MASTERWORKS OF AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE EXPERIMENTAL FILM 1920-1970
Commencing in 1920 with Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand’s creative collaboration on MANHATTA, successive generations of experimental filmmakers and artists have worked in collaboration or alone to create a cinema capable of expressing dynamic unspoken concepts in totally abstract visual terms.
To watch these films is to see the world anew through cinematic interventions: fast cutting, expressive camerawork, abstract animation, surrealistic collage, distorted and superimposed imagery, and many more extraordinary techniques. Essentially the filmmakers ask us to open our eyes and see, to permit the reception of pure sensations uninhibited by any complex web of predetermined associations dominant in mainstream Hollywood cinema.
Collected from archives around the world, and beautifully restored in high definition, the majority of vintage silent films in Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970 feature new musical scores from innovative composers Donald Sosin, George Antheil, Eric Beheim, Rodney Sauer, Gustavo Matamoros, Henry Wolfe and Phil Carluzzo.
Contents
Format: Blu-ray & DVD-NTSC Combo /
Region A & Region 1
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MANHATTA
(US, 1920-1921)
Director: Charles Sheeler & Paul Strand
• 11:41 minutes
• 35mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
BALLET MECHANIQUE
(US, 1923-1924)
Director: Fernand Léger & Dudley Murphy
• 15:53 minutes
• 35mm
• B&W, tinted
• Silent
◊
ANÉMIC CINÉMA
(US, 1926)
Director: Rrose Sélavy (a.k.a. Marcel Duchamp)
• 6:40 minutes
• 35mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 9413–A HOLLYWOOD EXTRA
(US, 1927)
Director: Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapich
• 13:20 minutes
• 35mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
SKYSCRAPER SYMPHONY
(US, 1929)
Director: Robert Florey
• 8:53 minutes
• 35mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES
(US, 1930)
Director: Ralph Steiner
• 10:18 minutes
• 35mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
A BRONX MORNING
(US, 1931)
Director: Jay Leyda
• 14:05 minutes
• 35mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
LOT IN SODOM
(US, 1933)
Director: J.S. Watson Jr., Melville Webber, Alec Wilder, Remsen Wood & Bernard O’Brien
• 25:53 minutes
• 35mm
• B&W
• Sound
◊
POEM 8
(US, 1932-1933)
Director: Emlen Etting
• 19:40 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
AN OPTICAL POEM
(US, 1937)
Director: Oskar Fischinger
Music: Franz Liszt
• 7:02 minutes
• 35mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
THIMBLE THEATER
(US, c.1938, unfinished until 1968)
Director: Joseph Cornell
• 6:07 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W, tinted
• Silent
◊
TARANTELLA
(US, 1940)
Director: Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth
Animation: Norman McLaren
Music: Edwin Gerschefski
• 4:24 minutes
• 35mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
(US, 1940)
Director: Rudy Burckhardt
• 8:09 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
1941
(US, 1941)
Director: Francis Lee
Music: Igor Stravinsky
• 4 minutes
• 35mm blowup from 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON
(US, 1943)
Director: Maya Deren & A. Hackenschmied
• 13:46 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE
(US, 1948)
Director, music: Maya Deren
• 12:27 minutes
• 35mm blowup from 16mm
• B&W
• Sound
◊
IN THE STREET
(US, 1948)
Director: Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb & James Agee
Music: Arthur Kleiner
• 16:50 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Silent
◊
FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON
(US, 1950-51)
Director: James Broughton
Music: William O. Smith
• 14 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Sound
◊
ABSTRONIC
(US, 1952)
Director: Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth
Music: Aaron Copland & Don Gillis
• 5:45 minutes
• 35mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
EAUX D'ARTIFICE
(US, 1953)
Director: Kenneth Anger
Music: Antonio Vivaldi
• 12:57 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W, tinted
• Sound
◊
BELLS OF ATLANTIS
(US, 1952-1953)
Director: Ian Hugo
Featuring: Anaïs Nin
Music: Louis & Bebe Barron
• 9:27 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
EVOLOUTION
(US, 1954)
Director: Jim Davis
• 8:01 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
GYROMORPHOSIS
(US, 1954)
Director: Hy Hirsh
Music: John Lewis
• 6:40 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
HURRY, HURRY!
(US, 1957)
Director: Marie Menken
• 4:27 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
N.Y., N.Y.
(US, 1958)
Director: Francis Thompson
Music: Gene Forrell
• 15:10 minutes
• 35mm blowup from 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
9 VARIATIONS ON A DANCE THEME
(US, 1966-1967)
Director: Hilary Harris
Music: McNeil Robinson
• 12:39 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Sound
◊
CASTRO STREET (THE COMING OF CONSCIOUSNESS)
(US, 1966)
Director: Bruce Baillie
• 9:59 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
FILM THAT RISES TO THE SURFACE OF CLARIFIED BUTTER
(US, 1968)
Director: Owen Land (formerly George Landow)
• 8:26 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Sound
◊
EXCERPTS FROM WALDEN: DIARIES, NOTES AND SKETCHES
(US, 1969)
Director: Jonas Mekas
Music: Frédéric Chopin
• 13:05 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
OUR LADY OF THE SPHERE
(US, 1969)
Director: Lawrence Jordan
• 9:14 minutes
• 35mm blowup from 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
LOVE IT / LEAVE IT
(US, 1970)
Director: Tom Palazzolo
Music: Ray Whilding White
• 14:07 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
DL2 (DISINTEGRATION LINE #2)
(US, 1970)
Director: Lawrence Janiak
Music: Peliatan Gamelan
• 11:46 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
TRANSPORT
(US, 1970)
Director: Amy Greenfield
Music: Indiran
• 5:43 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Sound
_________________________________________
Bonus Material
SAPPHO AND JERRY, PARTS 1-3
(US, 1977-1978)
Director: Bruce Posner
Music: Indiran
• 5:35 minutes
• 35mm
• Color
• Sound
◊
CH'AN
(US, 1983)
Director: Francis Lee
Music: Christopher Atwood
• 6:08 minutes
• 16mm
• B&W
• Sound
◊
SEASONS…
(US, 1983)
Director: Phil Solomon & Stan Brakhage
• 16 minutes
• 16mm
• Color
• Silent
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Total Running Time: 06:58:00 (4 Discs Blu-ray/DVD)
Language: English
Musical Score: Donald Sosin, George Antheil, Eric Beheim, Rodney Sauer, Gustavo Matamoros, Henry Wolfe & Phil Carluzzo
Booklet Text: Bruce Posner
Published By: Flicker Alley
Institutional Price: $500 (plus shipping)
To order call: 212.280.8654 or click here for information on ordering by fax, e-mail or post.