Curated Programs

Over the years, the Canyon Cinema staff, Board of Directors and Advisory Board have curated special programs from our collection. Focusing, for instance, on an individual filmmaker, a geographic location or a theme, they are wonderful educational tools as well as opportunities to share experimental films with your community. If you have a particular theme in mind, do not hesitate to contact us, the staff is glad to help you put together a program for your needs. These programs are available for rent and are priced according to length and number of screenings. Please contact us for further details.

Figures and Grounds
Curated by Dominic Angerame and Mark Toscano
Saul Levine’s Light Lick: Only Sunshine consists of rhythmically pulsing abstract frames. Michael Rosas-Walsh’s Lake Orion builds glistening black and white dreams from multiple exposed vacation footage. Shiho Kano’s Rocking Chair ominously describes the loneliness of an empty room. Mary Beth Reed’s multi-layered Moon Streams ventures deep into peeling layers of paint, emulsion, and fragmented imagery. The program is rounded out by the new-to-Canyon “re-release” of Michael Snow’s 1964 New York Eye and Ear Control, “starring” The Walking Woman and featuring a soundtrack by Albert Ayler.
TRT: 70 min.

Lake Orion (2001) by Michael Rosas-Walsh; 16mm, b&w, silent, 5 min.
Rocking Chair (2000) by Shiho Kano; 16mm, color, sound, 13 min.
Moon Streams (2000) by Mary Beth Reed; 16mm, color, silent, 6 min.
Light Lick (Az Sent): Only Sunshine (2000) by Saul Levine; Super-8mm, color, silent, 12 min.
New York Eye and Ear Control (1964) by Michael Snow; 16mm, b&w, sound, 34 min.

A selection of 35mm Films from Canyon Cinema
Curated by Mark Toscano
Though known as primarily a 16mm filim distributor, Canyon Cinema has been distributing 35mm films ever since a print of The Residents’ Hello Skinny was accidentally deposited in the early ’80s. Since then, Canyon has accumulated dozens more, but the recent addition of Patrick Bokanowski’s rarely screened feature L’Ange (The Angel), made a 35mm program seem particularly opportune.
TRT: 87 min.

L’Arrivée (1998) by Peter Tscherkassky; 3 min.
Eli’s Moon (2002) by Michael Rosas-Walsh; 3 min.
World Trade Alphabet (2001) by Donna Cameron; 6 min.
Hello Skinny (1980) by Cryptic Corporation, directed by Graeme Whifler; 5 min.
L’Ange (1982) by Patrick Bokanowski; 70 min.

Stan Brakhage 35 mm films
Curated by Dominic Angerame
This is a unique program of Stan Brakhage’s 35mm films. Included are some of the last films Brakhage made or was working on before his death in 2003.
TRT: 80 min.

Eye Myth (1967) 9 sec.
Night Music (1986) 30 sec.
The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981) 3 min.
Rage Net (1988) 1 min.
The Dante Quartet (1987) 6 min.
Interpolations (1992) 12 min.
Night Mulch (2001) 3 min.
Very (2001) 4 min.
The Chinese Series (2003) 2 min.
Panels for the Walls of Heaven (2002) 32 min.
Stan’s Window (2003) 6 min.
In Between (1955) 10 min.

The Ghost Films of Stan Brakhage
Curated by Timoleon Wilkins
In the recent compilation Telling Time: Essays of a Visionary Filmmaker (Documentext, 2003) Stan Brakhage discusses how he became aware of a resurfacing thread in his oeuvre after a screening of the hand-painted work Nodes (1981): (…) every now and again a film of mine seemed to exist, vis-à-vis audience attention, in such a way that only a few viewers would remember it at all, even immediately following the program in which it was introduced—(…)” Brakhage termed these few films among his nearly 400 works as being “shy” or “ghost” films. What was the process behind such “unremarkable” works? Were they truly forgotten or did they perhaps lodge in the viewer’s subconscious like unremembered dreams? Initially thought of as weak or flawed in some way, Brakhage began to consider the un-nameable (but not necessarily abstract) character of the images in these films as prompting new pathways of recollection that might break the “thought-bonds of language”. The short works presented in this program have either never or seldom been written about, and are rarely screened. They are among his most lightly composed and least theoretical works, often involving portraiture of friends and neighbors. “All of my ‘unremarkable’ films share a common trait: each was a ‘turning point’ in my creative process—a ‘seed,’ as it were, of future making.”

The program spans the first four decades of Brakhage’s career, and with the exception of Nodes, scurries through the lucid yet shadowy corners of his photographic period through the 1970’s and 80’s. Additional films not mentioned in Telling Time have been selected based on Brakhage’s discussions at the Sunday Salons, University of Colorado at Boulder. All films are 16mm silent.
TRT: 63 min.

Nightcats (1956) 8 min.
Black Vision (1962) 3.5 min.
Oh Life, A Woe Story, the A-Test News (1963) 5 min.
Western History (1971) 8 min.
Sexual Meditation: Faun’s Room, Yale (1972) 3 min.
Short Films 1976 (1976) 25 min.
Purity, and After (1978) 5 min.
Nodes (1981) 3 min.
Matins (1988) 2.5 min.

George Kuchar’s Clean and Dirty Shorts
Curated by George Kuchar and Michelle Silva
The master of innovation, filmmaker and veteran faculty member of the San Francisco Art Institute, George Kuchar, has selected a medley of experimental shorts from the Canyon Cinema collection. Ranging from the sacred and lurid imagery of Daina Krumins’ film, “The Divine Miracle” to Curt McDowell’s dirty, yet hilariously candid film “Confessions”, this program reveals Kuchar’s love of saturated visual richness, the obscene and the immaculate, and above all, a sense of humor in the midst of the toils of filmmaking.
TRT: 62 min.

Made in Maine (1970) by Rudy Burckhardt; 16mm, color, sound, 8 min.
Stone Harbor (1990) by Gary Adelstein; S8mm, color, sound, 5 min.
Scotch Tape (1959 – 1962) by Jack Smith; 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
Confessions (1971) by Curt McDowell; 16mm, b&w, sound, 12 min.
The Divine Miracle (1973) by Daina Krumins; 16mm, color, sound, 5.5 min.
Chinamoon (1975) by Barbara Linkevitch; 16mm, color, sound, 15 min.
Skullduggery (1960) by Stan Vanderbeek; 16mm, b&w, sound, 5 min.
Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper (1970) by David Rimmer; 16mm, color, sound, 8 min.

Don’t Box Me In: A Tribute to Andy Warhol
Curated by Dominic Angerame
An homage to the filmmaker and artist Andy Warhol. Many films in the Canyon Cinema collection have been inspired by the work of Warhol. This program is just a small representation of those films made by our filmmakers featuring Andy Warhol and his notorious factory.
TRT: 84 min.

Moment (1970) by Steve Dwoskin; 16mm, b&w, sound, 13 min.
Match Girl (1966) by Andrew Meyer; 16mm, color, sound, 25 min.
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (1965 – 1982) by Jonas Mekas; 16mm, color, sound, 36 min.
Andy Makes a Movie (1968) by Robert Emmet Smith; 16mm, b&w, sound, 22 min.

Canyon Cinema’s Queer Underground
Curated by Dominic Angerame and D.A. Johnston
The program begins with the love shaman’s call for a sexual revolution of the body politic urging mankind into a new love age in “Shaman Psalm.” “Fireworks” releases Kenneth Anger’s “explosive pyrotechnics of a dream,” while “I, An Actress” gets to the guts of a dramatic scene, an actress and her director. “Confessions” begins with Curt McDowell’s disclosure to his parents of every sex act in the book and unfolds with his infectious charm and sexuality. In “Holding,” Coni Beeson explores lesbian love inside and out, and constructed from 14 dreams hear your own voice narrate “Gently Down the Stream.” Share in a tender, loving and unsentimental exchange in “A Valentine for Nelson” and witness a dairymaid who becomes “electrified” as she is called to churn butter in a dark forest in “Devil’s Dairymaid.”
TRT: 88 min.
Shaman Psalm (1981) by James Broughton and Joel Singer; 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min.
Fireworks (1947) by Kenneth Anger; 16mm, b&w, sound, 15 min.
Confessions (1971) by Curt McDowell; 16mm, b&w, sound, 16 min.
I, An Actress (1977) by George Kuchar; 16mm, b&w, sound, 10 min.
A Valentine for Nelson (1990) by Jim Hubbard; 16mm, color, sound, 5 min.
Gently Down the Stream (1981) by Su Friedrich; 16mm, b&w, silent, 14 min.
Holding (1971) by Coni Beeson; 16mm, color, sound, 13 min.
Devil’s Dairymaid (2008) Kym Farmen; 16mm, b&w, sound, 8 min.

Thou Sandy Ears of Cinema
Curated by Julie Murray
By way of consecutive arrangement of the following precious stones; the program might set in motion a sway-and-lurch in and around the threshold of consciousness of the viewer, where the works act as a medium which by various means identifies, or represents this elusive “space”, as well as lead one to it, each piece refracting it in new ways.

All the films deal more or less specifically with the simultaneity of action and stasis on the surface. They thread subtle intersecting paths in unanticipated ways, allowing capacious run-on perceptual associations within the minds of the viewers themselves.
TRT: 63 min.

Toroidal Forest (1981) by James Otis; 16mm, b&w, silent, 4 min.
32/76: An W + B (1976) by Kurt Kren; silent, 8 min.
Certaines Observations (Certain Observations) (1979) by Rose Lowder; 16mm, b&w, silent, 14 min.
Drift (1995) by Chris Welsby; 16mm, color, sound, 17 min.
Interieur Interiors (to A.K.) (1978) by Vincent Grenier; 16mm, b&w, silent, 15 min.
Untitled (1977) by Ernie Gehr; 16mm, silent 5 min.

The Grand Canyon Expanded Cinema Show
Curated by Konrad Steiner
This screening transforms the simple room that is our theater in three radically different ways, using alternative projection conditions, including two classics and a contemporary film from San Francisco.
TRT: 75 min.

19 Scenes Relating to a Trip to Japan (1997) by Konrad Steiner; dual 16mm, color, sound, 15 min.
The Flicker (1966) by Tony Conrad; 16mm, b&w, sound, 30 min.
Line Describing a Cone (1973) by Anthony McCall; 16mm, b&w, silent, 30
min.

Lie Back & Enjoy It
Curated by Gina Carducci
This program features films that expose the act of watching or making, or otherwise interrupt the process of being passively entertained. The films speak to their own exposure in a variety of cinematic languages, so those of you in the mood to laugh, to be bored, or to be snobby, experimental art theorists can all feel welcome. These films acknowledge themselves as film, and they even acknowledge us! They talk to us – feel free to talk back. Or, sit there and think about the film ­ about your day ­ what you have to do tomorrow ­ who you’re sitting next to ­ or these notes I’m typing one day in March. Experimental film is great. It invites you to be here with it – all of its purposeful mistakes and imperfect beauty and genius. Enjoy it.
TRT: 72 min.

Lie Back & Enjoy It (1982) by Joanne Elam; 16mm, b&w, sound, 8 min.
The Scary Movie (1993) by Peggy Ahwesh 16mm, b&w, sound, 9 min.
Hand Eye Coordination (2002) by Naomi Uman; 16mm, color, sound, 10 min.
Kaldalon (1970 – 1971) by Dore O.; 16mm, color, sound, 45 min.

Dr. Bruce Conner’s Remedies from the A’s & B’s
Curated by Bruce Conner
Composed of filmmakers from the A and B sections of Canyon Cinema’s catalog, Dr. Bruce Conner’s prescriptions range from a dose of Anger, to a therapeutic treatment of Broughton, to sooth the symptoms of the disgruntled spectator with one hour of unparalleled cinema.
TRT: 68 min.
Mother’s Day (1948) by James Broughton; 16mm, b&w, sound, 15 min.
Mr. Hayashi (1961) by Bruce Baillie; 16mm, b&w, sound, 3 min.
Eaux D’Artifice (1953) by Kenneth Anger; 16mm, color, sound, 13 min.
Lovemaking (1971) by Scott Bartlett; 16mm, color, sound, 13 min.
Aleph (1958 – 1976) by Wallace Berman; 16mm, color, silent, 10 min.
VIII (1980) by Stan Brakhage; 16mm, color, silent, 4 min.
La Reina (1992 – 1993) by Alfonso Alvarez; 16mm, color, sound, 10 min.

Tribute to Will Hindle
Curated by Bruce Baillie
“Will Hindle was a very good friend and we worked together from 1962 through the early 1970’s. It is my hope to do some Proustian reflections regarding Will’s work, ways, and our working together.”(Bruce Baillie) All films by Will Hindle
TRT: 73 min.
Pastorale D’Ete (1958) 16mm, color, sound, 9 min.
Non Catholicam (1957 – 1963) 16mm, b&w, sound, 10 min.
Watersmith (1969) 16mm, color, sound, 32 min.
Pasteur 3 (1976) 16mm, color, sound, 22 min.

Not At Ease and Not At Rest
Curated by Eric Theise
An evening of adolescent disquiet, geothermal and meteorological agitation, drastic measures, aural assault, California Dreamin’, and the discomfort that comes with the impossibility of fully understanding the other, at any age.
TRT: 82

Restless (1987) by Andrej Zdravic; 16mm, color, sound, 12 min.
Thanatopsis (1962) by Ed Emshwiller; 16mm, b&w, sound, 5 min.
Old Argument on MacDougal Street (1985) by James Irwin; 16mm, color, silent, 3 min.
Filmpiece for Sunshine (1966-1968) by John Luther Schofill; 16mm, color, sound, 23 min.
Wild Night in El Reno (1977) by George Kuchar; 16mm, color, sound, 6 min.
Selective Service System (1970) by Warren Haack; 16mm, color, sound, 13 min.
Miss Jesus Fries on Grill (1973) by Dorothy Wiley; 16mm, color, sound, 12 min.
George Dumpson’s Place (1965) by Ed Emshwiller; 16mm, color, sound, 8 min.

Chick Strand: A Retrospective
Curated by Bruce Baillie and Dominic Angerame

“Still making films after all these years,” proudly claims the longtime Los Angeles filmmaker. Ahead of Strand’s 75th birthday in December 2006, this evening highlights the multiple facets of her rich and captivating career. She has explored experimental forms that seem at first contradictory: solarization, trance film, ethnographic documentary, and found-footage film. Yet she has combined, mixed and overlaid these forms with her unmistakable signature: camerawork that is at once sensuous and rigorous, and a splendid lyricism. All films by Chick Strand.
TRT: 77 min.

Angel Blue Sweet Wings (1966) 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
Cartoon le Mousse (1979) 16mm, b&w, sound, 15 min.
Kristallnacht (1979) 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min.
Loose Ends (1979) 16mm, b&w, sound, 25 min.
Coming up for Air (1986) 16mm, color, sound, 26.5 min.

Early Baillie and the Canyon CinemaNews Years
Curated by Dominic Angerame and Bruce Baillie
If any film artist has succeeded in portraying the beauty and cruelty of San Francisco, it is Bruce Baillie. In his marvelous first film, “On Sundays,” and the later “Mass for the Dakota Sioux,” Baillie evokes the city and its human and physical landscapes in the early sixties. Mournful rather than celebratory, revealing idiosyncratic details rather clichéd sites, Baillie’s films include elliptical narrative elements as they weave images and sounds into exquisite city sonatas. Included are several early CinemaNews works by Baillie with friends: “Mr. Hayashi,” “Here I am,” “The Gymnasts,” and “Termination.” All films by Bruce Baillie.
TRT: 75 min.

On Sundays (1960-1961) 16mm, b&w, sound, 27.5 min.
Mass for the Dakota Sioux (1963-1964) 16mm, b&w, sound, 20 min.
Mr. Hayashi (1961) 16mm, b&w, sound, 3 min.
Here I Am (1962) 16mm, b&w, sound, 11 min.
The Gymnasts (1961) 16mm, b&w, sound, 8 min.
Termination (1966) 16mm, b&w, sound, 5 min.

Hot Nasty Special
Curated by Dominic Angeame and Michelle Silva.
A special program of rarely-screened, short, erotically themed works from Canyon Cinema’s historic collection of 16mm avant-garde films. The body erotic is territory that has long been transversed by avant-garde cinema, and this program explores the borders of these sensual nether regions in both content and form. Tom Palazzolo’s “Hot Nasty” reveals the human element through the interior of a Chicago “massage” parlor, while “Fuses” combines low-angle sensuality with direct filmmaking, exposing the film to nature’s elements. Through representational and more poetic forms, these films reclaim sexuality from the pornographic; they are suffused with humanity and spiked with humor.
TRT: 78 min.

Film Watchers (1974) by Herbert Jean de Grasse; 16mm, color, sound, 5 min.
Riverbody (1970) by Anne Severson; 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min.
Light Sleeping (1975) by Stephanie Beroes; 16mm, color, sound, 4 min.
Womancock (1965) by Carl Linder; 16mm, b&w, sound, 15 min.
Hot Nasty (1972) by Tom Palazzolo; 16mm, color, sound, 15 min.
Fuses (1964 – 1967) by Carolee Schneemann; 16mm, color, silent, 22 min.
Consume (2003) by Dominic Angerame; 16mm, b&w, color, sound, 10 min.

Dia De Los Meurtos! Honorar Las Almas de Cineastes De Vanguaradia
Curated by Dominic Angerame and Michelle Silva
A 2- part series honoring selected departed filmmakers who have given a piece of their souls to the noble cause of avant-garde cinema.

Part I
TRT: 87 min.
Mexican Footage by Ron Rice; 16mm, color and b&w, silent, 10 min.
Heavy Light (1973) by Adam Beckett; 16mm, color, silent, 7 min.
Bridges Go-Round (1958) by Shirley Clarke; 16mm, color, sound, 11 min.
Aleph (1982) by Robert Fulton; 16mm, b&w, silent, 17.5 min.
Peyote Queen (1965) by Storm De Hirsh; 16mm, color, sound, 8 min.
Non Catholicam (1957–1963) by Will Hindle; 16mm, b&w, sound, 10 min.
Glimpse of the Garden (1957) by Marie Menken; 16mm, color, sound, 5 min.
Occam’s Thread (2001) by Stan Brakhage; 16mm, color, silent, 5 min.
Si See Sunni (1964) by Charles Levine; 16mm, color, sound, 7 min.
Sailboat (1967) by Joyce Wieland; 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
Portrait Two: The Young Lady by Earl Bodien; 16mm, b&w, silent, 3 min.

Part II
TRT: 66 min.
Aleph (1958-1976) by Wallace Berman; 16mm, color, silent, 6 min.
Winter (1964-1966) by David Brooks; 16mm, color, sound, 1000 sec.
Visit to Indiana (1970) by Curt McDowell; 16mm, color, sound, 10 min.
Skyworks, the Red Mile (1973) by Lee Ann Bartok aka Lee Ann Wilchusky; 16mm, color, sound, 9.5 min.
Solidarity (1973) by Joyce Wieland; 16mm, color, sound, 11 min.
Off/on (1968) by Scott Bartlett; 16mm, color, sound, 10 min.
Rumble (1977) by Jules Engel; 16mm, b/w, sound, 4 min.
Ancient (1979) by Marjorie Keller; 16mm, color, silent, 6 min.
31/75 Asyl (1975) by Kurt Kren; 16mm, color, silent, 9 min.

Pioneers of Bay Area Filmmaking
Curated by Dominic Angerame
Filmmaking in the San Francisco Bay Area has an incredible history and has had a long-lasting dynamic effect around the world. New forms of filmmaking have emerged from the Bay Area community over the years to reveal unheralded new visions of the medium and explorations into its aesthetic properties. This two part series presents a sampling of experimental cinema by artists in the Bay Area from the late 1940s and 1950s.

Part I
TRT: 51 min.
Horror Dream (1947) by Sidney Peterson; 16mm, color, sound, 12 min.
Clinic of Stumble (1947) by Sidney Peterson; 16mm, color, sound, 16 min.
Things to Come (1948) by Patricia Marx; 16mm, color, sound, 4 min.
Obmaru (1948) by Patricia Marx; 16mm, color, sound, 4 min.
Four In the Afternoon (1951) by James Broughton; 16mm, b&w, sound, 15 min.

Part II
TRT: 62 min.
Notes on the Port of St. Francis (1952) by Frank Stauffacher; 16mm, b&w, sound, 20 min.
Divertissement Rococo (1952) by Hy Hirsch; 16mm, color, 12 min.
Eneri (1953) by Hy Hirsch; 16mm, color, 7 min.
In Between (1955) by Stan Brakhage; 16mm, color, sound, 10 min.
Logos (1957) by Jane Conger Belson Shimane; 16mm, color, sound, 2 min.
Odds & Ends (1957) by Jane Conger Belson Shimane; 16mm, color, 5 min.
Beat (1958) by Christopher MacClaine; 16mm, color, sound, 6 min.

Scott MacDonald on the Spirit of Canyon Cinema
Curated by Scott MacDonald.
A three-part series celebrating Canyon’s 45th year and the 2008 publication by University of California Press of Canyon Cinema – Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor, by Scott MacDonald. This major work in avant-garde film history documents Canyon Cinema’s roots as gleaned from the words, stories, and artifacts that make up its rich historical legacy.

The 1960s saw the emergence of a wide range of approaches to cinema that offered alternatives to Hollywood commercial filmmaking. By 1961, Bruce Baillie and Chick Strand had begun informal screenings in the Bay Area at a mobile venue they were calling “Canyon Cinema.” Soon, Canyon began publishing the CinemaNews and in 1966 became a distribution organization, emerging over the next forty years as the most dependable alternative film distributor in the country. The filmmakers who were part of Canyon and contributed to its success also created a remarkable body of films that are widely influential and continue to provide considerable pleasure.

Part I, The Founders
TRT: 51 min.
Mr. Hayashi (1961) by Bruce Baillie; 16mm, b&w, sound, 3 min.
The Gymnasts (1961) by Bruce Baillie; 16mm, b&w, sound, 3 min.
To Parsifal (1963) by Bruce Baillie; 16mm, color, sound, 16 min.
Angel Blue Sweet Wings (1966) by Chick Strand; 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
Kristallnacht (1979) by Chick Strand; 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min.
Termination (1966) by Bruce Baillie; 16mm, b&w, sound, 5 min.
Castro Street (1966) by Bruce Baillie; 16mm, b&w/color, silent, 10 min.
Anselmo (1967) by Chick Strand; 16mm, color, sound, 4 min.

Part II
TRT: 58 min.
Tung (1966) by Bruce Baillie; 16mm, b&w/color, silent, 5 min.
Big Sur, the Ladies (1966) by Larry Jordan; 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
Cosmic Ray (1961) by Bruce Conner; 16mm, b&w, sound, 4 min.
Oh Dem Watermelons (1965) by Robert Nelson; 16mm, color, sound, 11 min.
FFFTCM (1967) by Will Hindle; 16mm, color, sound, 5 min.
Breakaway (1966) by Bruce Conner; 16mm, b&w, sound, 5 min.
Valentin de las Sierras (1968) by Bruce Baillie; 16mm, color, sound, 10 min.
Hot Leatherette (1967) by Robert Nelson; 16mm, b&w, sound, 5 min.
Consume (2003) by Dominic Angerame; 16mm, b&w/color, sound, 10 min.

Part III
TRT: 68 min.
Waterfall (1967) by Chick Strand; 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
Kirsa Nicholina (1969) by Gunvor Nelson; 16mm, color, sound, 16 min.
My Name Is Oona (1969) by Gunvor Nelson; 16mm, b&w, sound, 10 min.
Riverbody (1970) by Anne Severson; 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min.
Take Off (1972) by Gunvor Nelson; 16mm, b&w, sound, 10 min.
Kristallnacht (1979) by Chick Strand; 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min.
Ornamentals (1979) by Abigail Child; 16mm, color, silent, 8 min.
Quick’s Thicket (2004) by Diane Kitchen; 16mm, color, silent, 6.5 min.

New Improved Institutional Qualities…
Curated by Lauren Sorenson
Canyon Cinema has been distributing and presenting the personal 16mm and Super 8mm prints of independent filmmakers from around the world for close to 50 years. An organization moving in new directions, Canyon is pleased to present a showcase of films gleaning from that 50-year history. This program represents the gamut of this extraordinary work: from the unsung psychedelic animator to the most celebrated avant-garde filmmaker, no stone goes unturned in the good work performed by these moving image archives.
TRT: 82 min.

Riddle of Lumen (1972) by Stan Brakhage; 16mm, color, silent, 17 min.
Note to Pati (1969) by Saul Levine; 16mm, color, silent, 8 min.
Note to Colleen (1974) by Saul Levine; 16mm, color, silent, 5 min.
Train Landscape (1974) by Jules Engel; 16mm, color, sound, 3 min.
Silence (1968) by Jules Engel; 16mm, color, silent, 3 min.
Shapes & Gestures (1976) by Jules Engel; 16mm, color, sound, 7 min.
Flesh Flows (1974) by Adam Beckett; 16mm, color, sound, 6.5 min.
Sausage City (1974) by Adam Beckett; 16mm, color, sound, 5.5 min.
Dear Janice (1972) by Adam Beckett; 16mm, color, sound, 15 min.
T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G (1968) by Paul Sharits; 16mm, color, sound, 12 min.

Stan Brakhage Program Packages (Special Rates)
Curated by Marilyn Brakhage

Individual films by Stan Brakhage continue to be available for rent at Canyon Cinema’s standard prices. However, we are also presenting here a number of possible programs at reduced rates – as single programs, or as larger packages of three, four or six. As the possibilities are much wider than what is contained in these few suggestions, if you have other programming ideas of your own, please contact Canyon Cinema to negotiate a price. The programs listed here do not constitute a full retrospective of Stan Brakhage’s work, though they may provide a basis for various partial retrospectives.

Program titles: 1) Early Brakhage; 2) Early Brakhage II (+ Creation); 3) Family and Myth 1 (including Dog Star Man); 4) Family and Myth II (The Trilogy of The Weir-Falcon Saga); 5) through 11) – seven programs on themes of Autobiography and Portraiture; 12) Animal Life, and a trilogy on Death; 13) Two Brief and Two Grand Meditations on Animal Life on Earth; 14) through 23) – ten landscape programs (Landscape as History/ Landscape as Light; “My Mountain,” and Gardens; Landscape, Cityscape, Stars; Visions in Meditation; Landscape/Cityscape, Self and Other; Landscape and the Child/Innocence Lost; Parts 2 & 3 of The Vancouver Island Quartet; Parts 3 & 4 of The Vancouver Island Quartet; The Complete Vancouver Island Quartet; Landscape and Spirituality); 24) and 25) Sexual Meditations and Dance I and II; 26) The Pittsburgh Documents; 27) Media Meditations I; 28) Media Meditations and Collage; 29) through 41) – thirteen programs exploring thought process and “visual music;” 42) Religious Meditations, Hand-painted; 43) Late hand-painted films: Elements/Seasons; 44) Early Sound Films; 45) Mid-Career Sound Films; 46) Late Sound Films I (Faust); 47) Late Sound Films II; 48) Late Sound Films III; 49) Language and Image; and 50) the final program, which was curated by Timoleon Wilkins, titled “The Ghost Films of Stan Brakhage.”

1) Early Brakhage I (1952-1958):

98 minutes — $265.00

Interim, 1952, 25 minutes (sound)
Desistfilm, 1954, 7 minutes (sound)
Reflections On Black, 1955, 12 minutes (sound)
The Wonder Ring, 1955, 5.5 minutes
Nightcats, 1956, 9 minutes
Anticipation of the Night, 1958, 40 minutes

Brakhage’s first film, a romantic encounter inspired by Italian Neo-Realism; the “liberation of the camera from the tripod” (Sitney) in “Desistfilm”; a psycho-dramatic work from his early in days in NYC (”Reflections On Black”); followed by an early lyrical film, commissioned by Joseph Cornell (”TheWonder Ring”); on to LA and his self proclaimed crucial transitional film,”Nightcats”; and finally, back to Colorado and the completion of his ground-breaking poetic vision of innocence lost, with “Anticipation of the Night.” (Notes and discussion on “Anticipation of the Night” can also be found in Brakhage’s 1963 publication Metaphors on Vision, and re-published in essential brakhage).

2) Early Brakhage II [+ Creation] (1955-1979):

90 minutes — $245.00

The Way to Shadow Garden, 1954, 11 minutes (sound)
The Wonder Ring, 1955, 5.5 minutes
Anticipation of the Night, 1958, 40 minutes
Window Water Baby Moving, 1959, 13 minutes
Mothlight, 1963, 4 minutes
Creation, 1979, 16 minutes

An early black and while psycho-drama (”The Way to Shadow Garden”) is followed by Brakhage’s early lyricism in homage to NYC’s Third Avenue El (”The Wonder Ring”) and then his seminal work of elliptical montage, “Anticipation of the Night.” Next on the program is the poetic retelling — through memory, anticipation, and direct graphic depiction — of the birth of Stan and Jane Brakhage’s first child, in “Window Water Baby Moving”; the musical, death-dance collage of moth wings and plant life that is the laboriously hand-created “Mothlight”; and finally, the ecstatic, mythic montage of Alaskan landscapes in his 1979 film, “Creation.”

3) Family and Myth I (1961-1964):

88 minutes — $265.00

Thigh Line Lyre Triangular, 1961, 6 minutes
Films By Stan Brakhage: An Avant-Garde Home Movie, 1961, 4 minutes
Dog Star Man (Prelude and Parts 1-4), 1961-1964, 78 minutes

The birth of Brakhage’s third child is layered with superimposed images and gestural painting in an early “thought process” film, or as Brakhage put it, with “patterns that move straight out from the inside of the mind through the optic nerves.” This is followed by a brief, early example of Brakhage’s “home-movie making” aesthetic, and then his most famous film, the award-winning “Dog Star Man” — a work of multiple layers of superimposed cinematography, painting, and various manipulations applied directly to the surface of the film, in which the filmmaker transforms old symbolic systems to create a rich tapestry and new creation myth for modern times. “The film breathes and is an organic and surging thing . . . ” (Michael McClure).

[The Art of Vision, 1965 - the extended version of the multiple layers of Dog Star Man - 4 ¼ hours, $600.00.]

4) Family and Myth II (1970):

80 minutes — $225.00

The Weir-Falcon Saga, 1970, 34 minutes
The Machine of Eden, 1970, 11 minutes
The Animals of Eden and After, 1970, 35 minutes

A child’s altered states of perception during illness lead to a renewed vision and consciousness of the world around him. “His readjustment to the normal world takes the form of a myth of creation (’The Machine of Eden’) followed by a myth of evolution.” (P. Adams Sitney)

Seven programs following themes of autobiography and portraiture:

5) Autobiography and Portraiture I (1957-1974):

90 minutes — $245.00

Daybreak and Whiteye, 1957, 10 minutes (sound)
Wedlock House: An Intercourse, 1959, 11 minutes
Window Water Baby Moving, 1959, 13 minutes
Scenes From Under Childhood (Part One), 1967, 24 minutes (sound)
Fifteen Song Traits, 1965, 30 minutes
Hymn to Her, 1974, 3 minutes

“Frustrations in loving . . . first, with girl as object . . . then, with camera as subject”; “the first months of marriage, with moments of mutual awareness, frightening understandings, lovemaking”; “A visualization of the inner world of foetal beginnings, the infant, the baby, the child . . . “; portraits of family and friends; and a song of light, to Jane, “but also to Hera, goddess of women and marriage.”

6) Autobiography and Portraiture II: Complete Scenes From Under Childhood, Parts 1-4 (1967-1970):

2 hours, 20 minutes — $375.00

7) Autobiography and Portraiture III (1973-1980):

107 minutes — $295.00

Sincerity, 1973, 27 minutes
Duplicity III, 1980, 23 minutes
The Governor, 1977, 57 minutes

The first and final sections of the autobiographical Sincerity and Duplicity series; plus a “study of light and power,” as Brakhage tours the state of Colorado with Governor Richard D. Lamm.

[Complete Sincerities and Duplicities, 8 parts, 1973-1980, 4 hours, $600.00]

8.) Autobiography and Portraiture IV (1974-1986):

94 minutes — $255.00

Star Garden, 1974, 21 minutes
Soldiers and Other Cosmic Objects, 1977, 21 minutes
Short Films: 1976, 1976, 20 minutes
Nightmare Series, 1978, 20 minutes
Jane, 1986, 12 minutes

9) Autobiography and Portraiture V (1984):

94 minutes — $255.00

Tortured Dust, Parts 1-4, 1984, 94 minutes

10) Autobiography and Portraiture VI (1980-1989):

109 minutes — $300.00

Made Manifest, 1980, 11 minutes
The Loom, 1986, 43 minutes
Nightmusic, Rage Net, Glaze of Cathexis, 1986-1990, 5 minutes
Kindering, 1987, 4 minutes (sound)
I . . . Dreaming, 1988, 8 minutes (sound)
Faust IV, 1989, 38 minutes (sound)

11) Autobiography and Portraiture VII (1989-2003):

113 minutes — $300.00

Faust IV, 1989, 38 minutes (sound)
Visions in Meditation #4, 1990, 18 minutes
City Streaming, 1989, 19 minutes
(For Marilyn), 1992, 11 minutes
Boulder Blues and Pearls And, 1992, 22 minutes (sound)
Dark Night of the Soul, 2002, 3 minutes
Chinese Series, 2003, 2 minutes

Animal Life, Birth, Death – programs 12 & 13:

12) A trilogy on death; animal life:

68 minutes — $185.00

Sirius Remembered, 1959, 11 minutes
The Dead, 1960, 11 minutes
Burial Path, 1978, 8 minutes
Mothlight, 1964, 4 minutes
Pasht, 1965, 6 minutes
The Domain of the Moment, 1977, 14 minutes
The Cat of the Worm’s Green Realm, 1997, 14 minutes

13) Two brief and two grand meditations on animal life on earth:

89 minutes — $245.00

The Presence, 1972, 4 minutes
Tragoedia, 1976, 38 minutes
Bird, 1978, 4 minutes
The Loom, 1986, 43 minutes

Programs 14 to 23 – Landscape:

14) Landscape as History, Landscape as Light (1972, 1974):

83 minutes — $235.00

The Wold Shadow, 1972, 3 minutes
The Shores of Phos: A Fable, 1972, 10 minutes
The Text of Light, 1974, 70 minutes

15) Landscape II – “My Mountain,” and Gardens (1968-2001):

90 minutes — $245.00

My Mountain, Song 27, 1968, 20 minutes
Song 27, Part Two: Rivers, 1969, 26 minutes
Creation, 1979, 16 minutes
Made Manifest, 1980, 11 minutes
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1981, 2.5 minutes
Spring Cycle, 1995, 11 minutes
MicroGarden, 2001, 3 minutes

16) Landscape III – Landscape, Cityscape, Stars (1979-1997):

96 minutes – $265.00

Creation, 1979, 16 minutes
Made Manifest, 1980, 11 minutes
Unconscious London Strata, 1982, 22 minutes
City Streaming, 1989, 19 minute
The Dante Quartet, 1987, 6 minutes
Stellar, 1993, 2 minutes
Commingled Containers, 1996, 3 minutes
Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind, 17 minutes, 1997

(Programs 15 and 16 together — with reduction for second screening of Creation and Made Manifest = $475.00)

17) Landscape IV — Visions in Meditation (1989-1990):

67 minutes — $185.00

Visions in Meditation, 1989, 16 minutes
Visions in Meditation #2: Mesa Verde, 1990, 16 minutes
Visions in Meditation #3: Plato’s Cave, 1990, 17 minutes (sound)
Visions in Meditation #4: DH Lawrence, 1990, 18 minutes

18) Landscape V — Landscape/Cityscape, Self and Other (1980-1992):

93 minutes — $265.00

Other, 1980, 3 minutes
Loud Visual Noises, 1987, 3 minutes [sound]
The Thatch of Night, 1989, 7 minutes
Crack Glass Eulogy, 1992, 6 minutes [sound]
A Child’s Garden and the Serious Sea, 1991, 74 minutes

19) Landscape VI – Landscape and the Child/Innocence Lost (1958; 1991):

114 minutes — $315.00

Anticipation of the Night, 1958, 40 minutes
A Child’s Garden and the Serious Sea, 1991, 73 minutes

20) Landscape VII – Parts 2 & 3 of the Vancouver Island Quartet (1994; 2000):

84 minutes — $235.00

The Mammals of Victoria, 1994, 35 minutes
The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him, 2000, 49 minutes

21) Landscape VIII – Parts 3 & 4 of the Vancouver Island Quartet (2000; 2002):

79 minutes — $225.00

The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him, 2000, 49 minutes
Panels for the Walls of Heaven, 2002, 30 minutes

22) Complete Vancouver Island Quartet (1991-2002):

188 minutes — $475.00

23) Landscape IX — Landscape and Spirituality (1991-2002):

96 minutes — $265.00

Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind, 1997, 17 minutes
Passage Through: A Ritual, 1991, 49 minutes
Panels For the Walls of Heaven, 2002, 30 minutes

Programs 24 and 25 – Sexual Meditations and Dance:

24) Sexual Meditations and Dance:

92 minutes — $250.00

Christ Mass Sex Dance, 1991, 5 minutes
FaustFilm: An Opera, 1987, 43 minutes
Loving, 1957, 4 minutes
Cat’s Cradle, 1959, 8 minutes
Sexual Meditation #1: Motel, 1970, 6 minutes
Sexual Meditation: Room With View, 1970, 4 minutes
Coupling, 1999, 5 minutes
Dance, 2000, 6 minutes
Lovesong, 2001, 11 minutes

25) Sexual Meditations Nos. 1-6 (1970-72):

30 minutes — $100.00

26) The Pittsburgh Documents, 1971 (police work, heart surgery, autopsy):

100 minutes — $275.00

Eyes, 1971, 35 minutes
Deus Ex, 1971, 33 minutes
The Act of Seeing with one’s own eyes, 1971, 32 minutes

27) Media Meditations I:

90 minutes — $250.00

Blue Moses, 1962, 11 minutes
Oh Life, A Woe Story, The A-Test News, 1963, 6 minutes
Aftermath, 1980, 9 minutes
23rd Psalm Branch, 1966, 64 minutes

28) Media Meditations and Collage:

66 minutes– $185.00

Mothlight, 1963, 4 minutes
The Horseman, The Woman and The Moth, 1968, 19 minutes
Eye Myth Educational, 1972, 2 minutes
Murder Psalm, 1980, 18 minutes
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1981, 2.5 minutes
Aftermath, 1980, 9 minutes
Loud Visual Noises, 1987, 3 minutes
Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse, 1991, 9 minutes

Thirteen programs exploring thought process and “visual music”:

29) Thought Process and Visual Music I (1958-1986):

101 minutes — $285.00

Anticipation of the Night, 1958, 40 minutes
Absence, 1976, 7 minutes
Desert, 1976, 11 minutes
The Loom, 1986, 43 minutes

30) Thought Process and Visual Music II (1961-1981):

72 minutes — $200.00

Thigh Line Lyre Triangular, 1961, 6 minutes
The Process, 1972, 8 minutes
“He was born. He suffered. He died.” 1974, 7 minutes
Thot Fal’n, 1978, 14 minutes
Burial Path, 1978, 8 minutes
@, 1979, 6 minutes
Unconscious London Strata, 1981, 23 minutes

31) Thought Process and Visual Music III (1979-1990):

64 minutes — $175.00

Mothlight, 1963, 4 minutes
The Roman Numeral Series I-IX, 1979-1981, 45 minutes
Three Hand-Painted Films: Nightmusic, Rage Net and Glaze of Cathexis, 1986-1990, 5 minutes
Loud Visual Noises, 1987, 3 minutes
The Thatch of Night, 1989, 7 minutes

32) Thought Process and Visual Music IV – The Arabics (1980-1982):

140 minutes — $375.00

The Arabics, in 20 parts, 1980-1982, 140 minutes

33) Thought Process and Visual Music V (1986-1989):

87 minutes — $245.00

The Loom, 1986, 43 minutes
The Dante Quartet, 1987, 6 minutes
Faust IV, 1989, 38 minutes

34) Thought Process and Visual Music VI (1988-1994):

64 minutes — $175.00

I . . . Dreaming, 1988, 7 minutes (sound)
Marilyn’s Window, 1988, 8 minutes
Babylon Series, 1989, 6 minutes
Babylon #2, 1989, 3 minutes
Babylon #3, 1990, 6 minutes
Agnus Dei Kinder Synapse, 1991, 4 minutes
Naughts, 1994, 6 minutes
Boulder Blues and Pearls And, 1992, 23 minutes (sound)

35) Thought Process and Visual Music VII (1960-1992):

75 minutes — $210.00

The Dead, 1960, 11 minutes
Unconscious London Strata, 1982, 22 minutes
City Streaming, 1989, 19 minutes
Boulder Blues and Pearls And, 1992, 23 minutes

36) Thought Process and Visual Music VIII (1984-1994):

82 minutes — $235.00

The Dante Quartet, 1987, 7 minutes
The Egyptian Series, 1984, 18 minutes
I . . . Dreaming, 1988, 7 minutes (sound)
Stellar, 1993, 3 minutes
Ephemeral Solidity, 1993, 4 minutes
Chartres Series, 1994, 9 minutes
Elementary Phrases, 1994, 34 minutes

37) Thought Process and Visual Music IX (1989-1995):

79 minutes — $225.00

The Thatch of Night, 1989, 7 minutes
Christ Mass Sex Dance, 1991, 5 minutes (sound)
(For Marilyn), 1992, 11 minutes
Trilogy:
I Take These Truths, 1995, 18 minutes
We Hold These, 12 minutes
I . . . 26 minutes

38) Thought Process and Visual Music X (1993-2000):

63 minutes — $175.00

Study in Color and Black and White, 1993, 3 minutes
Black Ice, 1994, 3 minutes
1st Hymn to the Night – Novalis, 1994, 4 minutes
Last Hymn to the Night – Novalis, 1997, 18 minutes
Commingled Containers, 1996, 4 minutes
Rounds, 2000, 14 minutes
Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind, 1997, 17 minutes

39) Thought Process and Visual Music XI (1991-1997):

72 minutes — $200.00

Agnus Dei Kinder Synapse, 1991, 4 minutes
b series, 1995, 12 minutes
Self Song and Death Song, 1997, 4 minutes
Commingled Containers, 1996 – 4 minutes
Preludes 1-24, 1996, 48 minutes

40) Thought Process and Visual Music XII (1998):

89 minutes — $245.00

Ellipses 1-5, 1998, 89 minutes

41) Thought Process and Visual Music XIII (1984-2003):

70 minutes, $195.00

Egyptian Series, 1984, 18 minutes
Persians 1-18, 1999-2001, 50 minutes
Chinese Series, 2003, 2 minutes

42) Religious Meditations, hand-painted (1987-2002):

87 minutes — $245.00

The Dante Quartet, 1987, 7 minutes
Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind, 1997, 17 minutes
The Jesus Trilogy and Coda, 2000, 19 minutes
Ascension, 2002, 2 minutes
Resurrectus est, 2002, 9 minutes
Dark Night of the Soul, 2002, 3 minutes
Panels For the Walls of Heaven, 2002, 30 minutes

43) Late Hand-painted films — Elements/ Seasons (1993-2002):

57 minutes – $165.00

Autumnal, 1993, 5 minutes
Earthen Aerie, 1995, 3 minutes
Spring Cycle, 1995, 10 minutes
Shockingly Hot, 1994, 4 minutes
Cloud Chamber, 1999 3 minutes
The Lion and the Zebra Make God’s Raw Jewels, 1999, 8 minutes
Stately Mansions Did Decree, 1999, 5 minutes
Seasons, 2002, 20 minutes [with Phil Solomon]

Sound films:

44) Early Sound Films by Brakhage (1952-1957):

95 minutes — $265.00

Interim, 1952, 25 minutes
Desistfilm, 1954, 7 minutes
The Way to Shadow Garden, 1954, 11 minutes
In Between, 1955, 10 minutes
Reflections On Black, 1955, 12 minutes
Flesh Of Morning, 1956, 20 minutes (newer soundtrack, 1987)
Daybreak and Whiteye, 1957, 10 minutes

45) Mid-career Sound Films By Brakhage (1962-1974):

60 minutes — $165.00

Blue Moses, 1962, 11 minutes
Fire of Waters, 1965, 7 minutes
Scenes From Under Childhood, Part One, 1967, 24 minutes
The Stars Are Beautiful, 1974, 18 minutes

46) Late Sound Films By Brakhage I (Faust, 1987-1989):

152 minutes — $395.00

FaustFilm: An Opera, 1987, 43 minutes
Faust’s Other: An Idyll, 1988, 44 minutes
Faust 3: Candida Albacore, 1988, 27 minutes
Faust 4, 1989, 38 minutes

47) Late Sound Films By Brakhage II (1989-90)

87 minutes — $ 250.00

Faust IV, 1989, 38 minutes
Passage Through: A Ritual, 1990, 49 minutes

48) Late Sound Films By Brakhage III (1987-1998):

57 minutes — $165.00

Loud Visual Noises, 1987, 3 minutes
Kindering, 1987, 4 minutes
I . . . Dreaming, 1988, 7 minutes
Christ Mass Sex Dance, 1991, 5 minutes
Crack Glass Eulogy, 1992, 7 minutes
Visions in Meditation #3 (Plato’s Cave), 1990, 17 minutes
Ellipsis #5, 1998, 14 minutes

[Add "Boulder Blues and Pearls And," 1992, 23 minutes = 80 minute program: $225.00]

49) Language and Image (1988-2001):

111 minutes — $300.00

I . . . Dreaming, 1988, 8 minutes, (sound)
Untitled (For Marilyn), 1992, 11 minutes
First Hymn to the Night, Novalis, 1994, 4 minutes
Night Mulch and Very, 2001, 6 minutes
Faust’s Other: An Idyll, 1988, 44 minutes (sound)
Faust IV, 1989, 38 minutes (sound)

50) The Ghost Films (1956-1988): Programmed by Timoleon Wilkins

This program includes a few of those little films that Brakhage felt were easily “forgettable” by people’s conscious minds, but that he believed might have a lingering subconscious life.

61 minutes — $165.00

Nightcats, 1956, 9 minutes
Black Vision, 1965, 3 minutes
Oh Life, A Woe Story, The A-Test News, 1963, 6 minutes
Western History, 1971, 9 minutes
Sexual Meditation: Faun’s Room, Yale, 1971, 3 minutes
Short Films: 1976, 1976, 21 minutes
Purity, and After, 1978, 5 minutes
Nodes, 1981, 3 minutes
Matins, 1988, 2 minutes

Some possible combinations of three, four or six of the above programs:

Three Programs:

1) Early Brakhage I; 3) Family and Myth I; 15) Landscape II – My Mountain and Gardens: $750.00

2) Early Brakhage II; 4) Family and Myth II; 33) Thought Process and Visual Music V: $695.00

12) A Trilogy on Death, and Animal Life; 15) “My Mountain” and Gardens; and 48) Late Sound Films III: $635.00

3) Family and Myth I; 16) Landscape III; and 37) Thought Process and Visual Music IX: $730.00

14) Landscape I; 19) Landscape VI; and 36) Thought Process and Visual Music VIII: $760.00

Four Programs:

5) Autobiography and Portraiture I; 13) Two Brief and Two Grand Meditations on Animal Life on Earth; 14) Landscape I; and 34) Thought Process and Visual Music VI: $875.00

16) Landscape III; 17) Landscape IV; 47) Late Sound Films II; and 21) Landscape VIII: $900.00

30) Thought Process and Visual Music II; 31) Thought Process and Visual Music III; 33) Thought Process and Visual Music V; and 23) Landscape IX: $850.00

14) Landscape I; 19) Landscape VI; 35) Thought Process and Visual Music VII; and 43) Late Hand-painted films: $895.00

14) Landscape I; 18) Landscape V; 26) The Pittsburgh Documents; 42) Religious Meditations – Hand-painted: $985.00

Six Programs:

2) Early Brakhage II; 4) Family and Myth II; 8.) Autobiography and Portraiture IV; 14) Landscape I; 10) Autobiography and Portraiture VI; and 23) Landscape IX: $1480.00

5) Autobiography and Portraiture I; 30) Thought Process and Visual Music II; 28.) Media Meditations and Collage; 13) Two Brief and Two Grand Meditations on Animal Life on Earth; 37) Thought Process and Visual Music IX; and 21) Landscape VIII: $1285.00

Please contact Canyon Cinema with questions, or for further programming assistance or suggestions.