4913 COLORS / U.S.A. / LOUISIANA PREMIERE

I was inspired by seeing the artwork “4900 Colors” at the The Met Breuer retrospective Gerhard Richter: Painting After All one week before the museums closed due to the pandemic. Richter’s “4900 Colors” was created by mixing the three primary colors in graduated amounts. The artist produced 196 unique panels composed of 25 squares. The placement and positioning of the panels is arbitrary. I used a computer program to combined 17 shades of each primary color and to randomly distribute them in five-by-five grids. My title frame is an homage to Richter’s “Cologne Cathedral Windows.”

Color Science: Joshua Pines.

Director's Statement:

This is my 13th experimental film.
13 + 4900 = 4913 !

Director's Biography:

A COTB alum and award-winner, Tom Bessoir’s experimental films often use mathematics to explore perception and the structure of film.

Tom was born and raised in the Astoria section of Queens in New York City in 1957. From there he commuted by subway to attended The Bronx High School of Science. Tom studied mathematics and electrical engineering at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. While attending the Engineering School, he took advantage of Art School classes, focusing on film theory and studying experimental filmmaking with Robert Breer. In the late 1970s, he started photographing the downtown music scene. His photographs have appeared on dozens of records as well as in films, books, magazines, and newspapers.

In the arts, Tom Bessoir is best known for Microfilm (1979), Digits of Pi (2019), and his photography documenting downtown NYC.