Winter Epitaph for Michael Furey

Born in Joplin, Missouri, 1935. When he’s not working on films or talking about them with his colleague and neighbour, Abbot Meader, he teaches English Literature at Colby College in Maine. Winter Epitaph for Michael Furey is his third film, and has been shown at the Rapallo Film Festival (Jan. 1968) as well as in the U.S. and England. Address: Dept. of English, Colby College, Waterville, Maine 04901, USA.
Inspired by the final paragraph of Joyce’s story ‘The Dead’ – but in no sense a recreation of that paragraph, or even an interpretation of it – this film was shot at various times of day and in various climatic conditions in a graveyard in Maine. The shooting took two winters and the editing one spring. All superimposition was done in the camera. The blue quality of the middle passage was achieved by using ‘indoor’ film out of doors. During the editing, the film evolved from a more-or-less realistic evoking of a graveyard in winter, into something more abstract – the sort of thing that might be called ‘Fugue in Orange and Blue’. The film is very silent.