreographed sound track, several comic visual juxtapositions (including segments from old Hollywood movies such as Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments'), and odd inter-title story fragments.