Reviews
Born in 1956 in Burbank, California across the street from Disney Studios, Andy Moore grew up in a neighborhood rife with film and TV production. He and a group of friends produced and performed a series of parody skits in grade school, then, forming another group called The Tads, created several original marionette productions out of a garage theater. Starting at age 12, they began producing a series of Super-8 "trick" films (which Andy later learned were remarkably similar to the trick films of Méliès). In high school, he made his first "art" film, a Super-8 account of the demolition of a metal mansion (designed by Richard Neutra for Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich) accompanied by a doleful, repetitive, seemingly endless loop of As Time Goes By. His fellow 10th graders were bored stiff. Later, at UC San Diego, after a brief flirtation with sociology, he re-approached cinema in a more rigorous way, gaining inspiration from the films of Michael Snow, Standish Lawder, Jon Jost, James Benning, Pat O’Neill and many others. By 1978 his films were saturated with language, but more recently he has tried to gesture and suggest rather than state explicitly, and to keep his films non-language-specific. Deeply concerned with the grammar of cinema and music, his own films are a blend of structural and personal concerns, and he often starts first with the soundtrack in mind. He has lived in San Francisco for over 25 years with his partner, filmmaker Jack Walsh, and is actively involved with Canyon Cinema and Film Arts Foundation there. He earns a living selling advertising space, as a travel writer for Fodor’s guidebooks, and doing occasional voice-over work on others’ films.
Split Description (1994) 16mm, color, sound, 8 min. 11 sec.
A film of gestures rather than statements, SPLIT DESCRIPTION utilizes a concentric split-screen technique to present a kaleidoscopic moving montage of three diverse locales (in California, Massachusetts and New York). The different zones within the frame interplay, while the hairline borders between them become crucial junctures of vanishing/becoming. The soundtrack, ranging from dead simple to deliriously intricate, collaborates in the collage. Virtually nonverbal (except for some Morse code), the film is a "magic viewing box" designed to cut the viewer free from narrative expectation and instead serve as a tool for reflection on space/time/sound.
Awards: Director's Citation, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, 1995; Honorable Mention, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1995.
Exhibition: Film Arts Festival, 1994; Charlotte Film and Video Festival, 1995; Ann Arbor Film Festival and Tour, 1995; Big Muddy Film Festival, 1995; Mill Valley Film Festival, 1995; Slam Dance Film Festival, 1996.
Note: No optical printing was utilized in the making of this film. - A.M.
Andy.Moore.-.Split.Description.(1994).(auess).avi 
