Jeffrey Skoller

In his contribution to the On Art and Artists interview series, Nathaniel Dorsky (b.1943) begins by discussing his childhood love of the John Ford film Stagecoach and its influence upon his decision to make films while attending Antioch College. Describing the affinity he developed for work operating at the intersection of film materiality and personal language, Dorsky explains how he developed his philosophy of the “devotional film” and the “microcosmic viewer.” Dorsky likens his practice to Buddhist sculpture, referring to himself as a “Japanese poet continuing aspects of the ethos of the Marxist revolution.” In the interview, the artist describes his use of the screen as an “altarpiece for the image” and emphasizes his use of editing to create works which “harmoniously coalesce.” Interview conducted by Jeffrey Skoller in May 2000, edited in 2014.

The Malady of Death is an adaptation of Marguerite Duras's story of the same name: her text comprises the voiceover, which is a particular reading of the story in which word and image, in a complex interplay, explore male sexuality.

This film is a modest attempt to better understand a situation that my own country's government and media have mystified and depersonalized by reducing the representations of Nicaragua to a war zone rather than a place where people live their lives. Using the process of making the film as a starting point for my own engagement with my subject, a world so different from my own, I begin with a question: As a North American, what is my relationship to Nicaragua?

Film by Jeffrey Skoller

Emily - Third Party Speculation is the second of a ‘domestic trilogy’ exploring the relationship between the restricted camera viewpoint and the construction of documentary narrative. The other two films in the series are Blackbird Descending - tense alignment and Finnegan's Chin - temporal economy. Constructed around the repetition of ‘neutral’ domestic scenes, this film attempts to address the problems of identification in cinema.

Emily - Third Party Speculation is the second of a ‘domestic trilogy’ exploring the relationship between the restricted camera viewpoint and the construction of documentary narrative. The other two films in the series are Blackbird Descending - tense alignment and Finnegan's Chin - temporal economy. Constructed around the repetition of ‘neutral’ domestic scenes, this film attempts to address the problems of identification in cinema.