Everybody’s Trance Film

Super-8 film by Chuck Kleinhans. "Trance film" is a term coined by film theorist P. Adams Sitney to refer to the dreamlike, non-narrative experimental films of filmmakers such as Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage. Kleinhans' playful homage is comprised primarily of everyday images, such as a mother and children feeding ducks, dolphins swimming in an aquarium, and flowers in bloom.

0:02Copy video clip URL Title Screen: “Everybody’s Trance Film.” Camera opens on two men walking on a sidewalk with Chuck Kleinhans, who holds the camera. Music starts playing. Series of still images. Footage of a pool. 

1:11Copy video clip URL Paper hangs on the wall: “Trance films in general tend to resist specific interpretation. – P. Adams Sitney.” Footage of people feeding ducks at a park, people walking in a hallway, a flower bed, a tarp moving in the wind, plants in a conservatory, and fish swimming. They are cut together in different ways, with some footage repeating. Footage from on a boat.

11:16Copy video clip URL Footage of a theater with the word “Trance” hung above it that was a part of the still image sequence from earlier in the video. Dolphins swimming. 

12:10Copy video clip URL Kleinhans gets into a car wearing a large poncho. Still images. Credit. 

13:00Copy video clip URL End.