An educational film about power sources that’s rendered as a lyrical meditation on heat and vapor, The Four Elements is a poetic and avant-garde documentary Curtis Harrington made for the United States Information Agency.
Direction
Harrington turns bureaucratic commission into psychedelic industrial ballet.
Cinematography
Steam, turbines, and fire shot like they're auditioning for Tarkovsky.
Editing
Rhythmic cutting makes power plants feel like living organisms.
Director
Curtis Harrington
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Harrington was a queer avant-garde legend who somehow convinced the US government to fund his aesthetic experiments. This exists because bureaucrats in 1966 didn't know what they were looking at.
The same Curtis Harrington later directed cult horror films like 'Queen of Blood' and 'The Killing Kind.' Your tax dollars funded his transition from experimental film to B-movie excellence.
US
