
Stan Brakhage
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

In the Mirror of Maya Deren
2002

Stan & Jane Brakhage
1981

Brakhage Crosses Central Park
2006

Cat's Cradle
1959

Window Water Baby Moving
1959

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

Cannibal! The Musical
1996

Joseph Cornell: Worlds in a Box
1991

The One Romantic Venture of Edward
1956

The Extraordinary Child
1954

I... Dreaming
1988

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000

Song 1
1964

The Stars Are Beautiful
1974

Faust's Other: An Idyll
1988

Wedlock House: An Intercourse
1959

Birth of a Nation
1997

Prelude: Dog Star Man
1962

Dog Star Man: Part I
1963

Dog Star Man: Part II
1963

Dog Star Man: Part III
1964

The Art of Vision
1965

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

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968

Life with Stan #4: Stan Painting
2002

Dog Star Man
1965

Dinner with Brakhage and Gamow
2008

Preserving Cultural Traditions in a Period of Instability
2004
Directing (378 movies)
Untitled Film of Geoffrey Holder's Wedding
1955

Dog Star Man: Part I
1963
The Boy and the Sea
1953

Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse
1991

The Art of Vision
1965

Glaze of Cathexis
1990

Cat's Cradle
1959

Window Water Baby Moving
1959

Mothlight
1963

Eye Myth
1967

The Wold-Shadow
1972

Faust's Other: An Idyll
1988

Study in Color and Black and White
1993

Scenes from Under Childhood, Section One
1968

Desistfilm
1954

Wedlock House: An Intercourse
1959

The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes
1972

The Stars Are Beautiful
1974

The Garden of Earthly Delights
1981

Kindering
1987

I... Dreaming
1988

The Dante Quartet
1987

Night Music
1986

Rage Net
1988

Untitled (For Marilyn)
1992

Black Ice
1994

Stellar
1993

Crack Glass Eulogy
1991

The Dark Tower
1999

Comingled Containers
1996

Lovesong
2001

Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection
1953

Rounds
2001

Thigh Line Lyre Triangular
1961

Prelude: Dog Star Man
1962

The Wonder Ring
1955

Centuries of June
1955

The Text of Light
1974

The Process
1972

The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him
2000
The Way to Shadow Garden
1954

Dog Star Man: Part II
1963

Blue Moses
1962

Dog Star Man: Part III
1964

Dog Star Man: Part IV
1964

Autumnal
1993

From: First Hymn to the Night – Novalis
1994

Chinese Series
2003

Two: Creeley/McClure
1965

The Machine of Eden
1970

Burial Path
1978

Sirius Remembered
1959

The Dead
1960

Anticipation of the Night
1958
Reflections on Black
1955

A Child’s Garden and the Serious Sea
1991

Boulder Blues and Pearls and...
1993

The Mammals of Victoria
1994

Short Films 1975: #1 (Jane’s Memory)
1975

Short Films 1975: #2 (Dante’s Styx)
1975

Short Films 1975: #3 (Hollis Frampton)
1975

Short Films 1975: #4 (Lady in Glass)
1975

Short Films 1975: #5 (Niagara Falls)
1975

Short Films 1975: #6 (Stars, Chickens, Eyes, Candles)
1975

Short Films 1975: #7 (Turning the Raccoon Loose)
1975

Short Films 1975: #8 (Small Town Streets)
1975

Flesh of Morning
1956

The Riddle of Lumen
1972

Three Homerics
1993

Ephemeral Solidity
1993

Loving
1957

Pasht
1966

Fire of Waters
1965

The Horseman, the Woman, and the Moth
1968

The Extraordinary Child
1954

Interim
1952

Song 1
1964

Song 2
1964

Song 3
1964

Song 4
1964

Song 5
1964

Song 6
1964

Song 7
1964

Song 8
1964

Song 10
1965

Song 9
1965

Song 11
1965

Song 12
1965

Song 13
1965

Song 14
1965

Naughts
1994

Elementary Phrases
1994

Murder Psalm
1980

Song of the Mushroom
2002

Creation
1979

The Women
1973
Gadflies
1976
Silent Sound Sense Stars Subotnick and Sender
1962
Wecht
1972

The Weir-Falcon Saga
1970
| 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 |