cinema soloriens live 0Date:
11.03.2014 8:00pm
MIDTOWN CINEMA 250 Reily St. Harrisburg


James Harrar’s experimental and highly personal film/video images will be viewed with a live musical rendering of soundtracks for each work. The musical concepts are created, directed and performed by Harrar, often with local musicians.

The project places attention on exploring the moving image with live performance and when combined, attempts to reveal deeper levels of interpretation within Harrar’s visceral film poems. This presentation also celebrates the early beginnings of cinema, providing live music to support and elevate the silent movie experience.

With the performance, the viewers will experience the spiritual states of mind through Harrar’s visual poetry, comparable to a moving painting.

He will be investigating aspects of his Tiwa/Isleta Pueblo Native American identity. Harrar believes that language is the essential lifeblood of any culture. Unfortunately, many Southwestern Native American tribes are losing the very soul of their heritage. Mythical Tiwa stories and mystic chants are presented in the Tiwa (Tuei) dialect (a historic first in New York).
Full Program

+ Vlaamperd, HD, 2014, 4’08″, Flemish horse race.

+ Tian, HD, 2013, 6’42″, Shanghai.

+ Stardust, HD, 2013, 7’00″, beauty, dazzle and excess of old Las Vegas.

+ Death & the Injun, HD, 2013, 4’43″, imagined encounter of a Native American meeting Death.

+ Invisible College, HD, 2013, 4’36″, a small group of mystics journey to discover hidden truths, invoke the night and participate in an initiation that reveals secret teachings resulting in departing their physical form.

+ Alembic, HD, 2013, 3’36″, themes of light, distillation, color and breath.

+ Prime, 16mm, 2012, 4’49″, for Tom Chomont, spirit portrait evoking psychic states through suggestions with playing cards, hands and face.

+ Prasad at the Mandir, HD, 2011, 6’15″, thorough examination of Mandir Temple with themes of spiritual journey and facing cosmic awareness.

+ Astro Mutable Equation, HD, 2011, 6’35″, meditation and portrait of friend, musician, Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

+ Noh Drama, HD, 2010, 5’36″, Edo Period Noh Play depicting the life of husband and wife together with a suggestion of domestic violence.

+ Biblioteca Sol Oriens, 16mm, 2005, 8’15″, special library of Hermeticism is examined, revealing a rare collection of texts and imagery.

+ Ornamental, 16mm, 2005, 3’40″, a union of opposites in the Alchemical cycle.

+ Bandolier, 16mm, 2005, 6’15″, a meditation of Anasazi culture, cliff dwellings and Southwest land forms.

+ Thompson-Neeley House, s-8, 1993, 3’00″, a house George Washington slept in becomes a study of filmic time and space.

+ The Yellow Lion, 16mm, 1998, 6’00″, a gentle dance, ritual, allegory, meditation.

“What is most refreshing about James Harrar…is extraordinary lack of pretension with which the whole thing is carried off…Throughout the performance, one is reminded of Nietzsche’s definition of maturity as the attainment of the seriousness of a child at play.” - Robert Barry, The WIRE

MONDAY November 3rd, 2014

7PM, $8. all-ages, MIDTOWN CINEMA, 250 Reily St. Harrisburg.