Overview

To Joy, completed in 1992, is an imagist film collage set to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. According to Byron, this is his second “musical.” The first of these “musicals” was Les Preludes. Opening scenes in To Joy interchange from gardens of yellow flowers to a revolving carousel to a woman in Asian-inspired attire that is spinning an umbrella. Other scenes include a woman belly dancing, as well as young girls dancing ballet and participating in a maypole dance. At one of the To Joy film screenings, Byron was asked who “Joy” is. -Chicago Film Archives