La Spiritata

Trusts and Estates is a hand-drawn animated documentary satire adapted from a conversation overheard in a Santa Monica restaurant in 2011. Four lawyers engage in a bantering dinner conversation that quickly devolves into a grotesque and brutal comedy of cruelty and hypocrisy.

It ain't easy bein' green -- especially if you're a likable (albeit smelly) ogre named Shrek. On a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess from the clutches of a fire-breathing dragon, Shrek teams up with an unlikely compatriot -- a wisecracking donkey.

This film is strongly rooted in its underlying mathematical structure which forms the basis for the images. The music by Jean Claude Risset is integral to the creation of this concert of space and time.

A single bird in flight is transformed, enhanced and interpreted so as to present a unique visual experience. From its original inception in a 128 frame black-and-white sequence it evolves by programmed reflection, inversion, magnification, color transformation and time distortion into the final restructured film as art.

Abstract images of frame-by-frame animation with subtle growing effects of crystals are enhanced by polarized colors.

Picture-processed photos from the artist-filmmaker’s family. Faces are abstracted in a divisionistic manner.

Computer generated images used as counterpoint to music “Fantasia & In Nomine” by John Ward, performed by Elizabeth Cohen, Max Mathews, and Gerard Schwarz.

Escher-like images stepping through the frames to the music of a jazz group. Delightful–shows a depth in the imagery not accomplished by computer before.

A swift moving assortment of moving images. Filmed from a color TV monitor that was computer controlled.

Beginning with footage of sea birds in flight, the film image is then optically scanned and transformed by the computer. The geometric overlay on live random motion has the effect of creating new depth, a third dimension. Our perception of the birds’ forms and movements is heightened by the abstract pattern outlining them.

“Schwartz’ METAMORPHOSIS is a complex study of evolving lines, planes, and circles, all moving at different speeds, and resulting in subtle color changes. The only computer-generated work on the program, it transcends what many of us have come to expect of such film with its subtle variations and significant use of color.” – Catherine Egan

Computer-simulated disk galaxies that are superimposed and twirl through space in beautiful colors at different speeds.

This tape combines live-images filmed in the Yucatan with output from the Paik video-synthesizer ribboned with computer-generated images.

Filmed directly from color television controlled by computer programs. Beautifully flowing shapes that overlap and intertwine.

Changing parameters on mathematical equations.

Computer generated music and visuals films directly from a color TV monitor.

Mathematical functions are the basis for a science film on contour plots and an art film. Both are shown simultaneously at a two screen production for an IEEE conference in NYC. Beauty in Science & Art.

A playful concoction of computer produced images, a few hand-animated scenes and shots of lab equipment. Made largely from left-overs from scientific research.

“Lines and rectangles are the geometric shapes basic to ENIGMA, a computer graphics film full of subliminal and persistent image effects. In a staccato rhythm, the film builds to a climax by instantly replacing one set of shapes with another, each set either changing in composition and color or remaining for a moment to vibrate strobiscopically and then change.” – The Booklist.

An illusion of 3 dimensions is achieved by a blending of mathematics and physics to carry the spectator through a new range of audio and visual dynamics.