Aleksandar Kostic experimental film "Persistence of Memory" was premiered in Berlin, Germany on the opening night of MaerzMusic Festival 17. March 2012 "Cage and Consequences", celebrating the 100th anniversary of John Cage's birth, as part of the live performance by Joan La Barbara and Ne(x)tworks.

About :

Joan La Barbara presented Aleksandar Kostic with the chance procedures idea, inspired by the collaboration process of composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham ) to create an event in which the film and music would be produced separately and played and projected simultaneously for the first time on opening night in Berlin. The only rules that Joan and Aleksandar set before collaborating on this project were that the film and music should each have a duration of 30 minutes, and that Aleksandar would not even hear Joan's music until the opening night in Berlin.

During 3 months of film production, without listening Joan's music, Kostic used the title, "Persistence of Memory" as a story line, wanting to create an experimental film that would remind viewers that we are all just a small part of our vast universe. Aleksandar Kostic used natural lighting with specific camera movement and spend nights and days shooting stars and clouds in a time-lapse. To enhance the imagery he played with deferent materials such as glass, black sand, trees and a variety of natural textures. Everything was in real time and without any special effects.

In creating "Persistence of Memory", La Barbara reflected on certain tenets of John Cage's ideas, the juxtaposition of musical phrases with "noise", that "all sound should be considered music", and the punctuation and power of sudden silences. To these ideas, she added her affinity for violent weather, including sequences of sonically-produced thunderstorms, avalanche, tornado, tree branches cracking, car crashes, and splintering glass using samples combined with instrumental sounds.

Credits :
"Persistence of Memory"

Film producing, directing, cinematography and editing by Aleksandar Kostic

Visual Effects of Space
Jovan Nedeljkovic

Music Composed by Joan La Barbara, composer and publisher member ASCAP
©2012 Joan La Barbara

Music Performed by Ne(x)tworks:

Joan La Barbara (voice)
Stephen Gosling (piano)
Shelley Burgon (harp & laptop)
Yves Dharamraj (cello)
Miguel Frasconi (glass, flute & laptop)
Ariana Kim (violin)
Christopher McIntyre (trombone)

Live persistence of memory :

Video Documentary Filmmaker
Susanne Elgeti

Sound Direction:
Martin Supper

Assistant Sound Direction:
Thoma Koch

Video of the Event produced by Kostic Films LLC in association with MaerzMusik/Berliner Festspiele 2012