Arthur Lipsett
Strange Codes
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Add rightsFormat Blu-ray Interzone
Original format 16mm
Year 1975
Language(s) English
Artist(s) Arthur Lipsett
Running time 23 min
Films
STRANGE CODES (1975) 23'
Film out-takes (1975) 38'
STRANGE CODES: A BREAKDOWN (2023) 23'
Description
Arthur Lipsett's Strange Codes is the first and only independent film by the legendary found footage creator, made after his departure from the National Film Board of Canada. In a rented house in Toronto, Lipsett stages a series of mysterious rituals, appearing on screen in the guise of various characters: an archaeologist, a soldier, a scientist, a magician, and the Monkey King from Peking opera. Charged with enigmatic gestures and intimate allusions, Strange Codes unfolds, in Lipsett's words, "halfway between the primitive, ritualized world and that of logic and science."