Electric Eye presents First of the Month Films

Darren Aronofsky’s brilliantly over-cranked debut is one of the defining cult films of the ’90s, setting the benchmark by which all his subsequent gauntlets—Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, mother!—would be measured. This super low-budget guerrilla production remains singular and jarring, a headtrip surrealist puzzle wherein a troubled mathematician (Sean Gullette) obsessively tries to finding a key number that will unlock the master pattern of the universe, only to descend into paranoia as other interested parties, real or imagined, take an interest.

Pi also launched the careers of Clint Mansell, who turned in a the first of many intense scores for Aronofsky, as well as cinematographer Matthew José Libatique, whose unstable high-contrast black and white reversal stock images still surprise, propelling him to high-profile work with Spike Lee, Jon Favreau, and Bradley Cooper.

This screening welcomes algorithmic visual artist James Merrill who will share his artwork and a short documentary about his approach.