Levitated Mass

The Story of Michael Heizer's Monolithic Sculpture

When pioneering land artist Michael Heizer finds the giant boulder he's been searching for since 1968, it sets off an epic struggle to realize one of America's newest and largest public artworks, 'Levitated Mass.' The 340-ton rock's journey from a desert quarry to its perch atop Heizer's gigantic, walled slot in the earth at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) attracted international media and challenged the imagination of thousands as it crawled 105 miles through 22 cities on a football field-length, 206-wheeled trailer.

Levitated Mass weaves together the dramatic story of a major museum's ambitions, monumental bureaucratic and engineering obstacles, a bewildered and thrilled public, and the reclusive and demanding Heizer himself, whose striking work collides traditions of ancient monoliths with modern conceptual art on a grand scale.

"Wonderfully entertaining. With a deft hand, filmmaker Doug Pray juxtaposes a history of Michael Heizer's revolutionary career as a "negative space" sculptor with an insider's view of the insanely complex planning it took to move the two-story monolith." - LA Weekly

"Illuminating, engaging and unexpected. Well-directed, with exceptional access by the veteran documentarian." - Los Angeles Times