Kindering

Kindering is haunting and it's an example of the filmmaker getting right to the point (whatever it is). In 3 minutes Brakhage conveys so much through both his visuals and the sound. There are children playing around, there's distorted shots of them running around, there's music ("The Times" its called mixed in with "lala" sounds from one of the kids, and it all brings up a feeling of... The world is so colorful and yet so uncanny; the distortions bring out a truly dreamlike ambiance. I really liked this a lot, it's beauty mixed with a sort of terror that might make David Lynch wince. It feels unsentimental.

This easily could have been a more typical Brakhage film with quick editing and cute imagery of kids, but instead he transforms his simplistic footage into a horrifying experimental masterwork. It's so crazy and bizarre that it made me both laugh and hide in fright. The editing style is very much like Brakhage, but this time seems a little less repetitive and more unique compared to a few of his previous works. Although Brakhage was one of the greatest of all filmmakers, and his traditional techniques influenced cinema highly, it is always great to see his creating something a little bit more fresh and new. It is extremely important to note that this is among the very few Brakhage films to include SOUND. And the audio really adds to the creepy, seemingly drug inspired atmosphere that feels chaotic, hypnotic, and damn scary all at the same time!