Cinematic Voices
Words Of Mercury (2011, 25 min., 16mm, silent) by Jerome Hiler
“Words Of Mercury is my loving farewell to color reversal 16mm film. The Bolex camera, which has served me so well for over fifty years, became a container for a process of distillation. I wanted to extract as much as I could from my remaining rolls of Ektachrome 7285. Film emulsion is so rich with latent colors and images, it was a simple decision to make a film of superimpositions which were all shot in the camera.” (J.H.)
In the Stone House (1967-70/2012, 35 min., 16mm) by Jerome Hiler
“In the Stone House records and recollects a period of life of four years in rural New Jersey. In the latter 1960s, two young guys with monastic leanings leave the clatter of Manhattan’s art and film scene to catch the wave of higher consciousness that was about to change the world forever to find themselves washed ashore in a place only slightly updated from Way Down East. The monastic retreat quickly turned into theweekend getaway for a host of extravagant Manhattanites seeking films and fun.” (J.H.)
“Jerome Hiler has been shooting 16mm film since the early 1960s, creating a body of work characterized by an appreciation for the textures and shapes of ordinary surroundings and the unique way a motion-picture camera can relate to familiar objects. He has rarely exhibited his work in public, preferring to screen for a circle of friends, and refining films in response to the interests of his audiences. Words of Mercury is a study of variations on superimposition, each sequence carefully composed in-camera by rolling back and re-exposing the film in the course of production, creating a series of elaborately layered images bearing the rich luminosity of stained glass, their simultaneous levels of movement yielding a hypnotic, phantom depth.” (Whitney Museum)
Jerome Hiler has shown his films at the Whitney Museum, the New York Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, the Pompidou Centre, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Vienna Film Museum, the London International Film Festival, and other museums and festivals in North America and Europe.