Perchance to Dream

But as with all of Warhol’s films—that is, the hundreds of screen tests and feature-length films he made between 1963 and 1968, when he was shot and almost killed by Valerie Solanas and handed the Factory’s film production reins to Paul Morrissey—watching Sleep is much richer and more complex than what is suggested by its minimalist title or synopsis: Warhol’s lover, poet John Giorno, sleeps. Warhol’s very first film, made in the summer of 1963 with a newly acquired 16mm Bolex camera that he barely knew how to use, Sleep is as uneven as it is monumental, yet always the work of an acutely gifted and perceptive artist. Quite possibly inspired by choreographer Yvonne Rainer’s Terrain, an avant-garde dance performance that premiered in April 1963 at the Judson Theater and included a section called “Sleep,” Warhol came up with the idea to film Giorno sleeping for eight hours.

Source: www.reverseshot.org