The Seasons: Films by Artavazd Ashoti Peleshian

From Bidoun Magazine, Art and Culture from the Middle East:

Born in Leninakan, Armenia in 1938, Artavazd Ashoti Peleshian is an influential director of poetic film-essays. His films utilize a cinematic method developed by Peleshian called “distance montage” to capture everyday life in a manner which transcends documentary. Sergei Parajanov has called him “one of the few authentic geniuses in the world of cinema.”

You can view eight of Peleshian’s films at Ubu Web.

Seasons (1975)

[Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/8606796]

Excerpt from Ubu Web:

Seasons (Vremana Goda, 1975) is perhaps the most famous of all Peleshian films and just its opening shot would show why – A man, clutching a sheep in his hand, trapped raging stream, trying to get to the shore along with the animal. Setting the tone of film and, to an extent, to the director’s whole filmography, Seasons‘ first shot effectively underlines the irony that forms the basis of the relationship between humans and nature. Seasons, as the title suggests, deals with the change of seasons.