This special lecture at Grand Central Art Center will open with professor Melinda Barlow screening several of Geiser's films, including The Secret Story (1996), Immer Zu (1997), The Fourth World (2000) and Ultima Thule (2001). A discussion of Geiser's poetic works follows, when Barlow will discuss the films, which evoke an uncanny sense of childhood, nostalgia and the metaphysical, where miniature worlds collide with real objects that resonate symbolically in the viewers' imaginations. Barlow has likened Geiser's works to the boxes of artist Joseph Cornell, both of whom appropriate everyday materials and painstakingly construct these objects within intriguing and often mysterious settings.
Barlow teaches film history and methods at the University of Colorado, Boulder and is a longtime scholar of Geiser's work.

Janie Geiser, a transplanted New Yorker now living and working in Los Angeles, is an internationally known independent avant-garde filmmaker. Her experimental animated shorts were featured in last year's Festival of Independent Los Angeles Filmmakers.

This rare screening of Geiser's films, as explained by a friend and scholar of the filmmaker, is must see for those interested in independent cinema.