Tom Bessoir

History

Born in New York City in 1957, Tom Bessoir attended The Bronx High School of Science and studied electrical engineering and mathematics at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. While at The Cooper Union, he studied filmmaking with Robert Breer, Joshua Pines, and Sandy Moore. Tom Bessoir’s experimental films often use mathematics to explore perception and the structure of film. In the arts, Tom Bessoir is best known for Microfilm (1979), Digits of Pi (2019), and his photography documenting downtown NYC.

Movies

2020
2020
Director
A film for 2020, a year to remember. 2020 different colors create a flicker film.
4913 Colors
4913 Colors
Director
I was inspired by seeing the artwork “4900 Colors” at the The Met Breuer retrospective Gerhard Richter: Painting After All one week before the museums closed due to the pandemic. Richter’s “4900 Colors” was created by mixing the three primary colors in graduated amounts. The artist produced 196 unique panels composed of 25 squares. The placement and positioning of the panels is arbitrary. I used a computer program to combined 17 shades of each primary color and to randomly distribute them in five-by-five grids. My title frame is an homage to Richter’s “Cologne Cathedral Windows.”
Pescaria
Pescaria
Director
Gulls mangling a fish head.
Digits of Pi
Digits of Pi
Director
Experimental film artistically presenting the digits of pi
Prime Perfect Squared
Prime Perfect Squared
Director
The vast majority of the frames in this film are black. Frames numbers that are prime numbers are red. Frames numbers that are perfect numbers are white. Frames numbers that are perfect squares are green.
Morse
Morse
Director
This film includes our five favorite significant messages: 1) The first American Morse Code message transmitted in 1844 by Samuel Morse himself. 2) In 1912 the Titanic transmitted the then new SOS distress call as it sank. 3) In 1956 the beacon atop the new Capitol Records Tower flashed HOLLYWOOD to promote them as the first record company based on the west coast. 4) In 1966 Commander Denton blinked a message to secretly communicate how POWs were being treated in North Vietnam. 5) The last official use of International Morse Code by the French Navy in 1997.
A Reverse Fib
A Reverse Fib
Director
Fibonacci numbers are everywhere in nature and this film. The durations of the cyan and red frames form a reverse Fibonacci sequence. The frequencies and durations of the tones form reverse Fibonacci sequences. If you watch intently you may experience colors you have never seen before! This is caused by an after image of a color being superimposed on the complimentary color creating a gamut outside the color space that the medium can physically display.
Linear 1
Linear 1
Director
A choreography for a white line.
Intercut
Intercut
Director
A stroboscopic film poem.
Microfilm
Microfilm
Director
The concept of putting microfilm in a movie projector.
Prime Perfect (for Tony Conrad)
Prime Perfect (for Tony Conrad)
Director
You will be sitting in the dark experiencing the unique pattern created by numbers. The vast majority of the frames in this film are black. Frame numbers that are prime numbers are white (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, … 8,123). Frame numbers that are perfect numbers are red (6, 28, 496, and 8128). For the best experience view in a dark room at loud volume.