A Day In LC

Death in Vegas

January 2025 •English

The life, death, and resurrection of Elvis Presley, as he is transformed from man into product. Composed primarily of an illustrated biography filmed with a microscope camera.

Boulez-Répons

January 1985 •

In this vivid transposition of contemporary music for television, Cahen "responds" to the complex musical transitions of Répons, a work by French composer Pierre Boulez. Performed by the Ensemble InterContemporain and conducted by Boulez, the intricate Répons was designed for an ensemble of twenty-four musicians, six soloists and a "real-time" digital processor. In Cahen's re-composed interpretation, he responds with visual and temporal transformations, "opening" the images in space and time and applying electronic techniques to engulf the instrumentalists in ocean, sky, and trees. Mirage-like superimpositions, temporal shifts, mirroring effects and de-synchronization result in a rhythmic confluence of the illusory and the real. Immersing the viewer in image and sound, Cahen mirrors the transformative process of Boulez's music.

Clandestine

March 2003 •English

A short film released alongside AFI's 2003 album Sing The Sorrow. The four members of AFI search to obtain a mysterious box that bears a resemblance to the album's artwork. There are two separate soundtracks for the film, one composed by AFI guitarist Jade Puget, and one composed by AFI bassist Hunter Burgan.

El arte de recuperarte

March 2022 •Spanish

Functional Block Diagrams

Invalid date •English

A synthesis of sound and movement; colourful characters dance and move in repetitive patterns to percussive and melodic elements. A combination of motion and music that is hypnotic and beautiful. At first it feels structured and orderly but as more elements are added becomes quixotically expressive.

Plague Mass

April 1991 •English

"Heart-wrenching cry about the physical suffering caused by the AIDS plague being compounded by the shameful arrogance of self-appointed moralists."

Spheres

January 1969 •English

This animated short is a play on motion set against a background of multi-hued sky. Spheres of translucent pearl float weightlessly in the unlimited panorama of the sky, grouping, regrouping or colliding like the stylized burst of some atomic chain reaction. The dance is set to the musical cadences of Bach, played by pianist Glenn Gould.

It's All In Your Head

Invalid date •English

An abstract, experimental film of a character observing a rainy night.

Core of a Nature

June 2023 •German

Experience a mystical journey through nature performed by a movement artist. Felix faces the whirling challenges of his inner turbulence with an emotionally charged dynamic, delicate strength, graceful dignity, as well as ecstatic devotion. Behold the fire dancer in the night.

Lacuna

March 2024 •English

A prisoner belonging to a void known as “Lacuna,” longs to escape their entrapment. As they search for a way out, they confront the unchecked mental illness that plagued their former life.

Street Musique

November 1972 •English

Animator Ryan Larkin does a visual improvisation to music performed by a popular group presented as sidewalk entertainers. His take-off point is the music, but his own beat is more boisterous than that of the musicians. The illustrations range from convoluted abstractions to caricatures of familiar rituals. Without words.

Copycat Killer

September 2021 •English

A visualizer for Phoebe Bridgers' Copycat Killer EP, featuring four songs originally released on the Grammy-nominated album Punisher, with new orchestral instrumentation and arrangements by Rob Moose.

Head

November 1968 •English

In this surrealistic and free-form follow-up to the Monkees' television show, the band frolic their way through a series of musical set pieces and vignettes containing humor and anti-establishment social commentary.

Winterreise

May 2021 •

Tom Waits for No One

January 1979 •English

In this rotoscope animation, Tom Waits sings about "The One That Got Away."

EGGspression

August 2023 •

Egglantine loves salt on her eggs. Eggbert prefers pepper. Who blinks first in this playful Easter ritual?

“(ಥ﹏ಥ) ✧_My Parents Are CIA Psy0ps_!!!* ಠ_ಠ"

May 2023 •English

On a sleepy summer night in 2004, eyes peer into the world-wide-web: traveling between conspiracy sites, malware, porn, and mp3 databases in an attempt to lose (find) themselves. Passing through blog graveyards, broken hyperlinks, and digital spirits, they begin to realize the Internet is so much more. Lost websites, anon forums, and inexplicable pixels singing to a prepubescent soul. An ode to the 2000s webpage and flash game culture.

Baller Blockin'

January 2000 •English

A flashback to the early life of the narrator/ protagonist 'Tanuk' (Juvenile) shows life in the Magnolia projects in New Orleans. He bears witness to his father's demise at the hands of local gangster Garr over a debt of $2000. Fast forward to the year 2000. Beatrice (Birdman aka Baby or #1 stunna) along with Tanuk, Chopper (B.G) and Teke (Turk) meet with representatives of a drug cartel and purchase a large batch of cocaine. We then see scenes of everyday business in Magnolia with Iceberg Shorty (Lil Wayne) selling some drugs.

Barcode III.0

January 2013 •English

A unique journey across a topography created entirely from a form of digital light and shadow—a bristling terrain of poles bending the light in every direction. This film is the remake of Barcode, an abstract road-movie about light and shadows.

Metamorphoses I

January 1978 •

For the multimedia exhibition Tangenten I (Tangents I), Dammbeck and co-organizer, sculptor and painter Frieder Heinze had planned to collaborate on a film that would combine non-camera animation with 35mm footage of a train ride between the two Dresden districts of Radebeul and Pieschen. When the exhibition was banned in 1978, Heinze turned to other projects, but Dammbeck continued working on the film by himself. Metamorphoses I—the first experimental film ever to be shown publicly in East Germany—marks the filmic beginning of Dammbeck’s long-term art project the Herakles-Konzept (Hercules Concept).