Gerald Saul's films: Film Loops, Installations, and Site Specific Media

alphabetical -- chronological -- animated -- experimental -- commissioned/collaborative -- dramatic/fiction -- significant

Film loops, in the majority of cases listed below, are events where I projected a repeating clip of moving images onto a screen, wall, or other surface which is visible to the public in a non-traditional cinema viewing environment such as a house or storefront window or an art gallery. In the majority of cases here, I am projecting pieces of 16mm film, attached beginning to end, so that it runs through a projector endlessly. In some cases, cycles are stopped due to the film physically breaking or being damaged beyond easy repair. In most cases, no additional sound is used. Unlike much of my film work, these loops suffer from a severe lack of documentation. They are about the experience of seeing rather than the construction and arrangement of the images. Before 2006, there are rarely moving images in the documentation. This is all the more tragic since the earlier loops, (scuh as "Persistent Visions" and "Flicker Film Festival") are some of the most significant. Many of the running times are estimates.

The reasons I make these loops vary, but at the root of them is my own sense of relaxation I get when watching them. The repetition, combined with the clattering of the projector, will captivate me for lengthy periods of time, allowing me to consider the image, the form, and other ideas with no other distraction. I would consider doing this on a daily basis except for the annoyance it has on others around me who do not always share this feeling. Beyond that, each loop and event evokes different ideas and plays with different sensibilities. Sometimes it is about the ironic endlessness of something which demands an ending. Sometimes it is about the collision of images or about the surprise of motion. In contrast, the fallibility of the 16mm projector and the inevitable damage and destruction of the film and loop creates a tension so that relaxation is never really possible while viewing this work, particularly as the creator.

ALERT: SOME OF THE LINKS CONTAIN ANIMATED GIF FILES WHICH MAY BE LARGE AND SLOW TO LOAD