Filmmaker, The

Transcript (Download)

You Leonardo da Vinci is reputed to have said first picture was shadow of man cast upon a wall From that shadow of reality pictures became art The 20th century produced its own art form a complex manner of creating pictures in motion Beginning as a technological marvel developing into a giant industry Films today have evolved new forms of intensely personal expression Experimenting with collages of sounds lights colors and expanded horizons of patterns and shapes the experimental filmmakers of the new American cinema evoke enormous emotional responses from a new generation of film audience You The experimental film is generally financed by the individual artist and is always the creation of a single person Tom Palazzolo painter teacher graphic artist still photographer filmmaker Like so many of his generation Tom turned to film rather than literature in search of more inventive vital original ways to express his observations of life around him I Am interested really in building films that have a new kind of visual form to them I saw some of these films and they interested me quite a bit and they showed me the possibilities that film had of extending some of the ideas of of painting and ideas that come out of visual art I started to look into film and Because I'd seen some films that interested me very much that used film not so much as a dramatic thing But who used some of these satirical? Means that film has and who used it probably in an artistic way not strictly interested in in theatrical film I Don't have anything great to say I just want to say it, you know in my way and I want somebody to enjoy it because it was just some other person who? Who made it you know and who who made it according to his own feelings and who didn't make it? According to the way he thought someone else might feel you know who might look at it and and see some of the idiosyncrasies And so forth I mean I want them to stay there.

I want the peculiarities to stay there I mean wow, this is really a great place Yeah, the lights really good here Tom yeah, yeah great for great for painting Mm -hmm can't beat it boy really is I you know, it's never like this in Chicago.

I'll tell you that Well, you know when I went back to Chicago, I noticed the light how dim it was there.

That's right Boy your stuff is Really coming along.

I know she don't use that here.

It's so much that same idea I mean the the idea of the of the leaking form know that the color and so forth that Leakiness is this is more heavier Tom likes representational art more I mean by that he enjoys Looking at paintings from the past and enjoys seeing the world Directly We don't necessarily have the same opinions about art when we talk about art we Bring something to each other because we always have some opposing points of view to offer I'll take Tommy He goes right out and he contacts these people.

It's a direct relationship between him and his subject I'm going to planes a lot too.

And you know and directions and space and the whole thing builds and starts and shifts over this way Tom came to the midwestern city of Chicago as a struggling art student and settled in to a neighborhood He describes as inhabited by the lost the lonely the vulnerable people Now a struggling artist he chooses to stay among them and is accepted by them Though they never see his films they know they appear in them it is understood that By all that they have become the subject matter of consuming interest to him It would be too much of a jolt for me to suddenly go into a sort of a quiet Atmosphere I'm not that introspective yet.

That's something I have to wait for I certainly wouldn't want to be sort of kind of isolated individual who goes off into the woods somewhere and does its Thing whatever that is, you know, I mean I like the idea of being you know with with different people or people of all kinds I try to to keep my ideas going try and build on the ideas and it's difficult to build I'm not really Interested right now in developing depth In the work, but just trying to reach out and it's like a child I really feel like I'm sort of the childhood of my development just sort of reaching for things Lately For some reason I've been fascinated by people in hallways and doors Especially people who are shut off cut off from things by showing the things around a person I can say something about him about his environment the whole thing about a niche has Sort of religious overtones to it.

I mean now churches and that he were have niches with Saints in them I After I've tried a lot of different things say with one film Then I like to to go in maybe do a painting or something because it's kind of the opposite of filmmaking It's sort of a relaxation from filmmaking.

In other words, I don't think everything I have to learn about filmmaking can be learned from films Filmmaking just isn't a be -all and end -all for me.

I Try and make films and paintings for that matter that that means something to me personally very deeply By Showing people, you know in a tight environment in an environment sort of encloses them like this door You know, it gives it certain kinds of overtones It was a picture, you know It gives the picture a certain kind of feeling just by the amount of space that you use in the picture by the kind of colors That you use in the picture, you know, you can say things Even though I don't know anything about this person, you know, I know he's isolated I know he's a sweeping something up that he doesn't know that he has a very menial job and that and that it is really his environment is Is like this small space but something in his face tells me you know that he has kind of a rich Internal life that he's a nice person that he's gentle It tells me certain things about him and by using these sort of bright colors in the doors and so forth That I can show that perhaps that he might live in it.

Yeah, they may might have a very small world a very tight world, but There's something in there, you know, there's something nice in there No filmmaker no artists ever ever said anything original in a philosophical sense not once He's always taken his idea Philosophers those are the guys who've always been many many steps ahead of any creative artist The artist just creates an object that might reflect a philosophical thing that might say something very interesting Okay Thanks for coming the first film I have is called Oh and it's really a film improv improvisation that I did in Chicago, I I went to an event the circus and and tried using different speeds and sort of match some of the feelings that I had about watching this event and The film is really the result of that experiment Okay, so I want to hit the lights Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh The filmmakers of the new American cinema addressed themselves only to that new generation of audience which is demanding a new kind of film In different to even scornful of technical perfections The impact of emotion the examination of reality are the qualities they seek Film for them is language

Date Of Production

1969

Abstract

Documentary film made about Chicago independent filmmaker Tom Palazzolo for the United States Information Agency.

Description

Over footage from Tom Palazzolo's 1967 film O, voiceover narration explains, "Experimenting with collages of sounds, lights, colors, and expanded horizons of patterns and shapes, the experimental filmmakers of the New American Cinema evoke enormous emotional responses from a new generation of film audiences." Zina Bethune's voiceover proceeds to describe the funding models and production methods of contemporary American independent filmmakers, accompanied by footage of Palazzolo shooting a Bolex camera on a boat in Provincetown, MA, seated next to wife Marcia.

After a brief stop at frequent collaborator Bernie Beckman's studio, the camera then follows Palazzolo down a Chicago alleyway. He photographs various people around the city while describing his artistic motivations and filmmaking process over voiceover. We then see Palazzolo in his studio, painting an image based on one of his photographs. Palazzolo then introduces his film O before a screening at a community center, which is followed by an excerpt from the film. Palazzolo is then seen walking around a crowded downtown Chicago with his 16mm camera as the credits roll.

The year before The Filmmaker was made, the United States Information Agency had asked Palazzolo to serve as a representitive of American independent filmmaking abroad. During a three month tour of the Middle East, Ceylon, India, and Turkey, Palazzolo screened his 16mm films for local audiences. This film was made upon Palazzolo's return, and was then shown in the Middle East. The film was directed by Barbara Hussie, one of the first female writers, directors or producers at the USIA.

Run Time

0:17:56

Format

16mm

Extent

650 feet

Color

Color

Sound

Optical

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Reversal Positive Print

Genre

Documentary

Form

Short

Subject

Motion picture production & direction
Art

Related Collections

SERIES IV: Collected Films

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago

North America ➜ United States ➜ Massachusetts ➜ Provincetown

Sponsor/client

United States Information Agency

Main Credits

Hussie, Barbara (is director)

Hussie, Barbara (is producer)

Additional Credits

Hussie, Barbara (is writer)

Spielvogel, Bert (is cinematographer)

Participants And Performers

Palazzolo, Tom (is participant)

Bethune, Zina (is narrator)

Beckman, Bernard (is participant)

Palazzolo, Marcia (is participant)

Do you know more about this item?

If you have more information about this item please contact us at info@chicagofilmarchives.com.