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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
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Levitated Mass: A Moving Stone Prolific filmmaker Doug Pray’s “Levitated Mass” tells the story of the moving of a rock from one place to another. The rock in question weighs 340 tons. It was moved from a southern California above-ground mining operation to the Los Angeles Museum of Art.
The impetus for this translocation came from Michael Heizer who does ‘land art.’ (Please see his website to learn what ‘land art’ is.) He is credited as the artist of the rock’s installation at the museum.
In 1968, Heizer conceived a large piece of earth suspended so that people could walk under it. A mine operator who’d been informed of the need for such a rock found just the thing Heizer specified. After much discussion amongst hundreds of people the rock was moved in 2012, from the mine to the museum, by a 294-foot-long, 206-wheeled trailer over a period of ten nights, through 22 cities. The service fee was $10 million.
The rock was positioned outside the museum, above ‘negative space’ – that is, a hole – long enough and wide enough for people to walk underneath it.
That’s it. That’s the story. I loved it! Can’t wait for the commercial Blu-ray disc so I can see and learn about much more of this journey the completion of which would make Sisyphus massively envious.