How Long Is “Small Things Moving in Unison”?

Perforations made directly into 16mm black leader attempt what Sitney describes in relation to Breer’s 70 as ‘five-frame holds’, whereby methods used to control the movement of onscreen forms have the effect of retarding motion. Small Things confronts the purely plastic problems that persist in the manually made film, of registering marks in the same place over a series of frames. At the same time it does not discourage the interpretation of these forms as a gathering, not so much of particles, but rather of a swarm or a murmuration.