Larry Gottheim’s Entanglement: “Going Against the Clock” (an Essay Entangled with a Conversation)

In this chapter, Scott MacDonald tracks two developments. First, there is Larry Gottheim’s evolution from prime mover of the Binghamton University Cinema Department and inventive filmmaker to his recent re-emergence as a digital artist. Gottheim’s early explorations of the basic elements of cinema, in such films as Fog Line (1970), Harmonica (1971), and Barn Rushes (1971), began what became a major contribution to a new, sensual/intellectual cinema of Place that culminated in his “Elective Affinities” series: Horizons (1973), Mouches Volantes (1976), Four Shadows (1978), and Tree of Knowledge (1980). After 1991, Gottheim moved away from filmmaking—only to re-emerge two decades later during the post-Covid-19 era to produce conceptual digital works, including the remarkable Entanglement (2023). MacDonald’s development as an aficionado, chronicler, and scholar of independent cinema began when he saw Gottheim’s early films in 1972–1973 and decided to expand his cinematic awareness by interviewing independent filmmakers: Gottheim was his first interviewee. Entanglement—a challenging digital montage, constructed from postings collected from YouTube during the Covid-19 lockdown and Gottheim’s own records of his current surroundings—is a subtle but deep reflection on our contemporary immersion within a modern, global mediascape. MacDonald’s experience of Entanglement resulted in this new entanglement with the crucial mentor he came to know half a century ago.