From: Myron Ort (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Mar 31 2009 - 09:39:32 PDT
I got a lot from watching the films on dvd. Wish there were more. I
have to confess, I have been known to listen to music on recordings,
have for many years, although going to the live symphony is
wonderful. I have on occasion even enjoyed music on a car radio.
Myron Ort
On Mar 30, 2009, at 11:35 PM, Ted Sonnenschein wrote:
> 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>.