Seizing Moments
The creation of “Dusk Eyes”, a cinemontage
In the early months of 2025 — perhaps another aspect of this late life crisis with the three-quarters-of-a-century marker within my sights—layers of muddy Anxiety had formed where my Word Angels used to tread.
In the previous years, since 2016, I had published over 300 short stories, poems and essays on Medium. And published a few books.
As another springtime came around I was in rather desperate need for a creative outlet.
Slowly and steadily, a video project slyly presented itself to me.
My partner and I watch a lot of cinema — primarily from places outside the US — so we’re very used to watching films with subtitles. In fact, both being senior citizens (and on Medicare, which doesn’t cover hearing aids) we now watch all films with subtitles.
When I was moved by a scene in one of the films we were watching — as something resonated with how I thought or felt — I would rewind a bit, slip over to the screen, and, with my hand-held iPhone 11, capture the scenes. No fancy camera work — a raw homemade sensibility felt like the right aesthetic.
Eventually themes started to emerge and I kept my mind open to things that echoed with me. I began seizing the moments.
After a while I began pulling the scenes together — and with novice level skills I began editing in iMovie. I started adding video clips that I filmed while walking around the city—enhancing it all with music “composed” in GarageBand. The project expanded.
The creative techniques of collage/montage have served my creative perspectives for decades. From visual collage (paper/glue to digital) to works I created in audio (“Beethoven’s Fifth Nightmare”, inspired by the Beatles “Revolution #9”) to brief experimentation with video (as in my cinemontage “Moist”, created three decades ago with only two VHS machines.)
This methodology allowed me to express the fragmentary nature of reality and bring together the diverse aspects to create a new, cohesive, often surreal, new whole. To a lesser degree even my fiction and essay writing often emerged by connecting disparate shorter observations into a cohesive narrative or story.
The process captivated me. I put hours upon hours — months! — into this labor of love.
(Oh my patient partner, as I regularly interrupted our film viewing.)
And so I set myself a deadline of December 1.
(“Art is never finished, only abandoned” — Leonardo DaVinci)
And so it was.
Cinemontage — “a film editing technique that sequences a rapid succession of short shots to condense time, space, and information.”
Because of the multitude of clips from commercial films (My rule: none longer than a minute) I had originally concluded that, due to copyright concerns, I could only share it with friends via file downloads; which I did.
It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I decided to try and share it on YouTube
under the normally understood justification regarding the use of other’s work in a montage — that the artist’s use of existing material is a form of commentary — an entirely new expression! — rather than any mere reproduction of the original for its intrinsic value. I had the deepest respect for the work of every creator included — and had credited them at the end — with the sincere hope, and expectation, that viewers would ultimately be inspired to explore the original sources.
After review by YouTube algorithms there were only two short clips (one by Neil Young and another by Bob Dylan) that would block this work from public access. I cut those very brief clips out to allow this work to enter a public sphere.
“DUSK EYES” — a cinemontage
Sixty-seven minutes long.
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Below the film is a list of all the directors whose work is included, their countries of origin, most of the performers, and music credits.
As well as a review by the noted film critic Zĕna Kōan.
THE DIRECTORS.
David Lynch, Bela Tarr, Akira Kurosawa, Woody Allen, Hlynur Pálmason, Roy Andersson Fred W. Wilcox, Henry Jaglom, Edgar J. Wilmer, Marcel Carne Jim Jarmusch, Liv Ullmann, Ken Burns, Pedro Almodovar, George Pal, Joseph Stantly, Ross McElwee Krzystof Kieslowski, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Sergei Parajanov, Larry Charles, Richard Linklater, Michelangelo Anotonioni, Alain Tanner Adam Curtis, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Laszlo Benedek, Robert Wise, Jean Cocteau, Alejandro Jodorwosky, Spike Lee, Gaspar Noe, James Bidgood, Maike Brochhauss, Erika Lust, Dusan Makavejev, Radu Jude, Anthony Harvey, John Sayles, Roger Stahl, G. W. Pabst, Sergei Bondarchuk, Stanley Kubrick, AleXander Hirka, Elia Suleiman, Jonathan Lee, Terrence Malick, John Cassavetes, Payal Kapadia, John Cameron Mitchell, Louis Malle, Frank Capra, Richard Lester, John Huston, Andrei Tarkovsky, Francois Truffaut, and Terry Jones.
COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN.
Hungary, China, Austria, Denmark, Iceland, France, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Chile, Armenian, Argentina, Romania, England, Japan, Serbia, Italy, Russia, Finland, India, Australia, and United States.
PERFORMERS.
Clark Middleton, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Larry David, Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Stephen Dillane, Venessa Redgrave, Julie Bishop, Bela Lugosi, Roberto Benigni, Jean Gabin, Leonard Cohen, Lena Efdre, Erland Josefson, Tom Waits, Hal Holbrook, Tilda Swinton, Alan Young, Rod Taylor, Marx Brothers, Charleen Swansea, John Turturro, Julianne Moore, Christopher Walz, Steven Buscemi, George Harrison, Katherine Hepburn, Bassem Youssef, Michael Ontkean, Kyle McLaughlin, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Maya Simon, Russ Tamblyn, Brigitte Horney, Wallace Shawn, André Gregory, William Vedder, Marcel Robert, François Simon, Dylan Moran, Jean Marais, Agnes Varda, Paul Benjamin, Robin Harris and Frankie Faison, Fred Ward, Alan Watts, Lou de Laâge, Jack Nicholson, José María Caffarel, Mildred Natwick, Richard Beymer, Joe Morton, Chandra Wilson, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Slim Pickens, Donovan Leitch, Paul Goodman, Elia Suleiman, Tony Benn, Enrique Arce, Peter O’Toole, Val Kilmer, Gloria Munoz, Marisa Paredes, Wojciech Klat, Henryk Baranowski, Gena Rowlands, John Adames, William Holden, Ryu Daisuke, Ringo Starr, Alan Mandell, Jay Brannan, Jim Carrey, Cary Grant, Tuli Kupferberg, Leonard Bernstein, Joe Queenan, Natasha Abramova, Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, F. Murray Abraham, Bernard Menez, Michael Palin.
MUSIC.
Original music by AleXander Hirka and brief fragments by: Mihaly Vig, Klaus Schulze, Franz Schubert. Alan Hovhaness, Ludwig von Beethoven, Donovan Leitch, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Bob Marley, Van Morrison, and Frank Sinatra.
_______________________
“Life’s Topsy-Turvydom — A Cinematic Septuagenarian Assessment.”
A review of “Dusk Eyes” by Zĕna Kōan, Anomalous Films Quarterly
“The scope of topics in “Dusk Eyes” — the new film being released this month by artist AleXander Hirka — is wildly diverse, and yet the film ultimately presents a thematically cohesive, satisfying assemblage.
Death, art, technology, sex, war, philosophy, consumerism, music, the environment and more — are presented through a succession of perspectives and ideas which are meticulously woven together throughout its sixty-seven minutes.
This film is a “cinemontage” — utilizing a montage film editing technique — a sequence of short scenes, edited together to compress narrative, and thus able to convey a large amount of information in a short span of time.
“Dusk Eyes” is primarily composed of clips from independent and commercial films around the world — none which exceeds one minute — whose kaleidoscopic vision is augmented by video clips recorded by the director.
Through a septuagenarian lens, attentive to a sense of completion and achievement, it looks at all these themes as they are reflected in work, in life, in expectation, and in dreams.
With an exuberant pace, there is a flow and rhythm to “Dusk Eyes” that draws in the eye and captures the imagination — presenting the viewer with an engaging opportunity to approach, and perhaps challenge, their own thoughts on all these motifs.
Highly recommended to anyone who appreciates the magic and possibilities of cinema.”
Postscript to “Dusk Eyes”
40 seconds.
Created 22 December 2025
© AleXander Hirka 2025. All Rights Reserved.
