Stan Brakhage: Filmmaker (Wide Angle Books) PDF
Preview Stan Brakhage: Filmmaker (Wide Angle Books)
Stan Brakhage CopyrightedMaterial IN THE SERIES Wide Angle Books Edited by Erik Bamouw, Ruth Bradley, Scott MacDonald, and Patricia Zimmermann CopyrightedMaterial Stan Brakhage F LMMAKER David E. James Edited by Temple University Press Philadelphia CopyrightedMaterial Temple UniversityPress 1601 North BroadStreet Philadelphia PA 19122 www.temple.edultempress Compilation and individual articles copyright © 2005 byTemple University, except "Amateursin the IndustryTown: Stan Brakhageand Andy Warhol in Los Angeles," and "Stan Brakhage:TheActivityofHis Nature," copyright © 2005 byDavid E. James. "Brakhage'sFaustian Psychodrama," copyright © 2004by P. AdamsSitney. Reprinted by permissionofGeorges Borchardt, Inc., for the author. "Camera LucidaI Camera Obscura," by Annette Michelson, copyright © Artforum (January 1973). "BecomingDarkWith ExcessofLight," copyright © 2005 by PaulArthur. All rights reserved Published 2005 Printed in the United StatesofAmerica Textdesign byKateNichols (..,) The paper used in this publicationmeets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-PermanenceofPaperfor Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.49-1992 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication Data Stan Brakhage :filmmaker I edited by David E. James. p. em.- (Wideanglebooks) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59213-271-5 (alI<. paper) ISBN 1-59213-272-3 (pbk. :alI<. paper) 1. Brakhage,Stan-Criticism and interpretation. I. James, David E., 1945-II. Series. PN1998.3.B74S72 2005 791.4302'33'092-dc22 2004062556 246897531 CopyrightedMaterial Contents Acknowledgments • Vll Introduction Stan Brakhage: The Activity ofHis Nature • DAVID E. JAMES • 1 Stan Brakhage • PARKERTYLER • 20 Brakhage. Breer. Menken. The Pure Poets ofCinema • JONAS MEKAS • 27 Brakhage and Rilke • JEROME HILL • 29 On The Art ofVision· ROBERT KELLY· 32 The First Time I Heard the Word "Brakhage" • EDWARD DORN • 34 Camera Lucida/Camera Obscura • ANNETTE MICHELSON • 36 Brakhage Memoir • JAMES TENNEY • 57 Amateurs in the Industry Town: Stan Brakhage and Andy Warhol in Los Angeles • DAVID E. JAMES • 61 CopyrightedMaterial vi Contents It Is Painting· CAROLEESCHNEEMANN • 78 Brakhage: Poesis • R. BRUCE ELDER • 88 Recollections ofStan Brakhage • JONAS MEKAS • 107 The Roman Numeral Series • NICKY HAMLYN • 113 Letter re: Stan· BRUCE BAILLIE • 129 Stan Brakhage, Agrimoniac • CRAIG DWORKIN • 132 Brakhage Package • CHICK STRAND • 150 Brakhage's Faustian Psychodrama· P. ADAMS SITNEY • 153 Stan Brakhage: American Visionary • WILLIE VARELA • 169 Brakhage's Occasions: Figure, Subjectivity, and Avant-Garde Politics· TYRUS MILLER· 174 Notes on Sincerity and Irony· ABIGAIL CHILD· 196 Becoming Dark with Excess ofLight: The Vancouver Island Films • PAUL ARTHUR • 207 As I Am Writing This Today· PHIL SOLOMON· 226 Contributors • 229 Index • 233 CopyrightedMaterial Acknowledgments W egratefullyacknowledge thefollowing for permissionto reprint noted material: Jonas Mekas and Anthology Film Archives for thephotographofStanBrakhagebyBriggsDyeronthecoverof the paperback edition, the photographs ofSergei Eisenstein, and the essays "Stan Brakhage" by Parker Tyler, "Notes on the New American Cinema" (extract) by Jonas Mekas, "Brakhage and Rilke" by Jerome Hill, and "On The Art ofVision" by Robert Kelly; Jennifer Dorn for Edward Dorn's "The First Time I Heard the Word 'Brakhage"'; Annette Michelson for "Camera Lucida/Camera Obscura," © Artforum, January 1973; the LiteraryEstate of Ronald Johnson for the extracts from the poem ARK, © 1996; Carolee Schneemann for the photo ofher painting Jane Brakhage, herphoto "Mary Jane Collom Brakhage. South Shaftsbury, Vermont, 1957(?)," herself-timed photo "Stan, babyMyrenna, Jane, C.S., Jim Tenney. Sidney, Illinois, 1960," and Jim Tenny's photos, "Jane, Stan & C.S. South Shaftsbury, Vermont, 1958" and "Jane, Stan, C.S. South Shaftsbury, Vermont, 1958"; and Willie Varela for two photographs ofStan Brakhage. CopyrightedMaterial CopyrightedMaterial DAVID E. JAMES Introduction Stan Brakhage The Activity of His Nature Milton produced Paradise Lost for the same reason that a silk worm produces silk. It was an activity ofhis nature.-KARi.MARX W ork on this collection of texts began some three years ago, whenwe hoped to publishitin2003to celebrateStanBrakhage's seventieth birthday. Instead, belatedly, it mourns his death. The baby who would become James Stanley Brakhage was born on 14January 1933 in an orphanage in Kansas City, Missouri.l Hewas adopted and named byayoung couple, Ludwig, acollegeteacherofbusiness, and his wife, Clara, who had herselfbeen raised byastepmother. The family moved from town to town in the Middle West and, sensitive to the stresses ofhis parents' unhappy marriage, Stanley was a sickly child, asthmatic and over weight. His mother took a lover, eventually leaving her husband, who sub sequently came to terms with his homosexuality and also himself took a lover. In 1941, mother and son found themselves alone in Denver. Put in a boys' home, the child picked up the habitsofa pettycriminal, butbeforehis delinquencybecameserious, hewasplaced withastable, middle-classfamily in which he began to discover his gifts. Heexcelled in writingand dramatics and in singing, becoming one of the leading voices in the choir of the Cathedral of St. John's in Denver. Retrieving her now-teenaged son, his mother tried to make a musician of him, but Stanley resisted his tutors, even attempting to strangle his voice teacher. CopyrightedMaterial
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