Canadian artist Peter Mettler makes films that turn viewers across the world into addicts. By means of optical illusions, layering of images and changes of perspective, Mettler brings a brand new, so far unknown sensory experience. Watch the director’s retrospective from April 21 to May 4!
Canadian artist Peter Mettler makes films that turn viewers across the world into addicts. By means of optical illusions, layering of images and changes of perspective, Mettler brings a brand new, so far unknown sensory experience, taking the viewers into a unique space-time of audiovisual ecstasy. Colours, shapes, the rhythm of alternating images; all that induces a state of “expanded cinematic consciousness”. At the same time, with each new film by Mettler, surprising for its original narrative style oscillating between the genres of documentary, personal essay and experimental film, the viewers’ desire to watch other works is growing uncontrollably. In case of Peter Mettler’s films, the phrase “film as a drug” is more than fitting.
Already the early films, which marked Mettler’s vigorous appearance at the local Canadian and later global scene, have shown his powerful artistic opinion and courage, which an artist must not lack. The altered state of perception caused by a psychiatric disease or by drug use as well as fundamental philosophical themes such as time or man’s relationship to nature and technology represent but a small portion of what is touched upon in Mettler’s cinematic visions.
However, it is not just the film medium that Peter Mettler has managed to master and further develop. His strong interest in music, which represents an inseparable part of the composition of his films, has merged with his natural passion for the visual language in VJing. Besides film festivals, the director can be seen in clubs, performing with renowned musicians, responding to their live music with his visual works. His innovative approach to VJing has attracted the music community to such an extent that Paul Spinrad’s “The VJ Book” has dedicated one of its interviews to Mettler. Some of his audiovisual collages can be found at his personal website.
Peter Mettler’s activities in the field of photography are no less interesting. His photographic images of various formats, mostly depicting natural motifs, and mostly exposed in clear macroscopic details, as well as the theme of man’s position in nature and their mutual interconnection, have impressed gallery visitors both in North America and Europe.
There is no other choice but to breathe a sigh of relief that the consumption of works by Peter Mettler is not illegal. Breaking the law because of this addiction would be way too easy…
Watch the director’s retrospective from April 21 to May 4 at DAFilms.com; legally, online and for free!
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