Tricks, Spirits, and Flickering Lights

This collection of short works, from the turn of the century to the contemporary, reveals how cinema creates deception through a play of light and attention.

Is Spiritualism a Fraud? (AKA: The Medium Exposed) (1906)
Dir. Walter R. Booth
7 min, digital

In this British silent short, a medium is dramatically unmasked during a séance, and the mechanisms of his trick are revealed.

The Magician’s Alms (La charité du prestidigitateur) (1905)
Dir. Alice Guy-Blaché France
3 min, digital

One of hundreds of shorts by cinematic pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché, the first woman to direct a film, this morality tale merges stop-motion and social commentary in an encounter between a magician and beggar.

La Métamorphose du Roi de Pique (1903)
Dir. Gaston Vell
1 min, digital

A classic example of the trick film, a fixture of early cinema that used cinematic magic to enhance close-up magic, Vell pairs emerging technological innovations with traditions of illusory enchantment.

28.IV.81 (Bedouin Spark) (2009)
Dir. Christopher Harris
3 min, digital

Edited in-camera on a single reel of 16mm film, Christopher Harris’ mesmerizing close-up transforms a child’s night-light into swirling celestial vision through the use of a macro lens.

Chronometer (Nervous Magic Lantern) (2006)
Dir. Ken Jacobs
24 min, digital

The experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs and his partner and collaborator Flo Jacobs reimagined the origins of cinema with their Nervous Magic Lantern performances. Chronometer is a record of one such performance, during which Jacobs manipulates three-dimensional objects in front of a projected stream of light, producing, in his words, “voluptuous rounded forms in a delirious and drunken space.”

Now I’m Turning to Face You (1982)
Dir. Rea Tajiri
7 min, digital

The filmmaker and visual artist Rea Tajiri combines classic cinematic moments with her own overlaid text, establishing a sly tension between the magicians of cinema, who craft powerful illusions, and the anonymous audience member, who imposes their own interpretations and machinations upon the work. Both are located out of sight, on either side of the screen, illustrating Tjiri’s assertion: “When I’m watching / you won’t see me.”

Water to Wine to Water (1972–1973)
Dir. John Baldessari
1 min, digital

The conceptual artist John Baldessari performs an amateur magician’s rendition of the holy miracle.

The Magician’s Cabinet (1974–1975)
Dir. Cynthia Maughan
2 min, digital

With her signature deadpan, Cynthia Maughan delivers a single-take performance directly to the camera, recounting the morbid history of a magician’s relic.