Sunday, May 25, 2014

Stan Brakhage - the 'father' of US experimental film


Before the digital age there was an artist - a filmmaker - named Stan Brakhage who took Super 8 film and created amazing and thought-provoking pieces with it.

Super 8 film was the film that any person could buy for his Super 8 camera to record family events the way small video cameras were used in the 80s and the way cell phone cams are used now.  The difference? Super 8 film was PACKED with raw, vibrant COLOR.

I would recommend that you shut off the light, drink a couple glasses of wine and just absorb some of these Brakhage films.

I was actually lucky to meet him when I did volunteer work at Millenium Film Workshop in New York City in the late 90s and early 2000s. He would drop by once or twice a year and show his latest work and casually chat with the folks who showed up to see what he was up to.  He was such an intense and interesting guy.  

So experimental film is now kind of a lost art, but it was an important art while it lasted and there were definite geniuses who created these experimental films.


The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (a film he made in a morgue in Pittsburgh) 1971

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_cCVMKWjEc

Mothlight - 1963

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaGh0D2NXCA

Dog Star Man  (one his his best and best known works)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAoTHILzheo