Heaven and Earth Magic

Smith’s non-narrative piece features cutout animation using images from 19th century catalogs. The animation was assembled over the course of several years, edited and reworked along the way. Musique concrète soundtrack. Harry Smith describes the film as follows, “The first part depicts the heroine’s toothache consequent to the loss of a very valuable watermelon, her dentistry and transportation to heaven. Next follows an elaborate exposition of the heavenly land, in terms of Israel, Montreal and the second part depicts the return to Earth from being eaten by Max Muller on the day Edward the Seventh dedicated the Great Sewer of London.”