Secret History of the Dividing Line
David Gatten, US, 2002, 16mm, b&w, silent, 20’

“Paired texts as dueling histories; a journey imagined and remembered; 57 mileage markers produce an equal number of prospects. The first part of the Byrd cycle, the film focus on two texts by William Byrd, one published and official, the other secret and circulated privately. A torn timeline tells the history of the world and magnified, misaligned cement splices stand in for early 18th century landscapes”. (DG)

The Great Art of Knowing
David Gatten, US, 2004, 16mm, b&w, silent, 37’

“The fourth 16mm film in the Byrd project series. Taking as a point of departure the volume of the same title by the 17th century Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher, this films attempts a peripatetic exploration of empiricism over the last 500 years. Additional material is drawn from Byrd’s papers, Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex on the Flight of Birds, as well as writings by David Hume and Jules-Etienne Marey”. (DG)

Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, or, The Doctrine of Handy-Works Applied to the Art of Printing
David Gatten, US, 1999, 16mm, b&w, silent (18 fps), 26’

“This handmade film, with its images generated almost entirely from cellophane tape, is a meditation on the development of the printing press and its role in the spread of Christianity throughout Europe, the relationship between words and images, the poetics of translation, the fine line between the legible and the illegible, and the passage of the soul through the material world.” (DG)

The Enjoyment of Reading, Lost & Found
David Gatten, US, 2001, 16mm, b&w, silent (18 fps), 24’

“A closely watched candle and an invitation to the dance. William Byrd booms among his books while Evelyn keeps to a quiet window; the volunteer fire brigade sorts through the ashes and Isaac Goldberg tells it like it is. Who read what; when, and why?” (DG)