THE TEN PILLARS OF BEACON: CELEBRATING OUR FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
JULY
When the Beacon first opened, we posed a question: What is a movie? After five years of diligent hard work exploring, analyzing and attempting to illuminate the answers to this mystery, we are now prepared to present our findings. THE TEN PILLARS OF BEACON are the essence of cinema - the fundamental elements which uniquely comprise the artistic pursuit of filmmaking. That’s right, we’ve decoded the genome. We’ve unlocked the key. These are the building blocks whose final synthesis culminates in the singular joy of movie watching.
Jean Epstein termed the particular revelation that occurs when a real thing or person is transmuted into moving images as photogénie. This aesthetic ideal is only achieved in the very best films, sequences or shots wherein the moving thing or person is poetically transformed through the act of seeing and reveals something larger than itself, ballooning with meaning and metaphor. Element by element, shot by shot, scene by scene – why go to the cinema? As we move forward we must remember and reflect on why we came here in the first place.
For each pillar we’ve selected a film which screened at the cinema sometime in our first half-decade to have a return engagement in celebration of the spirit of renewal and rediscovery. We invite you to heed this sounding bell and congregate for some worshipful viewing. The grounding commitments of THE TEN PILLARS OF BEACON will act as a guide for the understanding of all cinema; a prolegomena to any future movie-viewing. Come keep the faith.
I. IMAGE
II. SOUND
III. MONTAGE
IV. DURATION
V. ARMED STRUGGLE
VI. SEX
VII. BLOOD
VIII. KUNG-FU
IX. A WOMAN LOSING HER MIND
X. REVELATION
Jean Epstein termed the particular revelation that occurs when a real thing or person is transmuted into moving images as photogénie. This aesthetic ideal is only achieved in the very best films, sequences or shots wherein the moving thing or person is poetically transformed through the act of seeing and reveals something larger than itself, ballooning with meaning and metaphor. Element by element, shot by shot, scene by scene – why go to the cinema? As we move forward we must remember and reflect on why we came here in the first place.
For each pillar we’ve selected a film which screened at the cinema sometime in our first half-decade to have a return engagement in celebration of the spirit of renewal and rediscovery. We invite you to heed this sounding bell and congregate for some worshipful viewing. The grounding commitments of THE TEN PILLARS OF BEACON will act as a guide for the understanding of all cinema; a prolegomena to any future movie-viewing. Come keep the faith.
I. IMAGE
II. SOUND
III. MONTAGE
IV. DURATION
V. ARMED STRUGGLE
VI. SEX
VII. BLOOD
VIII. KUNG-FU
IX. A WOMAN LOSING HER MIND
X. REVELATION
