Paul Sharits (1943-1993)

DECLARATIVE MODE (1976-77)                                                                  $90.00

                (16 mm/color/silent/                                      38 min. at 24 fps or 50 min at 18 fps)

Produced by the assistance of a Bicentennial Film Grant awarded jointly by the National Endowment to the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, 1976

Dedicated to Dr. Gerald O’Grady and Lillian Mak

PROJECTION INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Place 2 projectors close, side by side, do not load film yet; Focus on gate for sharp edges. 2. Turn on bulbs and find less intense bulb—use that faint bulb for the inner image (it is important that the inner image be dimmer; if necessary put a neutral density filter of about 1 stop in front of lens); 3. You MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE ZOOM LENS [^or the 2” and one 3” lens] so that one image can be put inside the other (the precise proportion is shown in a drawing accompanying the prints); another way of doing this is to move on projector forward until the right size is reached—but this cannot be done in a projection booth because there is not enough space; 4. make sure that the inner rectangle is precisely placed so that the top and bottom borders and the sides are exactly equal—there should be absolutely no key-stoning—this is of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE; 5. Thread film and go to the punch mark on each reel; 6. ADVANCE THE FOOTAGE FOR THE INNER SCREEN 24 frames AHEAD OF THE REEL FOR THE EXTERIOR IMAGE—THIS SLIGHT OUT-OF-SYNC IS CRUCIAL TO THE EFFECT OF THE FILM; 7. Start both projectors at the exact same instant. 8. FOCUS BOTH PROJECTIONS ON THEIR EDGES—the sharpness of the edges is also crucial.

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson included in his draft of the Declaration of independence a denunciation of slavery. However, this visionary passage was deleted from the final draft of the document by Congress. This film attempts to celebrate the spirit and dynamism of Jefferson’s adamant declaration of human liberty for all races in pure color rhythms. Two identical prints are shown simultaneously, one inside the image of the other; the inner image is projected out of sync one second in advance of the larger image; this creates an interplay between the prints and creates a dynamic phi phenomenon.

                “he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he had prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting these very people to rise up in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes witch he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”

                                                                                                                --Thomas Jefferson