Surfacing on the Thames (1970) - David Rimmer

The avant-garde movement of the late sixties got to be so large that various subgenres began to emerge. David Rimmer, along with contemporary Michael Snow were considered the leaders of the structuralist movement. Here the notion is of playing and experimenting with film itself, and they usually require manipulating the work of others. Rimmer took a ten second clip of two ships sailing past each other during WWII on the Thames and broke it down frame by frame. He photographed each individual frame for several seconds then dissolved it into the next frame, making a slow hypnotic movement where two ships seem to cross each other like the hands on a clock. The film is quite mesmerizing but if you're looking for great content, this film by its very nature might leave you empty.