Zorns Lemma (1970) — documentary film. Directed by Hollis Frampton. Starring Robert Huot, Rosemarie Castoro, Marcia Steinbrecher, Twyla Tharp.
Documentary · 6.4/10 · 60 min · 1970
Zorns Lemma is a 1970 American structuralist film by Hollis Frampton. It is named after Zorn's lemma (also known as the Kuratowski–Zorn lemma), a proposition of set theory formulated by mathematician Max Zorn in 1935. Zorns Lemma is prefaced with a reading from an early grammar textbook. The remainder of the film, largely silent, shows the viewer an evolving 24-part "alphabet" (where i & j and u & v are interchanged) which is cycled through, replaced and expanded upon. The film's conclusion shows a man, woman and dog walking through snow as several voices read passages from On Light, or the Ingression of Forms by Robert Grosseteste.
Related entry on Wikidata (Q8074498), public domain (CC0).