Low Down

Distilled from 2,500 100-ft rolls of 16mm film shot between 1995 and 2011 – organized sequentially by numbered lab rolls of camera negative into four half-hour parts.

This 50-minute release features promotional videos to the band's four singles from Out of Time ('Losing My Religion', 'Shiny Happy People', 'Near Wild Heaven' and 'Radio Song') in addition to videos to the album tracks 'Low', 'Belong', 'Half A World Away' and 'Country Feedback'; an acoustic performance of 'Losing My Religion' from The Late Show; and a live acoustic performance of 'Love Is All Around' from MTV Unplugged. Also included is 'Endgame', an instrumental track, played over the feature's credits; and several avant-garde clips, ranging from ten seconds to one minute, playing in between each song. This incidental footage was directed by Michael Stipe.

A few years ago, Preiss had the rare chance to salvage a selection of 8mm reels from his archive; 30 years after it was first shot, this lovingly refashioned material returns as both a luminescent ode to the friends, filmmakers, and artists with whom Preiss lived and worked during that time, and a considered meditation on the evolution of diaristic filmmaking. (-MoMA)