SAPRÆMIA

1981

In 1981, I met a Polish refugee in Germany who happened to be a spectacular jazz saxophonist. He played me a tape of his band playing one of his compositions –a short hard bop piece in 9/8 time that he had titled Golem. I was intrigued because I had dreamed of filming the Golem for years and the tune was outstanding, but it was far too fast for such a subject, so I suggested he name it Sapræmia, which was a spare title I’d wanted to use for just as many years.  As often happened, visuals dashed through me matching what I was hearing, and he, Janusz Podrazik, suggested I film what I hallucinated. I do not know where one might find the music now, but did locate my original film script; since the imagery was blindingly rapid, I did it as a storyboard, noting the imagery and indicating the internal direction of camera and action movements.