Empire

A radical, meditative durational artwork that uses a single fixed shot of an iconic building to interrogate time, perception, and the nature of cinema itself.

Filmed by Jonas Mekas from the 44th floor of the Time-Life Building, “Empire” explores the passage of time without the use of characters or a traditional narrative. The film, that consists of one stationary shot of the Empire State Building, was made from standard 1,200-foot rolls of 16mm film with a more than eight-hour runtime.