Zorns Lemma (1970)

• 62%
• 1970
• Documentary
• Hollis Frampton
• Robert Huot
• Rosemarie Castoro
• Marcia Steinbrecher

A voice is heard reading a series of couplets from the Bay State Primer, before there begins a series of shots. A visual alphabet, composed of street and shop signs is gone over again and again in a loop, using new signs and words each time. As the film progresses, each letter of the alphabet is slowly and progressively replaced using a new image for each letter, including a man painting a wall, a woman speaking, a clementine being peeled, etc. As each letter continues to be gradually replaced, the images for the letters already replaced progress in action: the man finishes the wall, the peeling of the clementine is completed. At the end, a shot of a couple with their dog is shown to be walking into the woods in a single long shot, whilst six women take turns speaking Grosseteste's "On Light, or the Ingression of Forms" to a rhythm, each speaking a different word every second.