Four years in the making, this influential and much-revered abstract work is widely regarded as the masterpiece of legendary filmmaker Stan Brakhage, who made more than 350 films over 50 years.

A psychedelic freakout, mytho-poetic dissertation and aesthetic shot- across-the-bow all in one, Dog Star Man is an unforgettable work of high artistry, as challenging as it is rewarding.

Unlike Brakhage’s later and better-known painted films, Dog Star Man draws mainly on filmed actualities. Its components are all contained in the stunning Prelude. Over the next four parts these elements are fragmented, manipulated and recombined in a mosaic of increasing complexity.

On one level it depicts an intensely mythic spiritual quest, a deeply personal farago informed by Brakhage’s lifelong study of poetry and symbolism. On another level it is a purely visual tour de force of editing and composition that can be experienced solely on its own (or your own) terms.

For Brakhage himself, Dog Star Man represented an artistic rebirth, moving past the psychodramas he was already respected for into the visually tactile, abstract poetry of his mature years.

To the world at large, the film was a landmark that proclaimed the new vibrancy of experimental cinema, both by its length and through its radical departure from (most) prior experimental film aesthetics. It influenced – and often divided – the discussion, creation, and very conception of experimental cinema for decades to come.

Even after 46 years, Dog Star Man remains an evocative, controversial, and powerful experience.