Experiencing Interruptions?

Balancing on a Molecule (Dirt: Part Three)

Balancing on a Molecule uses animation, music, and incantations to enact a series of video rituals, trying to strike a balance between rapture and vulnerability. In order for rituals to be effective, we need to place our trust in them, which can open the door to revelation, but also leave us open to manipulation and madness.

A collage of poetic imagery, music, and invocatory language, the film follows two men in a series of esoteric experiments. Their words gives rise to desert landscapes, populated by sweat lodges, snakes, and an unusual game of tennis. A postmodern video opera, Balancing on a Molecule bathes the viewer in music, language, and visual spectacle.

  • David Finkelstein
    Director
  • David Finkelstein
    Writer
  • Ian W. Hill
    Writer
  • David Finkelstein
    Key Cast
  • Ian W. Hill
    Key Cast
  • David Finkelstein
    Music composed by
  • David Finkelstein
    Animation and visual design
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 1, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    miniDV
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Millennium Film Workshop
    New York City
    United States
    January 20, 2023
  • Videoformes
    Clermont-Ferrand
    France
    March 14, 2024
Director Biography - David Finkelstein

DAVID FINKELSTEIN is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow. His video work has been featured in numerous film festivals around the world and has won awards at 25 of them. In 2013, he was an invited artist at the Traverse Vidéo Festival in Toulouse, France. His two feature films premiered at New Filmmakers in New York. He has had solo screenings of his films in Bilbao, London, Porto, New York, Chicago, Portland, Austin, North Carolina, Minnesota, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. His work has been funded by The Fund for Creative Communities, The Field, Movement Research, Meet the Composer, The Brooklyn Arts Exchange, BACA, and other sources.

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Director Statement

DAVID FINKELSTEIN's videos combine meticulously crafted digital imagery with original music and improvised text to explore inner reality in an elliptical and poetic manner. He bases these works on improvised performances in which the actors collaborate to craft a verbal landscape from an inner world. He then composes a musical score and creates a complex visual environment to help the viewer perceive the tremendous thematic and emotional unity which underlies the fluidity of the improvisation.