Overview

In these eight sparkling biographies, Stan Brakhage brings us into intimate acquaintance with some of America's most influential independent filmmakers. These filmmakers are members of one of the most radical of 20th-century art movements; and yet their films and their lives are a continuous source of inspiration, not only to young, developing film-artists, but to the makers of commercial movies and videos as well. In these eight sparkling biographies, Stan Brakhage brings us into intimate acquaintance with some of America's most influential independent filmmakers. We meet Jerome Hill, born to inherit railroads and banks but destined to forge his artistic vision into a lasting film statement. And Marie Menken who, against the odds of a miserable and brutal marriage, developed a film aesthetic that revolutionized the very essence of independent filmmaking. Then James Broughton, the inveterate San Franciscan, whose irrepressible sense of whimsy and profound grasp of classical symbols combined to create some of the most vital filmworks of the last four decades; Christopher MacLaine, the ""Artaud of North Beach""; Maya Deren, known to independent filmmakers as ""the mother of us all""; Sidney Peterson, sophisticated, erudite, shy, the gentleman of the avant-garde film world; and two of Brakhage's most prominent contemporaries, Bruce Conner and Ken Jacobs. These filmmakers are members of one of the most radical of 20th-century art movements; and yet as radical and individual as they are, their films and their lives are a continuous source of inspiration, not only to young, developing film-artists, but to the makers of commercial movies and videos as well. Brakhage presents them and their work in portraits that are at once critical and anecdotal. One comes away from Film at Wit's End as one leaves an enjoyable, lively evening among friends

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Reviews

Brakhage's profiles of eight avant-garde filmmakers have a conversational, relaxed flow.... His personal insight into their lives deepens his understanding of their aims and techniques. -Publishers Weekly Intelligent, warm and often highly personal tributes to eight of his fellow filmmakers... Recommended. -Classic Images A fascinating collection of essays that do not depend upon, but can only be enhanced by, readers' knowledge of avant-garde film. -Columbus Dispatch A basic book in the canon of experimental cinema. -Film Quarterly Highly recommended. -Midwest Book Review Stimulating. -American Cinematographer An indispensable book in the study of film art. -Small Press Magazine

Author Information

Stan Brakhage is the author of Film at Wit's End, Film Biographies, The Brakhage Lectures, and other books. Born January 14, 1933, Mr. Brakhage has been a professor of film studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for the past twenty years. He has received honorary doctorates from San Francisco Art Institute, California Institute of the Arts, and Bard College. His other honors include eight grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship, the American Film Institute's Maya Deren Award, the MacDowell Medal, a Telluride Film Festival Medallion, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Denver International Film Festival.

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