Lightscape (Doug Aitken)

Lightscape, An Immersive Non-Linear Film by Doug Aitken. 65min. Not Rated.

Presented as part of PAM CUT’s PLUS PLUS Festival, Lightscape – a new film-based installation by artist Doug Aitken and produced with the LA Phil and LA Master Chorale – considers our landscape of diversity, creating a vulnerable and humanistic portrait that chronicles the search to find one’s individuality in a world of continuous transformation.

Lightscape takes immersive cinema to an extreme, and moves like a fast-paced fever dream through the modern world. It follows multiple characters in an Altman-esque structure, taking us on a journey that explores a landscape in the midst of our rapidly changing world—from the deep ecology of Death Valley’s deserts and dramatic mountainscapes to futuristic robotics factories and environments reinterpreted through the digital realm.

The audio in Lightscape features Gustavo Dudamel, one of the world’s premiere conductors, who conducts original music for the film with the LA Philharmonic of iconic minimalist composers and artists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk and original scores by Beck & LA LOM, and Doug Aitken.

The diverse cast of Lightscape mirrors the landscapes its characters occupy. Natasha Lyonne is seen in a nocturnal high-rise in an existential sequence. Urban crump dancers move through automated factories, their bodies driving and twitching in response to their mechanized surroundings. A migrant worker speeds through the desert at escape velocity.

Lightscape creates a vulnerable and humanistic portrait that chronicles the search to find one’s individuality in a world of continuous rapid transformation. We are thrust into seemingly disparate worlds, with each character on a different journey, but as the narrative progresses, the stories interconnect. Lightscape is a visual poem. Lightscape is for our times and about our times. Like a fragmented mirror, the film is immersive—we fall into it, and follow the different characters who converge to create a worldview: one of connectivity, struggle, hope, and exploring what our future may bring.

We do not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, and films exhibited don’t necessarily reflect the views of PAM CUT or the Portland Art Museum. In addition to the synopses, trailers, and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on sites like Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com.