Stan Brakhage in Rolling Stock, 1980-1990

385 Pages·2018·48.41 MB·English

by  Brakhage, Stan;Syberberg, Hans-Jürgen;Tarkovskij, Andrej;White, Jerry

S t a n B r a k h a g e
in Rolling Stock, 1980–1990
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i n R o l l i n g S t o c k , 1 9 8 0 – 1 9 9 0
{ J e r r y W h i t e }
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This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences,
through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing
program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing
activities. This work was supported by the Research Support Fund.
aunn Oorngtaanriiosm geo vdeur ngmouevnet rangeemnecnyt de l’Ontario
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
White, Jerry, 1971–, author
Stan Brakhage in Rolling stock, 1980–1990 / Jerry White.
(Film and media studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77112-303-7 (hardcover).—ISBN 978-1-77112-305-1 (PDF).—
ISBN 978-1-77112-306-8 (EPUB)
1. Brakhage, Stan. 2. Motion pictures—History. I. Title. II. Title: Rolling stock. III. Series: Film and media studies series
PN1998.3.B74W55 2017 791.4302’33092 C2017-901936-8
C2017-901937-6
Front-cover images: photo of Stan Brakhage in profile © 1979 Ingrid Lundahl; background photo by Kathryn Bernheimer as it
appeared in the Daily Camera (Boulder, CO). Cover and text design by Lara Minja, Lime Design Inc.
© 2018 Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
www.wlupress.wlu.ca
This book is printed on FSC® certified paper and is certified Ecologo. It contains post-consumer fibre, is processed chlorine free,
and is manufactured using biogas energy.
Printed in Canada
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such
indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright).
For an Access Copyright licence, visit http://www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
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Do Bhob Quinn, an Brakhage Gaelach
& Pour Martha Crago, ma cousine coloradienne
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Contents
Stan Brakhage Texts Stan Brakhage Texts
Brakhage Text 1 {73} Brakhage Text 4 {175}
1
Closely Watched Blurs Telluride Zinc
Brakhage Text 2 {89} Brakhage Text 4.1 {193}
Brakhage at the Ninth Telluride Mailer Madness, Torn Macho
Brakhage Text 3 {111} Brakhage Text 4.2 {199}
Telluride Gold Losey and Leigh
Brakhage Meets Tarkovsky
Brakhage Text 5 {201}
Brakhage Text 3.1 {139} Telluride Takes, Brakhage Talks
Acknowledgements {ix} A Conservative Short Takes on Telluride
“Straight” European vs. Brakhage Text 6 {229}
Introduction {1} Avant-Garde New American Brakhage Observes
Telluride the 13th
Brakhage, Tarkovsky, Brakhage Text 7 {255}
and Syberberg The Gold, the Bad, & the Usual
Critical Interlude
Stan Brakhage Reviews the
29 15th Telluride Film Festival
Notes on the Films Brakhage
Showed to Tarkovsky, 1983
{153}
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Conclusion {303}
Epilogue {311}
Pordenone, 2015
2
Appendix A {317} A Stan Brakhage /
Brakhage’s First Appearance Telluride Filmography {347}
in Rolling Stock: The Swiftly
A Stan Brakhage /
Perceived Blur: From “I . . . .
Rolling Stock Bibliography {351}
Sleeping (Being a Dream Journal
and Parenthetical Explication)”
Works Cited {353}
Appendix B {323}
Index {361}
Brakhage’s Final Appearance
in Rolling Stock: International
A Certain Cinema: The 12th Denver
Kind of Soviet Appendix C {329}
Blessings: Letters
from Stan Brakhage
Brakhage, Parajanov,
and Shepitko Appendix D {339}
B. Ruby Rich: “Hitler: A Film from
281 Germany: Is this a fascist film or
an exposé of fascist filmmaking?”
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Acknowledgements
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN ACADEMIC WORKS are famously long-winded and and between the years 1989 and 2011, we did not fail even once to attend
self-indulgent. Aficionados of the genre will find that what follows sets a the event together. This madness, as with so many things, was his doing.
new high-water mark as far as that goes. All through university, my Philadelphia days, and graduate school, Bill
Even by the usual standards for such things, this book has been an and Stella Pence provided me with a unique summer job that I was uniquely
insanely long road. In a way, I started it at the age of 17, when my father ill suited for: one part light construction, one part light accounting. Tom
(also called Jerry White), who recently retired as an internationally respected Luddy showed me what an international man of mystery might look like if
medical physicist but was a habitué of the Penn State Film Society in his transposed to the milieu of filmmaking. The three of them also staged the
university days, drove me up I-25 to see a Stan Brakhage program at the best annual seminar in world cinema a guy could ask for. For all of that I am
Denver International Film Festival. That summer, he took me on the much grateful. The fact that the last time I was in Telluride some people were still
longer drive to the Telluride Film Festival. We almost didn’t make it; at one calling me “Felix” or asking me where my “kids” were is a testament to the
point I was pushing our Toyota Land Cruiser backwards down the hiking- faith in young people that Jim Bedford and Kate Sibley are famous for, and
trail-like Imogene Pass as he tried to pop the clutch. We did make it, though, from which I have benefited massively. Lynn Gershmann showed me what
ix
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