Just Sprouts
In Just Sprouts, my goal was to make a film completely divorced from the camera and from such concerns as composition, lighting, camera placement and exposure. To do this, I sprouted alfalfa seeds at stepped intervals on a large piece of glass, made a contact print, then cut the resulting negative into strips and taped the strips onto clear 16mm film stock, always aware of Stan Brakhage’s 1963 film, Mothlight, in which Brakhage glued moth wings directly on film. A second inspiration was Man Ray’s Rayogram film, Le Retour à la Raison, in which pins, salt and pepper and thumbtacks cavorted wildly on the screen and caused a riot when first shown in 1923. In another section I cut negatives of magazine advertisements into strips and taped them onto film stock, thus hugely magnifying the Ben-Day dots with which the ads were printed. – PvZ
Released 1976, digitally restored September 30th, 2025
14 minutes, black & white, sound, 16mm
Finished in 3840×2880 resolution at 24 fps
1.33:1
Directed by Peter von Ziegesar
Featuring “Calypso Frelimo”
Performed by Miles Davis
Screenings:
October 31st, 2025
Millenium Film Workshop, digital
February 20th, 2026
Millenium Film Workshop, digital
Carter Haskins 