The Secret Story
Stills
About
THE SECRET STORY arose as a response to several beautifully decayed toy figures from the 1930s that were given to me as a gift. These figures, and other toys, objects and illustrations that I found from the period between the world wars, suggested a kind of unearthed hidden narrative which I have attempted to re-piece together, as if these figures were the hieroglyphics of a just-forgotten tongue. THE SECRET STORY revolves around the central figure of the woman, and her girl-double, who look somewhat like versions of Snow White. She wanders through landscapes of rivers and floods, home and war, and memory and illness, culminating in an ecstatic walk in the forest, suggesting both the dark and cathartic trajectories of the richest fairy tales. In his review of the 1996 New York Film Festival in Film Comment, Paul Arthur writes: "Geiser's film ... creates a child's vision of domestic immersion and foreboding out of crudely articulated antique dolls, toy blocks, and paper cutouts. Against a photographic background of a floodbound house, figures of mother and daughter exchange symbiotic knowledge of household routines, tasks, or games .... Recurrent images of a doctor and a nun, along with shifting veils of color, evoke a condition merging physical illness with spiritual floating. Although the 'secret' is never spelled out, the degree of emotional affect generated by or around Geiser's expressionless objects is compelling." THE SECRET STORY was chosen by Film Comment's Gavin Smith as one of the Best Short Films of 1996.
Programs
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Collage Animations
A program of films featuring collage animation
On Saturday, April 8th, 2023, at 2pm, join us at the FMC Screening Room (475 Park Ave. South, 6th Floor) for a dazzling program of collage animation films curated by Fox Ivo Yarden!
Films
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Other films by this artist in our catalogue
- Read MoreAnimationExperimental
Babel Town
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 8 minRental format: 16mm - Read MoreAnimationExperimental
The Red Book
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 11 minRental formats: 16mm, Digital file - Read MoreAnimation
Immer Zu
Janie Geiser16mm, black and white, sound, 8 minRental formats: 16mm, Digital file - Read MoreExperimental
The Fourth Watch
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 9 minRental formats: 16mm, Digital file - Read MoreExperimental
Lost Motion
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 11 minRental format: 16mm - Read MoreExperimental
Spiral Vessel
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 7 minRental format: 16mm - Read MoreExperimental
Terrace 49
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 5.5 minRental formats: 16mm, Digital file - Read MoreAnimationExperimental
Ghost Algebra
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 7 minRental format: Digital file - Read MoreAnimationExperimental
Kindless Villain
Janie Geiser16mm, black and white, sound, 5 minRental format: Digital file - Read MoreAnimationExperimental
The Floor of the World
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 9 minRental format: Digital file - Read MoreAnimationExperimental
Arbor
Janie Geiser16mm, black and white, sound, 7 minRental format: Digital file - Read MoreAnimationExperimental
The Hummingbird Wars
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 10 minRental format: Digital file - Read MoreAnimationExperimental
Look and Learn
Janie Geiser16mm, color, sound, 11 minRental format: Digital file - Read MoreAnimationExperimental
Valeria Street
Janie Geisercolor, sound, 11 minRental format: Digital file