Northwest Film Forum

“I have no idea what it means,” director Jon Jost has said about his experimental documentary “Dissonance.” Using techniques of collage, split-screen, and unconventional editing, Jost has constructed a poetic meditation on life and the way we live it. Jost collected the footage he assembled into Dissonance over many years, including both footage he filmed himself and archival material. The stream-of-conscious, often non sequitur sequences of images and sounds is reminiscent of the work of Chris Marker, particularly Marker’s still-influential “Sans Soleil” (1983). Ultimately, though, the effect of Dissonance will be up to each member of the audience. “It offers no conclusions,” Jost says. “I only know it needs to be seen big.”