From: Marilyn Brakhage (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Mar 29 2009 - 23:23:31 PDT
Well, as to Mason suggesting 'his wife': Not sure which wife you're
meaning. I am Stan Brakhage's second wife -- but, regrettably, not the
scholar Fred describes. Nevertheless, I have several comments:
1) Bruce Elder has written an impressive book that addresses some of
these towering ambitions (The Films of Stan Brakhage in the American
Tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Charles Olson), and of
course there are a number of others, beginning with P. Adams Sitney,
from whom we also have important parts of this envisioned massive
undertaking. But yes, something more, something along the lines that
Fred describes, is definitely needed.
2) I wholeheartedly agree that "more than one person taking it on"
would not only be fine, but probably essential.
3) Though it may be true that it's important to be gathering
information now, while people are still around who knew Stan, I can
also guarantee that even doing that will lead to "information" being
"disputed at great lengths." Stan was many things to many people,
full of apparent and sometimes rather dramatic contradictions, his
"complicated life story" is inextricably bound to his work, other
people have their own subjective experiences, subject to the vagaries
of memory -- and there is already a lot of "information" floating
around that I (for one) know to be untrue and/or would interpret quite
differently than someone else might. Therefore (and because the sheer
amount of information is so huge),
4) Well, to do it well would take someone who is also very brave,
wise, comprehensive in approach, sensitive and subtle in their writing
. . .
BUT -- no need to wait for the perfect human being! Anyone who takes
on even part of this project in good faith -- bravo!
Marilyn Brakhage
On Sunday, March 29, 2009, at 08:00 PM, Mason Shefa wrote:
> His wife?
>
> On Mar 28, 2009, at 1:38 PM, Fred Camper wrote:
>
> The recent talk about who is "THE" (or was that "THEE") "Brakhage
> expert" got me thinking. The world actually does not have the
> "Brakhage expert" that the scope and importance of his work
> requires. There is no "Brakhage expert" in the sense that in the
> academic community one can find, for example, Ezra Pound experts, or,
> more recently and sad (for me if not for others) to say, Bob Dylan
> experts and Madonna experts. I post this in the hope of interesting a
> young scholar, or someone else such as a film professor who might
> interest a young scholar, in taking on this role. More than one person
> taking it on would be fine too!
>
> Obviously, the expert has to be devoted, ready to spend a large part
> of her or his career on this. What's needed is someone with a deep
> interest in, love of, and understanding of both world cinema and
> Brakhage's work in particular. But since a large part of this project
> would be a working through of Brakhage's many influences and sources,
> this scholar should have deep involvements with and understandings of
> modern poetry, classical music from Bach to Webern to Messiaen, and
> Western painting. The scholar should be an avid reader, and willing
> and able to travel to various archives to track down Brakhage's
> voluminous writings, lectures, and correspondence. The scholar should
> also be an extremely fine film viewer, both open to multiple ways of
> seeing and capable of very careful observation. I envision the results
> would be both a massive critical biography and a shorter, book-length
> introduction. Several threads would be present in both: Brakhage's
> complicated life story, his artistic influences and the way they are
> reflected in his films, and examinations of the films from varied
> perspectives.
>
> Partly I write this out of regret at never having taken on this task
> myself. (For various reasons, I never felt up to it.) Obviously, a
> scholar who takes this on may have different ideas about what's
> needed; these are just my opinions. I also write out of regret at
> never having done the kind of massive, tape-recorded oral history I
> had thought of when Brakhage and some of his associates were still
> living. But many who knew and worked with him are still living, from a
> few of his high school friends to the filmmakers who helped him in the
> making of his late films. If an oral history is not done, the
> information lost will be disputed at great lengths by scholars far
> into the future -- just as scholars today are debating facts lost
> about arts from earlier centuries.
>
> Brakhage has a particular importance, due not only to the quality and
> scope of his work but to its, and his, vast influence, but there are
> many other filmmakers worthy of study in depth. Interested film
> scholars should, in my view, be devoting as much time to such
> projects, including gathering facts from living people in the present,
> as is now devoted to "theory," or to arguing about things that
> happened in 1897 that we will likely never know about for sure. Sadly,
> though, in the current climate the latter two options may be better
> career moves.
>
> Fred Camper
> Chicago
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> _____________________
> Mason Shefa
> email suppressed
>
>
>
>
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.