Spring Flavor

1996
16mm, color, silent, 3 minutes.
Director, Camera, Editor: Ken Paul Rosenthal

The alchemy and texture of film is celebrated with images of sun-splintered reeds that have been re-photographed, hand-processed, buried beside a pond, and soaked in cooked wild berries.
– KPR

“Deep in the reeds with a burning sun backdrop, we are thrust with yellows, greens, oranges, blues, and reds amidst the towering and complex structures, expressing the vast richness of nature. The visual appetite rumbles as the images becomes increasingly abstract and self-reflecting on the medium, filled with grainy sprocket holes, expressing the endless beauty of film. The piece connects nature and the medium through the various processes of the filmmaker, creating harmony through texture and color. A slightly circular structure suggests that rebirth is found through film’s magnificent shades and spring’s renaissance; a sense of rekindling and absorbing the beauty of nuance from our inner world to the outer. The piece celebrates and emits lusciously organic connections that stem from a vivid divinity called Spring Flavor.” - Matt Bowler, Filmmaker

Screenings

Exploratorium, San Francisco – Filmmakers Who Transgress the Boundaries, 2003
Eyedrum, Atlanta, Georgia – Cameraless Films, 2003
Chinese Taipai Film Archive – Alchemy of Film; Chemical Collision, 2001
Image Movement Cinematheque, Taipei, China, 2001
Blinding Light Cinema, Vancouver, Canada – Manipulation, 2000
Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo, New York – A Night of Films Handmade, 2000
2nd Splice This! Super 8 Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, 1999
Anthology Film Archives, New York City – What’s New in the Avant Garde, 1998
San Francisco Cinematheque, 1997
1st Super Super 8 World Tour (USA, Europe, Japan), 1997
36th Ann Arbor Film Festival – Jury Award for Experimental Process, 1996
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco – Hand Crafting Mystery, 1996
Other Cinema, San Francisco – New Experimental Works, 1996