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Esophagus
The origins of the universe told through the lens of an experimental film and video sci-fi horror-show fusion: Alien women trapped in a colorfully hand-scratched film-textured hotel room, genetically mutated men slowly driven mad in a white digital prison, the high contrast landscapes of Mars, and a futuristic tribe of a giant, an elf and a witch in their decaying suicide-home.
2004, digital video, 70min, color, stereo sound
"At its center is a typical Fotopoulos torment: six men, one sporting horns, seem imprisoned in a drab room, and a distorted female voice intones phrases such as 'You're born with teeth in your eyes.' Elsewhere, scratches on the film outline and entrap women's bodies. The opening section -- showing gorgeous yet intrusive and terrible flickering light patterns accompanied by droning music -- is repeated at the end, giving the work a fatalistic form that suggests the trap isn't the walls of a room but the nature of the cosmos."
- Fred Camper, Chicago Reader
"What does it all add up to? The NYUFF programme guide breathlessly describes Esophagus as a work of 'cosmogenic scope' essaying nothing less than 'global evolution with the mythic structure of Brakhage's Dog Star Man (1961–64)'. This is, you might say, a heavy trip to lay on anyone, but it is to Fotopoulos' considerable credit that Esophagus sustains this among other possible interpretations. "
- Senses of Cinema
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