Agnus Dei Kinder Synapse 1991

Directed by Stan Brakhage

To the child mind, the transformative sacrificial power of "O, Lamb of God" is a daily manifestation - not as an adult shift-of-interest, but rather as ritual magic in which a toy train ("-of-thought," an adult might say) becomes medium of shifts-of-scene, soforth, wherein an elephantine shape transforms to a more "real" (i.e., less metaphorical) train, in sacrifice of transformative elephant, so on-&-on. An earlier film, THE MACHINE OF EDEN, is of some similar construct (as is a good deal of western painting) in its insistence upon contemporary mise-en-scene as grounds for Biblical lore.