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The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes
The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes is the final film in Stan Brakhage’s “Pittsburgh Trilogy,” a silent meditation on death depicting bodies lying in a morgue. The film’s title is derived from the Greek word “autopsía”, which is composed of the words for “self ” and “viewing”.
One of the starkest works of body horror, Brakhage makes the monster our very own perception. It is perhaps the first film that confronts us with the unvarnished truth of death, the last secret, making us aware of our own physicality.
Bio Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) is one of the most influential filmmakers in American avant-garde cinema, noted for his unflinching social commentaries and technical innovations. The wildly prolific, visionary Brakhage made more than 200 films over a half-century. Challenging all taboos in his exploration of “birth, sex, death, and the search for God,” he turned his camera on explicit lovemaking, childbirth, and even autopsy. Many of his most famous works, including Dog Star Man (1961) and The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (1971), pursue the nature of vision itself and transcend the act of filming. Some, including the legendary Mothlight (1963) …
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- This film was #44 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025