Skip to main content

Persian Series

An 18-part series of colorful shorts, made by Stan Brakhage between 1999 and 2001.

18 movies 1999 – 2001 50m total
Directed by Stan Brakhage

Movies in this collection

Persian Series #1
Persian Series #1

Persian Series #1

1999 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

This hand-painted and elaborately step-printed work begins with a flourish of reds and yellows and purples in palpable fruit-like shapes interspersed by darkness, then becomes lit lightning-like by sharp multiply-colored twigs-of shape, all resolving into shapes of decay. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Persian Series #2
Persian Series #2

Persian Series #2

1999 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Multiple thrusts and then retractions of oranges, reds, blues, and the flickering, almost black, textural dissolves suggesting an amalgam approaching script. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Persian Series #3
Persian Series #3

Persian Series #3

1999 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Dark, fast-paced symmetry in mixed weave of tones moving from oranges & yellows to blue-greens, then retreating (dissolves of zooming away) to both rounded and soft-edged shapes shot with black. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Persian Series #4
Persian Series #4

Persian Series #4

1999 3m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Elaborate petal-like and multicolored flowers rising in white space until the whole field is as if crushed by floral designs in madly-swift mixtures of every conceivable previous shape from the Persian Series. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Persian Series #5
Persian Series #5

Persian Series #5

1999 6m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Dark blood red slow shifting tones (often embedded in dark) / (often shot-thru with parallel wave-like lines) composed of all previous shapes and flowers as if trying, linearly, to evolve a glyph-script. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Persian Series #6
Persian Series #6

Persian Series #6

2000 3m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Persian Series #6 begins with what appears to be dried red and yellow rose petals, suddenly shot-thru with blue which causes a shift to violets and greens.

Persian Series #7

Persian Series #7

2000 3m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Very pale, thin, hieroglyphic pinks, greens and blues in a white space which is thickened over by ribbed mashes of these colors which "dissolve" into varied shapes almost suggesting landscapes and ephemeral bouquets.

Persian Series #8

Persian Series #8

2000 3m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Pale petal and stem-like shapes counter punted rhythmically by an even paler "background" of truly ephemeral of truly ephemeral (almost invisible) shapes. Again, the foreground movement is clockwise and often "ribbed" as the film darkens into a blend of foreground/background and, eventually, a meld as of white hardened clots fretted by glyphs.

Persian Series #9

Persian Series #9

2000 4m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Sharp edged "chunks" of color set in black, straight, often multicolored, lines piercing shapes, imprisoning them, until they are fragmented bits of color in black: repeat of this theme again and again until darkness prevails, but is then broken open by pure white shards and "spears" restoring the original "dance" of hard-edge shapes and…

Persian Series #10
Persian Series #10

Persian Series #10

2000 6m Dir. Stan Brakhage

"Twigs" of color in space, and pure white "ghosts" of them in the background interspersed with dark amalgams of these and conglomerate forms.

Persian Series #11
Persian Series #11

Persian Series #11

2000 1m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Persian Series #11 begins with a "window" of yellow paint adrift in the full frame of multicolored paint-shapes. Alternating black-space/white-space exists as a back-drop for slashes and curves of color - reds and blues shifting to red-blue-green, then yellow, etc. slashed in black.

Persian Series #12

Persian Series #12

2000 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

"Hot" by-play of reds-greens-yellows in black, blurred, finally, as the color shapes are shifted violently from side to side, finally ending of a sharp entanglement of multicolored twig-like and/or stem-like forms.

Persian Series #13

Persian Series #13

2001 3m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Persian Series #13 is a series of extremely dark images, mostly in purples, greens, and fiery red-orange-yellows, shifting one to another in displays of textured shapes which suggest a thick tangle weave of threads.

Persian Series #14

Persian Series #14

2001 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Persian Series #14 is composed of muted color-shapes shifting variably in juxtaposition and contrast with high-contrast black & white abstract patterns.

Persian Series #15

Persian Series #15

2001 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Persian Series #15 is a rapid shift of patterns black & white playing off against muted coils of color.

Persian Series #16
Persian Series #16

Persian Series #16

2001 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Persian Series #16 is an even more exaggerated contrast of color and black-and-white patterning.

Persian Series #17

Persian Series #17

2001 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Persian Series #17 is a series of quite distinct globules of paint brilliantly colored and shifting as if vertically in the plane (as different from the more horizontally oriented previous parts).

Persian Series #18

Persian Series #18

2001 2m Dir. Stan Brakhage

Persian Series #18 is almost calligraphic in its overlays of dark (occasionally colored) glyphs backed by brilliant color motifs.