Title: 50 feet of string /
Authors: Pierce, Leighton,; Canyon Cinema.
Publisher: Canyon Cinema,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Lawn mowers; Architecture, Domestic; Rope in art.; Power lawn mowers.; United States
Abstract: This is a film consisting of twelve sections, each dealing with the slow and subtle repeated rhythms of daily life. The approach is highly painterly and impressionistic. The pace is slowed down with the intention of inviting viewers into a more visceral and less verbally analytical state of mind. Filmed only in daylight, in most segments there is an appearance of a string, stretched diagonally across each filmed image. Small events like the mail arriving, a storm coming, and the grass getting mowed, are secondary to the ways of perceiving events. In many ways this film reaches back into a kind of personal memory from early childhood. Rarely has a filmmaker explored the complexities of sound and image as deeply as Iowa based filmmaker Leighton Pierce. His first passion was music, from electronic music to jazz, he then moved on to making films. He is still likely to say that the most fulfilling part of making films is the act of composing the soundtrack. Pierce’s relationship to sound has always been a crucial one; he has suggested that “the soundtrack is the movie, the image is there to give people something to look at while they listen.”