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The BQE by Sufjan Stevens
via Asthmatic Kitty: Which has a very long, but good, description of the whole thing.

Sufjan Stevens is proud to present The BQE, a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Hula-Hoop. Commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The BQE was originally performed in the Howard Gilman Opera House in celebration of the 25th anniversary Next Wave Festival in October of 2007.


The BQE is a self-made home-movie documentation, exhibiting how all the architectural colors of Brooklyn and Queens are fabulously intersected by this ramshackle artery of highway traffic. Shot renegade style on do-it-yourself film cameras, the animated footage of grid-lock crisscrossing the brick and mortar of Brooklyn flickers and cascades Koyaanisqatsi-style on three simultaneous screens. The 16mm cinematography (heroically shot by Reuben Kleiner on a 1960s Bolex) utilizes time-lapse photography, in-camera editing, slow motion, and post-production mirror effects to transform urban blight into a splendor of graphic compositions.

THE BQE- A Film By Sufjan Stevens from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Photography by Reuben Kleiner and Sufjan Stevens
Music by Sufjan Stevens
Edited by Malcolm Hearn, Rueben Kleiner, and Sufjan Stevens

Released by Asthmatic Kitty Records on October 20, 2009