Where a black hole is characterised by a region of space in which objects become trapped and prevented from escaping, a white hole is a hypothetical region of spacetime which cannot be entered from the outside, but from within which things can emerge and be released. Such is the setting for this visually rich, hypnotically abstract journey into the universe's expansive voids. “White hole” was released towards the end of a period of exceptional creative experimentation for director Toshio Matsumoto, one of Japan’s most highly acclaimed and masterful experimental film and video makers. In contrast to his earlier celluloid work, “White hole” uses video synthesizers and heavy image processing to achieve a salient cinematic experience, reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s 'Stargate’ sequence from “2001: A Space Odyssey”, with similar overtones of psychedelic, and perhaps consciousness expanding cosmological exploration.

Ben Sassen