Ascension

A man sinks down rapidly into the watery depths, but his inevitable and extended ascension's entire sequence, which was only a few seconds in real time, is slowed down into seven minutes of extreme duration, as if he is reaching Heaven.

Ascension begins by superimposing paintings that look like clouds over extremely close views of mottled paint, peculiarly intimate in their three-dimensionality. Juxtaposing images of transcendence with representations of what he liked to call the "mess" of life, Brakhage distances himself from both.

On the verge of losing faith in a god who left his people at the mercy of a cruel disease, a priest finds hope in an angel fallen from the sky. A conversation with the creature will make him reconsider his position on Earth: to revive his faith or take justice into his own hands.

A mysterious guest comes to the inhabitants of one of the tenement houses in the country of the former Eastern bloc and sends money from heaven. The appearance of money evokes in the inhabitants dreams, memories and reflection on their own sad life.

Amid the silence of a pastel hued room, a soul, fully-fleshed, gathers secrets whispered by the moon over his cool bedsheets.

In beginning of the 20th century, two climbers carry a statue of the Virgin to the top of a mountain.