Naissant

1967
Country: USA
Duration: 14 mins
B&W,
Sound: Opt.
Ratio: 4:3
Available Format/s: 16mm / HD Video: ProRes Digital File / HD Video: H.264 Digital File
Original Format: 16mm Film

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Of all the stars of the New York underground, Stephen Dwoskin called Beverly Grant – also seen in films by Jack Smith and Ron Rice –  ‘the most chameleon of the lot’. Whereas others ‘played themselves, she lived her parts to the fullest not only in the film but in her daily life‘. Here she plays a girl alone in bed – the same bed as in Dwoskin’s Alone – this time with something more troubling on her mind, though only the title hints at what it might be. 

Naissant is notable for marking Gavin Bryars’s soundtrack debut. At the time it was recorded, in early 1967, the 23-year-old Bryars had recently left the experimental Joseph Holbrooke Trio, and this is one of few surviving recordings of him on double bass from that time.
– Henry K. Miller

‘Naissant… presents being alone with one’s thoughts. Time and her inner thoughts are found out only by spending time with her in the film.’ – S.D.

More works by Stephen Dwoskin

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