Mass for the Dakota Sioux

United States

1964

24 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

English

No Subtitles

Audio in English

Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
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DIR Bruce Baillie

Synopsis

An experimental film dedicated to the Dakota Sioux, which follows the form of the Christian Mass. A series of images of contemporary America interwoven with the ritual spiriting away of a dead Indian.

Director

Bruce Baillie

Bruce Baillie (born in 1931, Aberdeen, South Dakota) is an American experimental filmmaker and founding member of Canyon Cinema in San Francisco. His film Castro Street (1966) was selected in 1992 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. —Wikipedia

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dschank

26May12

overlapping urban imagery and fluent editing establish an intimate sense of space, but the haphazard hodge-podge of images harkens back to the russian silents in a way that feels derivative. more effective as a portrait of urban life than a critique of it. the native american quotations feel a bit dated, however well-intended. it's tough to watch stuff like this after MTV. people used to have to work a lot harder.

Brentofilm

24Apr12

For all of his artistry, what you come away with from any Bruce Baillie film is a deep, commited humanism, a down home sense of the sacred, the sweaty, smellly holiness of what it is to be alive. His work speaks for Basic Goodness, for the True Human in us all.

JLB likes this