Captured by experimental filmmaker Peter Hutton—who inspired and worked with the likes of Ken Burns, Albert Maysles, and Kelly Reichardt—these short films offer mesmerizing snapshots of ’90s Poland and ’70s Thailand.
Peter Hutton was a prolific experimental filmmaker of landscapes and cities. Like Derek Jarman, his images are often evocative of paintings, but his silent portraits retain a uniquely hypnotic feeling more akin to Nathaniel Dorsky. In color, his landscapes have an arresting hazy iridescence, and in black and white the images have an organic murkiness. These are not grand images, but rather personal and impressionistic spaces that encourage a contemplative or even meditative stillness. As a teacher, Hutton inspired many young filmmakers, including Ken Burns. Although he had an impact on modern practice, his films seem to capture life from an older, almost timeless vantage point. In Lodz Symphony (1993), his camera lurks the streets of the namesake Polish town, stealing glimpses of industrial life haunted by its own history. Travel also informs his work, and Hutton’s silent portrait in Images of Asian Music (A Diary from Life 1973-74) is a more celebratory view of life in Thailand while Hutton was working there as a merchant seaman. [49 min. total; documentary; silent]
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