Death and Transfiguration (2002)
a film by Christine
Gorbach and Gary Lee Nelson
Death and Transfiguration is based loosely on the orchestral tone poem of the same name by Richard Strauss. Gorbach made the images by animating black and white photographs of things dead in nature - uprooted and fallen trees, leaves.
The soundtrack is synthetic but intentionally orchestral in genre. The pitch structure and texture are derived with a technique that does not quote but rather casts an aura of Strauss' work on the soundtrack. Like Strauss, we hold the hope of transfiguration from winter to spring, from turmoil to calm and from death to rebirth. The final moment of the film symbolizes this hope.
