The Georgetown Loop, Ken Jacobs, 1996

First screened as part of Jacobs’ “Nervous System” film performance, The Georgetown Loop is based on an archival film from 1903. Jacobs pairs with its mirror double to produce a kaleidoscopic two-screen projection. The original film depicts a journey shot from the cab of a train passing through the Colorado Rockies, and, in this hypnotic new form, comes to suggest the movement of consciousness itself. Writes Jacobs: “I’ve called it the first landscape film deserving of an X-rating, and that it is, yet its secret subtitle is — I must whisper — (Celestial Railway).”