From: Ted Sonnenschein (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Mar 30 2009 - 23:35:54 PDT
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>.