The Book of All the Dead

Digital, color and b/w, sound, 2520 min
scans not available
“Gathering films made between 1975 and 1994, the forty-two–hour-long The Book of All the Dead may be the most ambitious work in the medium, an epic of Biblical proportions and structure, in ...

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“Gathering films made between 1975 and 1994, the forty-two–hour-long The Book of All the Dead may be the most ambitious work in the medium, an epic of Biblical proportions and structure, in the same league as the towering achievements on which is modelled—Dante’s Divine Comedy, Pound’s Cantos, and Wagner’s Ring. This poetic meditation on modern history from the perspective of its endpoint in technological rationalism aims to wean viewers away from the instrumental rationality enshrined in narrative forms, so as to rekindle more embodied—and therefore more spiritual—modes of awareness of ‘being-in-the-world.’ Elder’s films are therefore designed to frustrate the conceptual mind’s habitual reliance on univocal frameworks, wearing it down to induce instead a willing surrender befor a barrage of elements that ‘operate[s] on various scales—from the personal, to the historical, to the philosophical, to the anagogic . . . When such particulars are combined and recombined in shifting juxtapositions, meaning is generated, because such a form encourages people to discover likenesses among dissimilar and unexpected things. (RBE)’ –Christian Roy (for Cinematheque Ontario)

The Book of All the Dead are divided in three “regions,” which mirror the three cantiche of Dante Alighieri’s Commedia.

 

REGION ONE: The System Of Dante's Hell

A group of films based on reading Dante’s Inferno. A traveller finds himself lost in the middle of life’s journey, uncertain that he can find a way through. The films are an implicit glorification of the ways of God and a protest of the way in humans (ancient and modern) have thwarted the divine plan. It expresses anguish at the injustice and corruption of the times.

 

  1. Breath/Light/Birth 
  2. The Art of Worldly Wisdom 
  3. 1857 (Fool's Gold) 
  4. Illuminated Texts 
  5. Lamentations: A Monument to the Dead World, Part 1: The Dream of the Last Historian 
  6. Sweet Love Remembered 
  7. Lamentations: A Monument to the Dead World, Part 2: The Sublime Calculation 
  8. Permutations and Combinations 

 

REGION TWO: Consolations: Love is an Art of Time.

Three films based on reading Dante’s Purgatorio. The traveller emerges from Hell and arrive at a mountain “where the human spirit purges itself to become worthy of Heaven.”  The films express the view that that greater love for others is an antidote to the world’s barbarities, that evil may be understood as a sin against love. The landscapes the films depict are forbidding, but the tone of the voice-over and supertitles is one of waiting and hope. (RBE)

 

  1. Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 1: The Fugitive Gods 
  2. Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 2: The Lighted Clearing 
  3. Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 3: The Body and the World 

 

REGION THREE: Exultations (In Light of the Great Giving)

A series of films based on reading Dante’s Paradiso. The traveller and Beatrice instructor in the ways of love ascend into the Empyrean beyond the boundary of time and space. Beatrice explains more and more about the workings of God and the Universe, so everything that Dante in his journey at last is understood. After the horrors of Hell and the hardships of Purgatory, the traveller and the audience finally understand the secrets of God’s universe.

 

  1. Flesh Angels 
  2. Look! We Have Come Through! 
  3. Newton and Me 
  4. Barbara Is a Vision of Loveliness 
  5. Azure Serene 
  6. She Is Away 
  7. Exultations: In Light of the Great Giving 
  8. Burying the Dead: Into the Light 
  9. Trace 
  10. Et Resurrectus Est 

Films

  • Other films by this artist in our catalogue

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    Breath/Light/Birth
    Experimental

    Breath/Light/Birth
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, black and white, sound, 6 min
  • Read More
    She Is Away
    Experimental

    She Is Away
    Bruce Elder

    16mm and Digital, color, sound, 13 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Literarature / Theater
    • Structural
  • Read More
    Barbara Is a Vision of Loveliness
    Experimental

    Barbara Is a Vision of Loveliness
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, black and white, sound, 8 min
  • Read More
    Permutations and Combinations
    Experimental

    Permutations and Combinations
    Bruce Elder

    16mm, color, sound, 8 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Structural
  • Read More
    Look! We Have Come Through!
    Experimental

    Look! We Have Come Through!
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, black and white, sound, 12 min
  • Read More
    The Art of Worldly Wisdom
    Experimental

    The Art of Worldly Wisdom
    Bruce Elder

    16mm amd Digital, color, sound, 55 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file
    • Landscape / Architecture
    • Environment / Nature
    • Literarature / Theater
  • Read More
    Sweet Love Remembered
    Experimental

    Sweet Love Remembered
    Bruce Elder

    16mm, color, sound, 12.5 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Literarature / Theater
  • Read More
    Trace
    Experimental

    Trace
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, silent, 1 min
  • Read More
    1857: (Fool's Gold)
    Experimental

    1857: (Fool's Gold)
    Bruce Elder

    16mm and Digital, color, sound, 25 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Philosophical
    • Literarature / Theater
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    Illuminated Texts
    Experimental

    Illuminated Texts
    Bruce Elder

    16mm and Digital, color, sound, 180 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Philosophical
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    Lamentations: Part One (Reels 1-5 Of 11) The Dream of the Last Historian
    Experimental

    Lamentations: Part One (Reels 1-5 Of 11) The Dream of the Last Historian
    Bruce Elder

    16mm, color, sound, 210 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Philosophical
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    Lamentations: Part Two (Reels 6-11 of 11) the Sublime Calculation
    Experimental

    Lamentations: Part Two (Reels 6-11 of 11) the Sublime Calculation
    Bruce Elder

    16mm and Digital, color, sound, 240 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Philosophical
  • Read More
    Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 1: The Fugitive Gods
    Experimental

    Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 1: The Fugitive Gods
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 241 min
  • Read More
    Consolations: Love is an Art of Time
    Experimental

    Consolations: Love is an Art of Time
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 809 min
  • Read More
    Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 3: The Body and the World
    Experimental

    Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 3: The Body and the World
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 327 min
  • Read More
    Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 2: The Lighted Clearing

    Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) Part 2: The Lighted Clearing
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 215 min
  • Read More
    Flesh Angels
    Experimental

    Flesh Angels
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 86 min
  • Read More
    Newton and Me
    Experimental

    Newton and Me
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 90 min
  • Read More
    Azure Serene
    Experimental

    Azure Serene
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 95 min
  • Read More
    Exultations: In Light of the Great Giving
    Experimental

    Exultations: In Light of the Great Giving
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 90 min
  • Read More
    Burying the Dead: Into the Light
    Experimental

    Burying the Dead: Into the Light
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 90 min
  • Read More
    Et Resurrectus Est
    Experimental

    Et Resurrectus Est
    Bruce Elder

    Digital, color, sound, 135 min
  • Read More
    Surprised By Joy
    Experimental

    Surprised By Joy
    Bruce Elder

    16mm, color, sound, 200 min
    Rental format: 16mm
  • Read More
    Crack, Brutal, Grief
    Experimental

    Crack, Brutal, Grief
    Bruce Elder

    16mm, color, sound, 80 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Philosophical
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    Eros and Wonder
    Experimental

    Eros and Wonder
    Bruce Elder

    16mm, color, sound, 106 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Environment / Nature