A Love Letter to Cinema

Experimental narrative with comedy and horror made via long-distance collaboration between two artists.

A depiction of the varying passage of time.

Life’s Musical Minute, recently re-discovered, is a short promotional film of this kind, based on Gene Krupa’s drum solo from “Golden Wedding” by the Woody Herman jazz band. It was Lye’s attempt to gain support from Life Magazine.

An experimental horror film told entirely from above the bathroom sink.

A mosaic-style comedy following the life of a woman as time passes in her long-term casual BDSM relationship, low-level corporate job, and quarrelsome Jewish family.

A flicker film, composed entirely of iPhone footage, depicting an implosion of sense.

Video art by Vibeke Sorensen made at Calarts in 1989

How do German couples communicate in private? What are they arguing about? Is the way to a man’s heart really through his stomach? This docu-fictional hybrid production discusses such questions with the help of authentic interview snippets that were edited under the staged plot. We get an insight into the life of an animal couple, who experience typical everyday situations on behalf of us humans. At first, our fox is emotionally contained, while the penguin lady may get wild as hell. With a wink, the filmmakers hold up a mirror to the audience in the cinema.

6th-grader Terkel begins experiencing a streak of bad luck after sitting on a black spider. His teacher dies and is replaced by the strange Justin. At home, Terkel's Uncle Stewart erupts in sporadic fits of rage, and at school Terkel is bullied by two boys after they learn that fat Doris likes him. On a school camping trip, Terkel begins receiving death threats and must figure out who wants to kill him.

Beckett created a significant number of animation loops which display his playfulness and also evidence his process as many are variations of ideas and images that he used in his animations. Thirty-one loops are included, selected to show the variety of approaches as well as his intriguing results. - Pamela Turner