From: zryd (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2007 - 20:36:25 PST
Hollis Frampton, _Works and Days_ (1969) is in b/w, and is an
"appreciation" of a British gardening film that has lovely resonances
w Yvonne Rainer's dance works:
from the FIlmmakers' Coop catalogue:
I bought this film in a Canal Street junk shop for $1.00 and found
myself in complete agreement with it. The ostensible pretext is the
humane and practical discipline of making a vegetable garden (hence
the title, borrowed from Hesiod). The gardeners are masters of their
art, so that their work blossoms into overarching metaphor. I have
attached my logo to the film, not to claim it as a ready-made, but in
the spirit of Chinese connoisseurs who affixed their vermilion seals
to paintings as a mark of admiration.
Marjorie Keller's _The Answering Furrow_ (1985, colour) is an
amazing hidden treasure too:
Owing to Virgil's Georgics. With assistance from Hollis Melton and
Helene Kaplan. Music: Charles Ives, "Sonata for Violin and Piano #4
(Children's Day at the Camp Meeting)" and "Ambrosian Chant (Capella
Musicale del Duomo di Milano)." Filmed in Yorktown Heights, New York;
St. Remy en Provence, France; Mantua, Rome and Brindisi, Italy; and
in Arcadia and the island of Kea in Greece. Georgic I -- The annual
produce first seen in spring -- The furrowed earth ready for planting
- The distribution, support and protection of young plants -- The
implements of the garden. Georgic II -- The life of Virgil is
recapitulated in summer, with a digression on the sacred -- The sheep
of Arcadia -- The handling of bees -- The pagan Lion of Kea. Georgic
III -- The skill and industry of the old man in autumn -- Ancient
custom and modern method -- The use of implements of the garden.
Georgic IV -- The compost is prepared at season's end -- The
filmmaker completes THE ANSWERING FURROW with the inclusion of her
own image. Note on the music: The music works with the image to
parallel the trace of history. Ives recalls Protestant hymns, which
recall the origin of the hymn in 12th century Milanese music, which
allows for that music closest (in my experience of making this film)
to the hum of bees and of amplifiers, the Orthodox Greek chant.
-- Michael Zryd Associate Professor York University Department of Film, CFT 223 4700 Keele St. Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 CANADA email suppressed __________________________________________________________________ For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.