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• DEVIL'S GATE
• VINELAND
• 34° / -117°
• LANGUAGE OF MEMORY
• AMERICAN PARADE
• SUZAN PITT:
  PERSISTENCE OF VISION
• FEAR ITSELF
• CORTLANDT ALLEY

DEVIL’S GATE explores the metaphysical undercurrents of a Southern California landscape scarred by fire. The film lyrically depicts the physical and mythological terrain of Devil’s Gate Dam, located at the nexus of Pasadena’s historical relationship with technology and the occult, and intertwining with its central figure, Jack Parsons, who some believe to have opened a dark portal in this place. The film merges an observational portrait of a landscape transformed by fire, ash and water with a fragmentary textual narrative, providing a view into man’s obsession with controlling and transcending the forces of nature and spirit. It can be seen as unearthing a subconscious of the landscape, as the echoes of the past reverberate in the present and infect our perception and experience of place.

"Earth, water, air and fire are the major actors in an expanse in which the time allotted to man seems prescribed. Geometric figures drawn by the highways, stains on the concrete and the noise of the river in the background create a symphony in which one can easily get lost. Filmed in sharp black and white to the rhythm of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Devil’s Gate emerges as a sample of esoteric archeology."
- Carlo Chatrian, Visions du Réel

SELECTED SCREENINGS