From: Carlos Kase (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Apr 25 2008 - 17:35:20 PDT
Zac-
I recently read through the issues of Filmmakers Newsletter from the sixties
and my notes indicate that Brakhage's letter which was printed there, in
issue no.2, is actually the same one that was republished in the SCRAPBOOK
volume (and if I recall correctly, the formatting that was applied for the
FM volume was retained for the SCRAPBOOK). Of course, it wouldn't hurt to
double-check this.
-Carlos
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Ditzler" <email suppressed>
To: <email suppressed>
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: Brakhage leaves the shade
> Dear Zac,
>
> Gerald Barrett and Wendy Brabner's book "Stan Brakhage: A guide to
> references and resources" (G. K. Hall & Co., 1983) makes reference to a
> letter from Brakhage published in Filmmakers Newsletter 1 (no. 2),
> December 1967. Description: "A letter written to Jonas Mekas (late
> September 1967) in which Brakhage delineates his reasons for withdrawing
> from the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Cinematheque. As much a diatribe
> against the hippie movement as it is against the Co-op, he cites the
> corruption of the Co-op by the hippies as his primary motivation for
> withdrawing his films."
>
> Certainly sounds close to what you're describing! However, this date would
> make it about three years after Warhol won the Independent Film Award.
>
> Alas, the collection in our library here begins with April 1968. However,
> research libraries in your area should be able to help, perhaps via
> Interlibrary Loan. I would also try Anthology's library. Even if they
> don't have the original letter, they may very well have the newsletter in
> which it was published.
>
> Andy Ditzler
> Atlanta, GA
> www.frequentsmallmeals.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Z O" <email suppressed>
> To: <email suppressed>
> Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 10:20 AM
> Subject: Brakhage leaves the shade
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hello,
> I am new to the list. I have a question that could maybe turn into a
> topic. It involves a letter Brakhage wrote to Mekas in 64. It seems that
> it is a fairly famous letter, but I haven't been able to track it down.
> It is about his withdrawing his films from the Film Maker's Co-Op. It
> says, I have been able to find fragments of the letter, this "I cannot in
> good conscience continue to accept the help of institutions which have
> come to propagate advertisements for forces which I recognize as among the
> most destructive in the world today: "dope", self-centred Love,
> unqualified Hatred, Nihilism, violence to self and society."
>
> I guess it was in regard to Andy Warhol having won the independent film
> maker's award. Can any one tell me where I can find this letter? I
> found a letter to Mekas in the 'Brakhage Scrapbook' from 82, but it was
> only referencing his actions of removing his films from Anthology and Film
> Maker's Co-Op... Does any one know where I can find the original, ground
> shaking, as it were, letter?
>
>
> -Zac
>
> ----
>
>
> Apomorphine is no word and no image — […] It is simply a question of
> putting through an inoculation program in the very limited time that
> remains — Word begets image and image IS virus —
>
> At what moment does one start making indifferent art?
>
> From the moment that one is less of an artist, when the necessity of
> making puts down its roots in memory alone. I believe my exhibitions
> depend and still depend on memories of a period when I assumed the
> creative situation in a heroic and solitary manner. In other words, it
> used to be: read this, look at this. Today it is: allow me to present...
>
> I didn't want to be obsessed with how to use the world, and that's part of
> my ambivalence towards my art work. I finally managed to shut the voices
> up, mostly by ignoring them. I basically stopped doing art work, and when
> I felt the urge to make a piece I just waited until the feeling went away.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.