From: Marcos Ortega (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Mar 31 2009 - 00:50:53 PDT
After watching the BFI's Jeff Keen Blu-ray set, I would love to see
Brakhage's films in this format. Anyone know if Criterion is going to
release them in BR or DVD?
Regards,
Marcos
http://www.expcinema.com
Quoting Ted Sonnenschein <email suppressed>:
> That's some good news. Any chance you can leak the titles to us?
>
> On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 5:31 PM, Marilyn Brakhage <email suppressed> wrote:
>
>> Yes, it's a good idea, the traveling programs. There is occasionally talk
>> of people wanting to mount a major retrospective, but I agree, that breaking
>> that down into smaller chunks for touring would be great. . . . Though
>> these things always seem to take years to organize.
>>
>> In the meantime, the Criterion Company has a second DVD set now in the
>> works, whereby a number of films -- in that form, at least -- will be more
>> available to people (including seven titles from the 70s).
>>
>> Marilyn Brakhage
>>
>>
>>
>> On Monday, March 30, 2009, at 02:19 AM, Ted Sonnenschein wrote:
>>
>> I thought it a credit to Brakhage that no one has yet to take this on.
>>> But, I also can't imagine many people have even seen even 75% of
>>> his output.
>>> When I was at SFAI around '90-'91, I was shocked at how negative so many
>>> people were towards Brakhage. I mean, viciously negative. Even Keith
>>> Sanborn, leading the intro class would take potshots. One time I
>>> recommended
>>> to Ernie Gehr that we watch 'Anticipation of the Night' when the film we
>>> shot for the class wasn't back from the lab (Gehr had asked what he thought
>>> we should do instead). A few from the class started to get pissed off and
>>> saying all this crap against Brakhage. Something I was, at that time, used
>>> to hearing. Gehr just smiled and decided that this was a good idea after
>>> all. Well, when that film ended, it shut them up. There was an air in the
>>> room that is hard to describe. My gut was just sore from all that weight.
>>> Gehr called for thoughts and impressions and looked at me. I had nothing to
>>> say. I don't think anyone did. I was glad to see that there is a new
>>> generation that seems more respectful and interested.
>>>
>>> I had recently gone to look up some information on his 70s period and
>>> realized then that in the dozen or so years since I looked, there wasn't
>>> much new out there. Still, the only thing that bothered me is the
>>> work isn't
>>> regularly out there to see and would I ever get to see much works from this
>>> period. I think more important than scholars, would be someone coordinating
>>> touring programs of his work, ideally programmed by period. Has
>>> anyone tried
>>> to do anything like this? Well-programmed, I think, could really get the
>>> ball rolling and possibly even finding people who would be into taking on
>>> the study of Brakhage's work. Plus, I am sure Brakhage has fans
>>> all over the
>>> world that could help get such a project rolling but I am sure most of the
>>> major film art screening houses would support such a project.
>>>
>>> Ted
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 8:23 AM, Marilyn Brakhage <email suppressed> wrote:
>>>
>>> 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>.
>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________ For
>>> info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>
>>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.