Over the last 15 years, David Gatten has explored the intersection of the printed word and moving image. The resulting body of work illuminates a wide array of historical, conceptual and material concerns, while cataloging the variety of ways in which texts function in cinema as both language and image, writing and drawing, often times blurring the boundary between these categories. The films trace the contours of private lives and public histories, combining philosophy, biography and poetry with experiments in cinematic forms and narrative structures.

At the mid-point in the completion of his magnum opus Secret History of the Dividing Line, A True Account in Nine Parts (1996-), this retrospective provides the most complete survey to date of this project, which Artforum called “one of the most erudite and ambitious undertakings in recent cinema.” The three programs provide an extensive overview of Gatten’s substantial and accomplished body of work at a remarkable moment in his career.

Filmmaker David Gatten in person
Silent Mountains, Singing Oceans, and Slivers of Time

Film for Invisible Ink, Case No. 71: Base-Plus-Fog
2006, 16mm, b/w, 10 min

What the Water Said, Nos. 1-3
1998, 16mm, color, 16 min

Journal and Remarks
2009, 16mm, color, 15 min

Shrimp Boat Log
2006/2010, 16mm, color, 6 min

What the Water Said, Nos. 4-6
2007, 16mm, color, 17 min

Film for Invisible Ink, Case No. 142: Abbreviation for Dead Winter [Diminished by 1,794]
2008, 16mm, b/w, 13 min

TRT: 67 min