Tom Chomont
Tom Chomont was a prominent figure of the New York underground film world, and made films for over 40 years. Tom Chomont was a longtime HIV and Parkinson’s Disease survivor and sadly died on June 28, 2010.
“Tom Chomont’s films are at once highly poetic and carefully controlled personal statements, and so private both in form and subject matter that they become almost hermetic…the instability of human existence, the poles of all -encompassing imagination on the one hand and nothingness and death on the other, are the notions underlying these works.” – Fred Camper
From 1962 through 1989, Tom Chomont made over 40 films. All but two of his films are silent and all are short, ranging from less than 1 minute to 16 minutes. Perhaps, the subtitle of his film Phases of the Moon best characterizes his film work: The Parapsychology of Everyday Life. His films, often portraits of friends, are a lyric evocation of the ordinary world, but at the same time they bear witness to an unabashedly spiritual and sexual parallel universe. His incomparable technique of offsetting color positive and high contrast black and white negative creates a subtly beautiful and richly evocative, otherworldly aura.
Since 1990, he has worked exclusively in video. The videos are hard-edged and raw. While many center around explicit s&m imagery, they go beyond the performative aspects of sadomasochistic practice and become an entrée to a transcendent and philosophical other world.

Early Monthly Segments

Panic Bodies

Birth of a Nation

Galaxie
Tom

Spiracle

The Mirror Garden

Epilog/Siam

Jabbok

Phases of the Moon: The Parapsychology of Everyday Life
Mona Lysa
Flames
Night Blossoms
Anthony
Morpheus In Hell

abda/Rebirth
Gloria in the Glass

The Heavens
Earth
Jabbok
Joe's Maison
Aria
Lijn II
A Persian Rug
Portret
Untitled
Space Time Studies
Minor Revisions
Inner Sanctum
Twilight

Razor Head

Aquarium
The Hidden Staircase
A Faustian Knot
Head Shot

Oblivion

The Cat Lady
Love Objects

Ophelia

Spider Jan.16.91
Re: Incarnation
Research
Storm Warning
Penguin Pool
Wizard of Light
