Multiple Sidosis

By Shamus Posted Tuesday May 19, 2009

Filed under: Movies 11 comments

In 2000, the following movie was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Multiple Sidosis is the work of Sid Laverents, an amateur filmmaker. It was made in 1970.


Link (YouTube)

Sid was around 60 when he made that film. (He died earlier this month, a bit short of his hundred and first birthday.) It’s amazing what he was able to accomplish with such primitive tools. Imagine what he could have done with a modern Mac. He also wrote an autobiography: The first 90 Years are the Hardest. (Out of print, sadly.) I can only hope to stay on top of the tech curve half as well as Sid was able to.

 


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11 thoughts on “Multiple Sidosis

  1. wererogue says:

    20 Sidded? :P

  2. Soulbeaver says:

    I found it hard to show appreciation for this film because, other than the scratching that sounds really soothing, it didn’t appeal to any of my tastes. Stylistically boring in my opinion, and technologically unimpressive by today’s standards.

    It wasn’t until I learned how he had to make the film through multiple, unerring exposures to the same film roll and the dedication to sit through that crap for four years that makes me think on how much this guy must have loved making movies.

    Because taking four years and risking losing your film every time you did another scene has to be the most annoying, mind-wrecking activity I could imagine short of digging holes.

  3. Jazmeister says:

    He might’ve found it depressingly simple to do all that now.

  4. TehShrike says:

    Forget a Mac, imagine what he could have done with a PC!

    (I’m sorry, there was no call for that.)

    Also: more movies need to end with an epic “BOIIIIING”.

  5. rbtroj says:

    I wanted to stop watching but couldn’t. I guess because it reminded me of the vintage Wollensak recorder the bank allowed me to pilfer from our dead neighbor’s house since they had no next of kin. Creepy, but some kick-ass retro loot!!

  6. nilus says:

    TehShrike, He could do the exact same thing with a PC as a Mac. It would just be a few grand cheaper to produce :)

  7. AGrey says:

    I love seeing the one man band movies, but never realized that they are more than forty years old!

    that’s awesome

  8. Henebry says:

    What’s especially cute about this film is that it focuses on over-dubbing to create a complex musical track, while at the same time employing a similar method of compositing multiple images. The video (film?) work was undoubtedly the greater technical challenge, but in keeping with the advice offered by Castiglione in the Courtier, the artist here passes that off a matter of brilliant improvisation.

  9. TSED says:

    I kept watching, waiting for the inevitable brain-breaking twist for the darker.

    The brain-breaking twist was that there wasn’t one.

    This has to be commentary on modern ‘art’ in some way or another.

  10. RichVR says:

    I thought the best part was when his wife said save the ribbons. I hear that every year. :-)

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