Tag Archives: avant-garde

The Production and Decay of Strange Particles – A Film by Jon Behrens

by Cimaxion

Seattle avant-garde filmmaker Jon Behrens made this gorgeous piece in 2008 with 16mm film, latex paint and inks applied directly to the film surface. It creates a mysterious space travel and exploratory sensation that has some connection – at least in my mind – to Kubrick’s 2001.  There’s a big pile of magnificent work waiting for you to enjoy from this filmmaker.  Visit his Vimeo page and personal website for more information.

You can rent Behrens’ films for 16mm projection from Canyon Cinema.  He also has a DVD of collected works.

Short Documenatry Film About Animator Mary Ellen Bute

by Cimaxion

The National Film Preservation Board of The Library of Congress has added a film to its National Film Registry by Mary Ellen Bute called Tarantella (1940). Here’s a short documentary about this animator and her total dedication to her art. Cartoon Brew has more information about the recent additions to the Registry.

Glass Boulevard

by Cimaxion

Filmed in the dullest imaginable environment of shops along a major Los Angeles street at night when the shops were closed.

My Christmas film.

The music is a public domain recording of Artie Shaw and his orchestra playing ‘There’s Something in the Air’ in 1936. The singer is Peg LaCentra. I found it at the Internet Archive.

It Came From Kuchar: Underground Film Documentary

by Cimaxion

Mike Everleth at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, has posted this fascinating documentary about legendary filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar. They’ve been making films separately and together for over 50 years. Don’t be misled by the term underground. These are simply wonderful and exuberant filmmakers who work in their own way and make films exactly the way they want to make them. Their enthusiasm for film, from totally independent low-budget to full-blown Hollywood spectacular, is infectious and should inspire any young filmmaker to follow his or her own muse and make what they really, deeply, necessarily want to make.  You can find out a lot more by reading the Bad Lit article about the documentary.

By the way, Bad Lit is in fact the most infectiously enthralling film site you will read for a long time. Go there!