Film at wit's end: Eight avant-garde filmmakers - Hardcover

Brakhage, Stan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0914232991 ISBN 13: 9780914232995

Publisher: Documentext, 1989

Synopsis

Of all art forms, filmmaking is the one most taken for granted: no sooner is an artistic or technical advance made than its salient features are employed in the harness of commerce. Yet, innovation is almost always the province of individual expression. Film at Wit's End presents eight artists who have electrified American independent cinema across four decades: James Broughton, Bruce Conner, Maya Deren, Jerome Hill, Ken Jacobs, Christopher MacLaine, Marie Menken, and Sidney Peterson. Each of these filmmakers' lives and work is brought into sharp focus as we enter the art scenes of New York and San Francisco during times of ferment and controversy. Film at Wit's End tells marvelous tales of serendipitous encounters, of life lived at the edge of social disapproval, and of the insistent development of an art form.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Adapted from classroom lectures, Brakhage's profiles of eight avant-garde filmmakers have a conversational, relaxed flow. If the tone is chummy and the frequent superlatives annoying, the narratives are nevertheless coherent. Among those we meet are Maya Deren, Voodoun priestess of Greenwich Village and well-known personality of the 1940s and '50s; Christopher MacLaine, chronicler of San Francisco's Beat movement; and Ken Jacobs, whose films include Soft Rain , Blonde Cobra , and Little Stabs at Happiness . Himself a filmmaker, critic ( Brakhage Scrapbook , etc.) and professor of film studies at the University of Colorado, Brakhage has been friends with all eight subjects. His personal insight into their lives deepens his understanding of their aims and techniques. Also here are Jerome Hill, Marie Menken, James Broughton, Bruce Conner and Sidney Peterson. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Documentext
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0914232991
• ISBN 13: 9780914232995
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 183