“It’s all made from energy and matter, vibrating to invisible forces,” Josef Gatti says of the universe in “Phenomena,” though it could describe putting a film together as well when there is little more driving the documentary than dancing particles yet it makes for compulsive viewing. Gatti, the son of a physics teacher, who pursued music and movies rather than his father’s profession nonetheless finds his way towards microscopes and petri dishes, plugging in a Moog synthesizer underneath the glass to set off vibrations in which liquids begin to form patterns with unexpected yet uncanny shape and when he realizes he may sound reductive in distilling the wonders appearing in front of him to a simple equation, he admits, “I know that may sound like I’m tripping, but it’s true.”
The evidence allows Gatti to have it both ways in “Phenomena,” where the dazzling display of scientific experiments can often appear as a psychedelic trip, but he is able to convey the physics so they can be easily understood and demystified. Even without both musical and scientific instruments lying around the back of his house, there’s a garage rock feeling to the proceedings, warning audiences upfront that “the experiments are dangerous – don’t try them at home, like I did.” The playful spirit makes all the difference as the filmmaker sprints through the building blocks of the world around us from gravity to electromagnetism, occasionally roaming outdoors to collect samples to bring back for examination, but mostly staying inside his studio to witness the wonders of natural elements. Peeking at a grain of sand at a thousand times magnification to appear as if it’s a planet of its own with its ridges and contours, it’s difficult to argue leaving the house more would yield a bigger adventure.
The exciting fusion of music and science extends beyond Gatti hooking up amps to see atoms scatter as sound waves take a physical form under the microscope when the original score composed by Rival Consoles with additional music from Nils Frahm give each area of exploration its own distinct personality, relating quantum physics like a rave and considering all the information that beams of light carry as if they were fireworks with knowledge too cumbersome to contain. As Gatti explains that lower frequencies have simpler patterns while higher ones are more complicated, abstract concepts become more tactile as science is translated into irresistible beats.
It is easy to forget an early disclaimer that every image is real when Gatti stumbles upon colors that feel unprecedented or unlocks the potential of various minerals, at one point liquifying the organically magnetic iron ore magnetite to make it come alive like the spiky black outer space tops worn by Michael and Janet Jackson in the Mark Romanek video for “Scream.” However, for as many surreal scenes at the film presents, Gatti continually pulls “Phenomena” back to earth with both with his wry narration, often conducting his these experiments with his dad, and the constant acknowledgement that he’s playing around with what he can find within his own backyard, which may be the most extraordinary takeaway of all.
“Phenomena” will screen again at True/False on March 7th at noon at the Windsor Auditorium.