Nightmare Series 1978

Directed by Stan Brakhage

A decade and a half ago, poet Robert Kelly told me that the "crucial work" of our time might be what he calls "the dream work": I hope, with this Series, to have entertained his challenge more thoughtfully than with any previous "dream" filmmaking. In homage to Sigmund Freud & Surrealism, this film proposes clear visual alternatives to the consideration of both "The Interpretation of..." and all previous representations of... dreaming. (SB) "These four short films...have each individually a haunting quality but do importantly work together to form a gradually swelling curve of increasingly intense unease." -Marie Nesthus