Stan Brakhage: Filmmaker

by David James

Overview

Stan Brakhage: Filmmaker is a collection of essays, photographs, personal statements, and reminiscences about the celebrated avant-garde filmmaker who died in 2003. The director of nearly four hundred short films, including Dog Star Man, Parts I-IV, and the Roman Numeral Series, Brakhage is widely recognized as one of the great artists of the medium. His shorts eschewed traditional narrative structure, and his innovations in fast cutting, hand-held camerawork, and multiple superimpositions created an unprecedentedly rich texture of images that provided the vocabulary for the explosion of independent filmmaking in the 1960s. Stan Brakhage: Filmmaker chronicles both the director's personal and formal development. The essays in this book—by historians, filmmakers, and other artists—assess Brakhage's contributions to the aesthetic and political history of filmmaking, from his emergence on the film scene and the establishment of his reputation, to the early-1980s. The result is a remarkable tribute to this lyrical, visionary artist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439905296
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	01/19/2011
Series:	Wide Angle Books
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David E. James is Professor in the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California. He is the editor of The Sons and Daughters of Los: Culture and Community in Los Angeles (Temple) and author of The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles.

Contributors: Paul Arthur, Montclair State University; Bruce Baillie; Abigail Child; Edward Dorn; Craig Dworkin; R. Bruce Elder; Nicky Hamlyn, Kent Institute of Art and Design; Jonas Mekas; Tyrus Miller, University of California, Santa Cruz; Carolee Schneemann; P. Adams Sitney, Princeton University; Phil Solomon, University of Colorado, Boulder; Chick Strand; James Tenney, California Institute of the Arts; Willie Varela, University of Texas at El Paso; and the editor.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements1. Introduction: Stan Brakhage: The Activity of His Nature – David E. James2. Stan Brakhage – Parker Tyler3. Brakhage. Breer. Menken. The Pure Poets of Cinema – Jonas Mekas4. Brakhage and Rilke – Jerome Hill5. On The Art of Vision – Robert Kelly6. The First Time I Heard the Word "Brakhage" – Edward Dorn7. Camera Lucida/Camera Obscura – Annette Michelson8. Brakhage Memoir – James Tenney9. Amateurs in the Industry Town: Stan Brakhage and Andy Warhol in Los Angeles – David E. James10. It Is Painting – Carolee Schneemann11. Brakhage: Poesis – R. Bruce Elder12. Recollections of Stan Brakhage – Jonas Mekas13. The Roman Numeral Series – Nicky Hamlyn14. Letter re: Stan – Bruce Baillie15. Stan Brakhage, Agrimoniac – Craig Dworkin16. Brakhage Package – Chick Strand17. Brakhage's Faustian Psychodrama – P. Adams Sitney18. Stan Brakhage: American Visionary – Willie Varela19. Brakhage's Occasions: Figure, Subjectivity, and Avant-Garde Politics – Tyrus Miller20. Notes on Sincerity and Irony – Abigail Child21. Becoming Dark With Excess of Light: The Vancouver Island Films – Paul Arthur22. As I Am Writing This Today – Phil SolomonContributorsIndex