Stan Brakhage

70 years 2003

USA

Biography

Stan Brakhage is one of the most influential filmmakers in American avant-garde cinema, noted for his unflinching social commentaries and technical innovations. Over his nearly 40-year career, he has made over 200 films of varying length. He made his first film, Interim (1952) at age 18 after dropping out of college. Brakhage films seek to change the way we see. They encourage viewers to eschew traditional narrative structure in favor of pure visual perception that is not reliant on naming what is seen; rather his goal is to create a more visceral visual experience, for he believes that a "stream-of visual-consciousness could be nothing less than the pathway of the soul." To this end, his films are shot in highly sensual colors and utilize minimal soundtracks.

His work can be divided into distinct periods. His first short films explored the properties and possibilities of light. In many of his experimental ventures, Brakhage has forgone traditional cinematography in favor of working directly with the film stock itself. He has occasionally painted, inked, scratched and dyed images onto it; he has also tried pasting organic objects on the film. His most famous example is the 1963 short Mothlight in which he glued moth wings onto the stock. Some of his early films were based on his most intimate experiences that included making love to his new bride--depicted on negative film--in Wedlock House: An Intercourse (1959), and an attempt to bring his dead dog back to life with a camera in Sirius Remembered (1959). During the 1960s, Brakhage's iconoclastic views were celebrated for their poetry, but during the '70s, his focus changed to social issues and he alienated many supporters with such disturbing film series as the "Pittsburgh documents" in which he presented many gruesome views of inner city life with films such as Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (1971) which was shot in a morgue. He also continued with autobiographical material with the "Sincerity/Duplicity series. During the 1980s, Brakhage's focus again changed--this time he became intrigued with creating truly "abstract" films such as Arabics (1982) which consists of brilliant bursts of colored light which he claims, represent "envisioned music." In addition to filmmaking, Brakhage also wrote books about films and filmmaking and also served as a teacher.

Acting (50 movies)

Sonic Youth: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui (April 12, 2003)

2003

Encomium

2003

7.4

In the Mirror of Maya Deren

2002

Stan & Jane Brakhage

1981

Brakhage Crosses Central Park

2006

5.8

Cat's Cradle

1959

6.8

Window Water Baby Moving

1959

6.1

Dog Star Man: Part IV

1964

Doodlin': Impressions Of Len Lye

1987

Flesh of Morning

1956

Brakhage

1998

Reflecting Thought: Stan Brakhage

1985

Trumpit

1956

A Visit to Stan Brakhage

2006

Garden Path

2001

6.4

Cannibal! The Musical

1996

Joseph Cornell: Worlds in a Box

1991

The One Romantic Venture of Edward

1956

The Extraordinary Child

1954

5.6

I... Dreaming

1988

7.7

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

2000

4.4

Song 1

1964

5.0

The Stars Are Beautiful

1974

Faust's Other: An Idyll

1988

5.4

Wedlock House: An Intercourse

1959

Birth of a Nation

1997

6.1

Prelude: Dog Star Man

1962

6.2

Dog Star Man: Part I

1963

6.5

Dog Star Man: Part II

1963

6.1

Dog Star Man: Part III

1964

The Art of Vision

1965

6.7

Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film

2011

For Stan

2009

Grand Opera: An Historical Romance

1979

Filmmakers

1969

Invocation: Maya Deren

1986

Tortured Dust

1984

Looking at Forest of Bliss

2000

Stan Brakhage Exits the Cinema and Enters the Light of Day

2002

Reality's Invisible

1972

Jonas in the Desert

1994

Keeping an Eye on Stan

2003

Stan Brakhage on Jim Davis

1997

Stan Brakhage on Gregory Markopoulos

1997

Abstract Cinema

1993

7.4

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

1968

Life with Stan #4: Stan Painting

2002

6.5

Dog Star Man

1965

Dinner with Brakhage and Gamow

2008

Preserving Cultural Traditions in a Period of Instability

2004

Title	Year	Job
Interim	1952	Writer
Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection	1953	Writer
Desistfilm	1954	Writer
The Way to Shadow Garden	1954	Writer
The Extraordinary Child	1954	Writer
In Between	1955	Writer
Reflections on Black	1955	Writer
Mr. Tompkins Inside Himself	1962	Writer
Blue Moses	1962	Writer
Dog Star Man	1965	Writer
The Art of Vision	1965	Producer
Eye Myth Educational	1972	Writer
The Stars Are Beautiful	1974	Writer

Stan Brakhage

Biography

Acting (50 movies)

Directing (378 movies)