Spectrum Between presents
ZORNS LEMMA (1970)
Dir. Hollis Frampton
Color / 60” / Sound / 16mm
Monday 9/14, 7:00 PM
Clinton Street Theater
Portland, OR
$10
Tickets: https://cstpdx.com/event/zorns-lemma-on-16mm/
Hollis Frampton’s first masterpiece, Zorns Lemma is one of the foundational works that came to define the American “structural film” movement of the 60s and 70s. Titled after Max Zorn’s mathematical set theory, the film is something of a pattern game; Frampton’s early inquiries into poetry and photography have here been absorbed into his filmmaking practice and reformulated as a semiotic exercise. “Follow(ing) the tactics of his two elected literary masters, Jorge Luis Borges and Ezra Pound” (Sitney), he constructs a labyrinthine investigation of language, images, and light via rhythmic montage. In typical Frampton fashion the film is as playful and captivating as it is rigorous and cryptic.
Zorns Lemma screens on a 16mm print courtesy of the Film-makers' Cooperative
