MIRROR MOVEMENT was filmed in the desert outside Tucson, Arizona, in 1973, on 16mm Kodachrome stock and with a Bolex camera. I restored and scanned the film from the original positive in 2017 for this digital copy and was surprised at how the colours were unchanged by time, after 45 years.

In front of the camera were Christallo Parmakis and Bob Di Matteo. At this time I worked with images and narrative in, one could say, a musical way – in the sense that we did not use a previously set script. What interested me was what the film itself needed, going from one scene to the next, the imagery and what could be achieved with that landscape and the combination of those two people. This way of working involved editing in the camera, hard work and dedication.

Christallo Parmakis, born in Greece, was raised in London and moved to San Fransisco as an adult. She had a very adventurous life and a strong voice. Bob Di Matteo was a gifted composer, pianist and filmcritic, also living in San Fransisco. Christallo was also involved in the making of the soundtrack.

I had lived in that desert some 7 years earlier for a year and the light and landscape captivated me. We set out, the three of us, to work together and at first we were received with some hostility. Later we found out that Warhol had been in the vicinity filming Lonesome Cowboys, which had outraged some of the local people.

There was also a second film (on 8mm) – a kind of experimental “the making of” which is now lost.