Experimental

  • Lewis Jacobs – Footnote to Fact (1933)

    1931-1940DocumentaryExperimentalLewis JacobsUSA

    Quote:
    “This is one part of a proposed four-part film intended to document the Great Depression that was to be called AS I WALK. The other parts were never completed; consequently, FOOTNOTE TO FACT must stand alone. The film was to be post-synchronized, using sound in a stream-of-consciousness technique.” – Lewis JacobsRead More »

  • Rudy Burckhardt – Haiti (1938)

    1931-1940DocumentaryExperimentalRudy BurckhardtUSA

    Quote:
    “Burckhardt’s travelogue of Port-au-Prince is a unique city symphony whose pace and rhythm favor tropical island life. He does not focus on voodoo but on Haiti’s daily life, neighbors, jokes, gossip, small dramas, Saturday night dances, and ghost stories,” evoking a place where time seems to stand still.” – Bruce PosnerRead More »

  • Maurice Audibert – Étude de la Lumière (1923)

    1921-1930ExperimentalFranceMaurice AudibertSilent

    Montage of different sequences reconstructing the three-color additive synthesis process patented by Audibert.Read More »

  • Suzan Pitt – Asparagus (1979)

    Suzan Pitt1971-1980AnimationExperimentalUSA

    Quote:
    I had a garden where I grew Asparagus from seed – it’s a very primitive vegetable going back to the time of the dinosaurs. It comes out of the ground as a phallic stalk, pointy and purple green, the essence of a beautiful masculine form. But then as summer passes it stretches tall and becomes a delicate fern, seen on roadsides tilting in the wind, the essence of the feminine like long strands of tangled hair in the breeze. I thought of it as a beautiful symbol of sexuality. From that I made a visual poem about the creative process, taking the role of the magician/artist as the protagonist who ushers the viewers through her search for the essence of the creative forces which rule and drive our existence.
    Want to screen this film?Read More »

  • Jørgen Leth – Eddy Merckx i nærheden af en kop kaffe AKA Eddy Merckx in the Vicinity of a Cup of Coffee (1973)

    Jørgen Leth1971-1980DenmarkExperimentalTV

    Det Danske Filminstitut wrote:
    A very special TV production: In the studio, Leth reads from several of his poetry collections, while a subtitle – as in ‘Life in Denmark’ – meticulously, but double-bound, records observations and describes the process. The subtext thus seems to function as a medium for the director’s reflections as the TV film progresses. (…) Alternating with the poetry reading in the studio, the second part of the film consists of snapshots from the 1970 Tour de France stage race, including the cobblestone roads of northern France, Mont Ventoux and the cathedral sprint in Rouen, which is shown three times.’Read More »

  • Suzan Pitt – Jefferson Circus Songs (1975)

    Suzan Pitt1971-1980AnimationExperimentalUSA

    Quote:
    “JEFFERSON CIRCUS SONGS alternates and sometimes combines life-size cardboard animations with live performances by children and the effect is entirely unified and delightful.” – Edgar Daniels, Filmmakers Newsletter “Suzan Pitt [Kraning]’s films possess an absolutely cosmic sense of patience, of things happening at their own speed and with their own logic. Made with children, JEFFERSON CIRCUS SONGS is a string of puzzling little episodes, some using cut-out animation, some featuring a pixilated cast clad in moppet wigs with stockings stretched over their faces. After its screening at the 1973 New York Filmmaker’s Expo, critic Rex Reed noted that ‘most of it is quite sophisticated and brilliant. It’s likeable because it’s perfect for what it is – a fantasy – and such things, if done well and with talent and vision, need no outside logic … like looking into a Faberge egg.’ ” – Ron Epple, Media and MethodsRead More »

  • Jean-Luc Godard – For Ever Mozart (1996) (HD)

    Jean-Luc Godard1991-2000ArthouseExperimentalFrance

    Quote:
    Jean-Luc Godard’s densely packed rumination on the need to create order and beauty in a world ruled by chaos is divided into four distinct but tangentially related stories, including the attempts by a young group of idealists to stage a play in war-torn Sarajevo and an elderly director’s efforts to complete his film.Read More »

  • Johan van der Keuken – On Animal Locomotion (1994)

    1991-2000ExperimentalJohan van der KeukenNetherlandsShort Film

    The film was part of the project Hexagon by Frank Scheffer in which six Dutch filmmakers took inspiration from a work by a Dutch composer. Van der Keuken chose a piece by Willem Breuker, who had written the music for nearly all of his films since 1967. The title refers to the work of renowned photographer Edward Muybridge (1830-1904).Read More »

  • John C. Hecker – 1126 Dewey Avenue, Apt. 207 (1939)

    USA1931-1940DocumentaryExperimentalJohn C. Hecker

    Avant-garde home movie, creators unkown, attributed to John C. Hecker.

    Quote:
    “This mysterious film documents a neatly appointed apartment and the spartan existence of its inhabitants. A woman moves through the rooms. She pours two glasses of wine, sits, reads a magazine, and combs her hair. All the while material possessions surround her, ominously dominating the environment.” (Bruce Posner)Read More »

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