Our short art films are a hybrid of four components
Text – The imagery, pacing and dramatic impact is drawn from poetic text.
Visual Arts – Our current films employ still images which are animated by motion graphics. We hope to use film clips and scenes as well as three-dimensional art in coming films. We do have a preference for visual arts which can be experienced in person, such as in a gallery.
Soundscape – We create a complex combination of spoken word, music and sound effects as an audio bed for the visual experience.
Conversation – We would like our art to stimulate conversation between viewers. This can happen online, but our dream is to show the films in a setting where people can interact face to face with each other and with the tangible art used in the films — a sort of cafe. This is why we talk about a “Film Gallery Cafe.”
This concept is still in experimentation, but, ultimately we see the potential for a community of viewers, artists, and filmmakers to develop around this idea. The potential benefits for each of us and for the world at large are great.
The First Films
“Good Friday Contemplative”
Contemplate what Jesus’ Passion has to do with the world here and now. This non-verbal, short art film offers photos, drawings, music and sound effects associating the gospel accounts of Jesus’ victimization with our own troubles today. MORE
“Ash Wednesday Contemplative”
Here is help to pause with nature and reconnect with Life beyond our stresses. Contemplative music accompanying photos we have collected in nature offer eleven minutes of retreat. Many people remember this discipline at this time of year when Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. MORE
“Going Into Bethlehem”
This film blends music, sound effects, spoken word and motion graphics to evoke the experience of the few who found Joseph, Mary and their newborn in the animal enclosure. Their philosophical quandaries guide us in the wonder at the ancient root of today’s popular celebration. MORE
“World of Particles” images and chants from parts to the whole
This is just a sketch about what has been happening since the Big Bang until now. Just a sketch full of rough edges from my thinking that God is making more than we realize, but that we have over the last few millennia begun to observe the process. MORE
“Break Our Chains“
Contemplating America’s circumstances in July 2020, I drew a cartoon and composed music to help review our common bondage and find liberation. MORE
“Formation Observed”
This animation was started 50 years ago. Wanting to practice on my new graphics tablet and explore Photoshop’s animation features, I used a photo of a six foot painting I did in my youth as a template to draw progressively, frame by frame, a new version of the painting. As I drew them again I could not help but contemplate the days when I first painted this collage of faces. . . . MORE
“On Creation”
This is an animated memo of thoughts from Mark R. Turner’s journal resulting from contemplation about our origins, the dynamic growth of the material universe, why there is something rather than nothing, the great amount that humanity has learned which increases the mysteries of our existence, . . . MORE
“Here Am I Listening”
The camera explores spontaneous pencil drawings with the words of a poem accompanied by music composition for chamber ensemble. Mark Turner wrote the poem in September, 2011, during the process of major personal losses, moving to a less desirable environment and facing the mystery of the future. In August, 2017, experiencing surprising, positive developments in life he picked the poem back up to draw it in quick pencil markings. About the journey of life and the things that have inspired . . . MORE
“We Deep Under Ocean”
Around September, 2015, a simple poem emerged from Mark Turner’s early morning meditations. Over the next four months he built a mixed media work embedding the poem . . . MORE
“A Prayer for Beauty”
Mark Turner wrote the poem “Beautify, Oh” as a prayer from his own devotional life. The film is an expansion on the poem visualized by . . . MORE
“To the Diggers”
This re-release is even more timely in 2024 than when it was first released in 2011. Mark R. Turner reads his 2006 poem, as the film carries you rapidly through a maze of images drawn both in pencil and digitally depicting the questions raised by the poem. What is real and what is artificial? Is what we are told really true? . . . MORE
“Comforting Hovers”
This is a painting with soundscape by Mark Turner. As the camera moves over Mark’s oil painting, spoken poetic phrases lead through impressions of an ancient story. Ambient sounds of the scenes mix with contemplative music as . . . MORE
