Herbert Jean deGrasse:* Film Watchers* (1974) http://canyoncinema.com/catalog/film/?i=730
Back to Tony Conrad and spoilers... Somewhere out there there are stories about a very short Conrad film which involves a long, very elaborate, personal introduction by the filmmaker, in which he goes on and on about how maximal the film is, how it is such compacted and impactively overwhelming and immersive experience that words cannot do it justice etc. Reports report that the introduction is easier longer than the film itself. But when the film is screened (and I don't know what film it is), the film—perhaps due to this hyperbolic set-up, perhaps due to its own artistic merits—when the film is screened it delivers on Conrad's promise. Always been curious about this. In a way (somehow) this recalls (to me) the film-within-a-film in Kelly Sears' *Once It Started It Could Not End Otherwise* <http://www.kellysears.com/Video/OnceItStartedItCouldNotEndOtherwise>, which (the film-within-the-film) is presented as "evidence" of a mysterious disaster which is described but also not described... Steve Polta On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 8:56 AM, Andy Ditzler <a...@andyditzler.com> wrote: > I'd recommend The Cut-Ups, film by Antony Balch in collaboration with > William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. On two occasions (Documenta in 2007 and > my own screening in Atlanta 2009), it drove the audience into active > rebellion. (Since I had associated screening rebellions with past eras, I > was quite surprised to see one take place!) It was the repetitive > soundtrack: "Yes, hello," and a few other phrases, spoken in overlap by > Burroughs and Gysin, unrelenting for twenty minutes. After awhile, > impatient viewers started audibly throwing the phrases back at the screen > ('HELLO!!"), while the rest of the audience nervously laughed or otherwise > audibly squirmed. Among other things, the film - as screened publicly - is > a great prank. In a long early-70s profile in Cinema Rising, Balch > described similar discombobulation at the film's early London screenings. > However, a more recent screening at MoMA (which placed the film in a much > different historical and audience context) garnered no audible reaction at > all. > > The other day reading P. Adams Sitney's book Eyes Upside Down (p. 174), I > came across a reference to a film I haven't seen but mean to track down: > "Herbert Jean deGrasse's hilarious Film Watchers (1974) hurls abuse at > typical avant-garde film audiences." > > "Reactionary right-wingers" might have the majority of exactly the kind of > protest you describe. What about thinking of this in larger terms too - the > reactions in the U.S. to Last Temptation of Christ or, especially, Marlon > Riggs' Tongues Untied, which most saw on public television - no screen to > tear down, but plenty of invective, much of which I have always suspected > was triggered by the film's form as much as its content. > > Andy Ditzler > Founder and curator, Film Love: www.filmlove.org > Co-founder, John Q collective: www.johnq.org > > > > On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 10:33 PM, Jesse Malmed <jesse.mal...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> I'm looking for texts and works that draw connections (and erase them >> too, sure) between early cinema and the beginnings of video. And, for that >> matter, with other nascent technologies and their shared tendencies. Camera >> tricks, formal inventiveness, actualities, etc. >> >> Also, while I've got you — I was thinking about the (perhaps apocryphal, >> cunningly Gunningly so) stories of genuine fears about the Lumière train's >> first projection and the stories of the outraged audience at an early >> showing of L'Age D'Or throwing ink at the screen in protest. Ink on the >> screen is a pretty amazing gesture (it is about to not go without saying >> that I am obviously staunchly in the camp of artists over reactionary >> right-wingers) even/especially with its scale of potency to poetry. Are >> there other related stories you'd like to share? Torn down screens? Shadow >> puppets between the projector and the screen? Well-deployed spoilers? >> >> *JM* >> >> -- >> *// // // J E S S E M A L M E D * >> 505.690.7899 // jesse.mal...@gmail.com // live to tape >> <http://livetotapefestival.tumblr.com/> >> jessemalmed.net <http://www.jessemalmed.net> // deep leap >> <http://www.deepleap.net> // nightingale <http://nightingalecinema.org/> >> // trunk show <http://trunk--show.com> // >> projective verse <http://urbanhonking.com/projectiveverse/> // bad at >> sports <http://badatsports.com/tags/jesse-malmed/> // acre_tv >> <http://acretv.org/> // western pole <http://westernpole.tumblr.com> >> >> * >> <http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/trunk-show-jesse-malmed-raven-falquez-munsell-bumper-stickers-eric-fleischauer/Content?oid=15719804>Trunk >> Show in Newcity >> <http://art.newcity.com/2015/05/30/portrait-of-a-gallery-trunk-show/>** >> / **JM on WDCB >> <https://soundcloud.com/wdcbnews/the-arts-section-chicago-fest>** /** >> Live to Tape in the Reader >> <http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2015/05/14/live-to-tape-fest-is-like-if-weird-al-yankovics-uhf-were-a-gallery-installation> >> / **Trunk Show in the Chicago Reader >> <http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/trunk-show-jesse-malmed-raven-falquez-munsell-bumper-stickers-eric-fleischauer/Content?oid=15719804> >> / JM in the Reader >> <http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2015/01/20/the-next-month-is-the-time-to-catch-the-thriving-local-experimental-video-art-scene> >> / >> Gapers Block >> <http://gapersblock.com/ac/2015/01/25/jesse-malmed-the-film-studies-center/> >> / South Side Weekly >> <http://southsideweekly.com/yes-to-humor-no-to-laughs/> / Chicago Tribune >> Best of 2015 >> <http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-best-art-2015-ent-1213-20151209-story.html>* >> >> _______________________________________________ >> FrameWorks mailing list >> FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com >> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > FrameWorks mailing list > FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com > https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks > >
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