On Love...
& Other Difficulties...

Five Video Shorts by Antero Alli (1992-2001; 61 minutes)
Liner Notes by the director



"BOMBS & PRAYERS"
(1993; 6 min) Text and voice by Rob Brezsny. One of my very first videos. Made in the months following the sudden death of my daughter Zoe, a shock that initiated me into a greater love for life through profound loss. Two years later, Rob Brezsny and I went onto make our 1995 cyber-fi feature,“The Drivetime”, which we co-wrote and co-produced.


"ROADKILL"
(2001; 26 min.)
"ROADKILL" REVIEWED. Unscripted and improvised. Within the struggle between friendship and lust, I discovered unexpected parallels in the separate lives of two distinctly different artist couples. PAULA & OTTO (Susan Schramm and Dana Bergeman) are compatible in love and they work together as successful nature photographers. MAX & CLIO (Paul D'Addario and Carla Negri) are madly in love; as mad about each other, as they are mad at each other. WATCH AN EXCERPT


"FEARS"
(2001; 8 min) Text by Rainer Maria Rilke; translated by Stephen Mitchell. Voice by Antero Alli. Sometimes, we uncover a terrible yearning to return to, and restore, the innocence of childhoood. Some of us find it and for others, it is too late. The remarkable John M. Doyle portrays this dillemma for us.


"INERTIA: The Couple Next Door"
(1994; 17 min)   Unscripted and improvised. Shooting a live performance of butoh artists Jyl Brewer and Ed Byrne inspired an idea of how love dies under the strain of too much inertia. I invited actors Kristen Kosmas and Richard Waugh to improvise dialogue for a “couple on the verge of breaking up” and then, filmed their interactions. Through the editing process, I discovered an unexpected symbolist drama. By careful crosscutting between these separately filmed activities, a whole world of interpersonal complexity unravelled before my eyes, one where the subconscious reigned supreme and where the conscious egos struggled to find kindness amidst the turmoil.


"BLACK SEA"
(1992; 4 min) Text and voice by Antero Alli. I wrote this poem the day after my young daughter Zoe’s sudden death -- the video was created in the following week. The delayed, dual-level narrative reflects the bizarre place I was in, of being inbetween worlds and walking the edge of an abyss, and finding love where I least expected. WATCH "BLACK SEA"


 


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VIDEOPOEMS BY ANTERO ALLI

Filmography and Vision Statement

DVD Catalog