[Stan Brakhage - Allen Ross + Brenda Webb - Joh Hoffman, etc]

Transcript (Download)

I used to quite normally sing songs to myself in my play in the backyard.

Now there was in Bisbee a man who ran a local theater, THE local theater in Bisbee, Arizona, who, to enliven things for himself, did a weekly news thing on Bisbee called the March of Times of Bisbee, Arizona.

And he heard me singing and playing in the backyard, and so he photographed me doing that.

And then he arranged further that I would be taken by my parents into a studio and be recorded singing some songs.

And I, of course, didn't know anything.

Movies were just something he went to.

So it fell out that I went to the movies one week, and in between our gang, short cartoons or whatever before the feature, came the March of Times of Bisbee where I suddenly saw myself on the screen singing, and heard myself too, in the cortical sense, you know, singing on the screen in my most private play.

This anthropologist made a quote after she saw this that said, about this form of, she said, It is, I believe, as new and as significant as the invention of drama or the novel, a new way in which people can learn to look at life by seeing the real life of others interpreted by the camera.

Well, I never forgot that quote, and I think basically that gave me the inspiration for the motion picture.

We're out here on Hubbard Street out in front of Chicago filmmakers, and I'm talking to Brenda Webb.

She's been the outstanding program director of Chicago filmmakers now for a number of years.

We'd like to ask her exactly how she feels about experimental film.

Generally, I think it's really nice, and I admire all those experimental filmmakers who are working in the genre ad infinitum and will continue to do so forever.

I think that, you know, that's the most important thing is that people keep doing the same things forever.

Is there a film in there? Cagle? Bill always wonders where the money's going to come from when the important stuff is shot.

I was watching a dog the other day, and then I saw these mailer ducks in the park on Mother's Day where we're going for the dinner.

And we're seeing this dog go down the road, and I was telling him, see that dog go down the road, what do you think that dog's talking about? See that dog? He's talking to the asphalt.

He's talking to God.

I know that dog.

Look at his tail.

He's talking to me.

The question is, what is an experimental filmmaker? How can you tell an experimental filmmaker? When you're walking down the street and you see someone, how can you tell? It's an experimental filmmaker.

What are the clues that tells you that you're looking at an experimental filmmaker? I once saw an experimental filmmaker do this, but this is no kind of clue that he was what he said he was.

But this is just an example, to sort of paraphrase a moment.

You've got normal vision, huh? I have extremely normal vision.

I'd like to go on.

Gailen Merzian is confessing right now that she has normal vision.

I like my ophthalmologist.

He's a philosopher.

He's a philosophy major, and he's doing research on embryonic cancer cells.

I'd like to know him better.

I wish that he would do lectures for laypeople.

I can't even go back and get my glasses fitted, and I probably won't talk to him again for two years, which is when he wants me to come back.

Now, Eiland's turn.

I get eye migraines.

Yeah, I don't get migraine headaches.

I get eye migraines.

What do you mean the need? That's ridiculous.

You're talking about mistakes.

That's just, no, that's bullshit.

I think like, no man ever wanted a kid.

They just want to perpetuate their own ego.

They're not thinking about another child.

They're not thinking about nurturing or mothering or anything.

All very, very strong incumbents, and the one who is most vulnerable...

You're always telling Brenda and me about how this is archived.

This is historic.

He always drags us around, puts us under bright lights, and tells us how this is archived material.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

I want to hear about this need about having children.

I mean, is this like an instinctive animal sort of need, or is this like...

What are we going to, wild keep it there? This is the son of, the return of, the remembrance of Caligari's cure.

Actually, the best part that I had, since I had several, was Big Nurse.

Because he wanted, Tom has a fantasy about ball busting women, so he was able to...

Now, see, now it gets more difficult, because other things are involved.

Yes, I was the sound person in the film Caligari's...

I don't remember too much about it, except that the camera noise had an arthritic problem.

It's an experience I don't really recall precisely, but I'm not sure how much more I can say, if you know what I mean.

Identifier

F.2005-08-0290

Date Of Production

circa 1980 – 1988

Abstract

Loosely assembled footage includes an interview with Stan Brakhage conducted on his front stoop, an interview with Chicago Filmmakers' Program Director Brenda Webb filmed outside the Hubbard Street office, whimsical musings on, "What is experimental film?", and cast/crew behind-the-scenes reflections on Tom Palazzolo's films, Caligari's Cure and Anderson/Loosley.

Format

Super 8

Extent

150 feet

Color

Color

Sound

Mag Stripe

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Reversal Positives

Subject

Experimental
Independent films
Independent filmmakers
Motion picture production & direction

Preservation Sponsor

Related Collections

Subseries II: Footage

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago ➜ Near North Side

North America ➜ United States ➜ Colorado ➜ Boulder

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Calumet City

Main Credits

Stamets, Bill (is filmmaker)

Participants And Performers

Brakhage, Stan (is participant)

Brooks, Albert (is participant)

Webb, Brenda (is participant)

Anderson, John (is participant)

Emerzian, Gaylon (is participant)

Fisher, Ellen (is participant)

Palazzolo, Tom (is participant)

Ross, Allen (is participant)

MacKenzie, Flanagan (is participant)

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