In 1962, Kenneth Anger moved to Brooklyn, New York and began living with married filmmakers Willard Maas and Marie Menken. Originally from Los Angeles, Anger had lived for a time in Europe because his early films, such as Fireworks (1947), had been received extremely well overseas. Alas, films that Anger worked on in France and Italy have been either disowned by the filmmaker or were never completed.
Once in Brooklyn, however, Anger became acquainted with a local motorcycle gang and shot footage that would eventually become his most celebrated work, Scorpio Rising (1963). You can watch this underground film classic and read about it here. It is also available on the Complete Magick Lantern Cycle DVD collection.
A year earlier, Menken had made a film about her future roommate, Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (1961), which is included on the DVD documentary Notes on Marie Menken. Willard Maas’s film output was scant in the...
Once in Brooklyn, however, Anger became acquainted with a local motorcycle gang and shot footage that would eventually become his most celebrated work, Scorpio Rising (1963). You can watch this underground film classic and read about it here. It is also available on the Complete Magick Lantern Cycle DVD collection.
A year earlier, Menken had made a film about her future roommate, Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (1961), which is included on the DVD documentary Notes on Marie Menken. Willard Maas’s film output was scant in the...
- 9/23/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In a letter dated June 1, 1962, the newly formed Film-Makers’ Cooperative offered their first list of films that were available to rent. Fourteen filmmakers were represented.
The need to form a cooperative distribution center for what were then called “independent filmmakers” was made in a series of meetings in the autumn of 1960. The meetings were organized by Jonas Mekas and Lew Allen; and included New York City-based filmmakers such as Robert Frank, Shirley Clarke, Adolfas Mekas, Ben Carruthers, Peter Bogdanovich and others. These informal meetings would eventually coalesce into the formation of the New American Cinema Group.
On September 30, 1960, Jonas Mekas presented The First Statement of the New American Cinema Group manifesto. One of the items in the manifesto stated that filmmaker Emile de Antonio was entrusted with the task of forming the distribution center, although there’s no record of de Antonio’s actual involvement beyond that.
The distribution center...
The need to form a cooperative distribution center for what were then called “independent filmmakers” was made in a series of meetings in the autumn of 1960. The meetings were organized by Jonas Mekas and Lew Allen; and included New York City-based filmmakers such as Robert Frank, Shirley Clarke, Adolfas Mekas, Ben Carruthers, Peter Bogdanovich and others. These informal meetings would eventually coalesce into the formation of the New American Cinema Group.
On September 30, 1960, Jonas Mekas presented The First Statement of the New American Cinema Group manifesto. One of the items in the manifesto stated that filmmaker Emile de Antonio was entrusted with the task of forming the distribution center, although there’s no record of de Antonio’s actual involvement beyond that.
The distribution center...
- 4/1/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Andy Warhol by Marie Menken. Competed 1965.
Marie Menken made several films inspired by and starring artists she knew, such as Visual Variations on Noguchi (1945) and Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (1961). According to Warhol’s memoir Popism: The Warhol Sixties (written with Pat Hackett), in 1963 Warhol was brought by his friend Charles Henri Ford to a party hosted by Menken and her husband Willard Maas at the couple’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Warhol and Menken hit it off immediately and he would go on to cast her as an actress in his films, such as Chelsea Girls and The Life of Juanita Castro.
Close to the same time, Warhol was also introduced to Gerard Malanga, who would become Warhol’s main art assistant throughout the ’60s and who is featured prominently in this short film. In Popism, Warhol describes Menken and Maas as “sort of godparents” to Malanga.
Andy Warhol presents...
Marie Menken made several films inspired by and starring artists she knew, such as Visual Variations on Noguchi (1945) and Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (1961). According to Warhol’s memoir Popism: The Warhol Sixties (written with Pat Hackett), in 1963 Warhol was brought by his friend Charles Henri Ford to a party hosted by Menken and her husband Willard Maas at the couple’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Warhol and Menken hit it off immediately and he would go on to cast her as an actress in his films, such as Chelsea Girls and The Life of Juanita Castro.
Close to the same time, Warhol was also introduced to Gerard Malanga, who would become Warhol’s main art assistant throughout the ’60s and who is featured prominently in this short film. In Popism, Warhol describes Menken and Maas as “sort of godparents” to Malanga.
Andy Warhol presents...
- 7/29/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes,” Andy Warhol famously said, but the legendary artist probably didn’t expect that such a sentiment would apply to his own screen tests, which have endured over the decades as a curious, intimate look at the inner workings of his creative process.
Filmed during the ’60s-era heyday of his Warhol Factory, the black and white screen tests feature a slew of Warhol regulars — from Ondine to Edie Sedgwick, Lou Reed to Bob Dylan — and other famous faces of the day, all lensed on Warhol’s own Bolex camera. Nearly 500 of the screen tests were filmed, though Warhol did not use or exhibit all of them. Favorites were arranged into various compilations that were then screened by Warhol for assorted audiences, though they’ve continued to inspire and delight fans for decades past their original filming.
Read More: Quad Cinema Reborn:...
Filmed during the ’60s-era heyday of his Warhol Factory, the black and white screen tests feature a slew of Warhol regulars — from Ondine to Edie Sedgwick, Lou Reed to Bob Dylan — and other famous faces of the day, all lensed on Warhol’s own Bolex camera. Nearly 500 of the screen tests were filmed, though Warhol did not use or exhibit all of them. Favorites were arranged into various compilations that were then screened by Warhol for assorted audiences, though they’ve continued to inspire and delight fans for decades past their original filming.
Read More: Quad Cinema Reborn:...
- 5/3/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Larry Jordan, occasionally known in more formal circles as Lawrence Jordan, has been making experimental and animation films for half a century now. He grew up in Denver, won a scholarship to Harvard, then dropped out to start a theater back in Colorado with his high school friend, Stan Brakhage. "Stan was always the director," Jordan wrote in a remembrance in the Millennium Film Journal in 2003. "He seemed to have far-reaching radar for locating people and works in the art world. Five of our gang came out to San Francisco in about 1954. (Stan came first — always the avant-garde.) When I arrived, he was living in the basement of poet Robert Duncan and painter Jess Collins. We had one old car, a flatbed trailer for our gear, and about five films between us. So naturally we started out to tour California, showing our wares."
They eventually wound up in New York,...
They eventually wound up in New York,...
- 3/27/2012
- MUBI
Working on and scanning through Bad Lit’s Underground Film Timeline periodically, I am continually struck and impressed by the strong efforts of a certain, key few individuals who have both set down an official historical course and have charted a definitive future for avant-garde and experimental film. Without these individuals’ efforts, perhaps there would not be a history for me to attempt to chronicle on this website.
Typically, these individuals have worn multiple hats in their artistic careers, serving as filmmakers, curators, lecturers, journalists and such. While much of their work was about promoting underground film as a valid and to-be-respected art form, there is also a strong component — if not a guiding component — of self-preservation.
That is not to imply a disparagement on their accomplishments as being merely self-serving, but the survival of the one does lead to a survival of the many. That is, if one can...
Typically, these individuals have worn multiple hats in their artistic careers, serving as filmmakers, curators, lecturers, journalists and such. While much of their work was about promoting underground film as a valid and to-be-respected art form, there is also a strong component — if not a guiding component — of self-preservation.
That is not to imply a disparagement on their accomplishments as being merely self-serving, but the survival of the one does lead to a survival of the many. That is, if one can...
- 11/2/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Alessandro Cima wrote a new article inspired by my old “What’s an Underground Film, Anyway?” post. In it, Cima argues that the definition of “underground film” should include “a requirement of hostility.” I like what Cima is saying and I get where he’s coming from, but I haven’t decided if I totally agree with him yet. While I certainly like a little hostility in my underground films, the problem is that sustained hostility can a) get tiring; and b) leads to burnout. But, good stuff to contemplate in the article. (P.S. Driving or walking by a row of StarWagons never gets not-exciting to me.) Donna k. muses on why more filmmakers don’t tour with their films like Brent Green does. For what it’s worth, here’s my short answer: Most filmmakers don’t create the ancillary product that would make touring profitable. Green has it all: Music,...
- 10/3/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
First the history, then the list:
In 1969, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas decided to open the world’s first museum devoted to film. Of course, a typical museum hangs its collections of artwork on the wall for visitors to walk up to and study. However, a film museum needs special considerations on how — and what, of course — to present its collection to the public.
Thus, for this film museum, first a film selection committee was formed that included James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, plus, for a time, Stan Brakhage. This committee met over the course of several months to decide exactly what films would be collected and how they would be shown. The final selection of films would come to be called the The Essential Cinema Repertory.
The Essential Cinema Collection that the committee came up with consisted of about 330 films.
In 1969, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas decided to open the world’s first museum devoted to film. Of course, a typical museum hangs its collections of artwork on the wall for visitors to walk up to and study. However, a film museum needs special considerations on how — and what, of course — to present its collection to the public.
Thus, for this film museum, first a film selection committee was formed that included James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, plus, for a time, Stan Brakhage. This committee met over the course of several months to decide exactly what films would be collected and how they would be shown. The final selection of films would come to be called the The Essential Cinema Repertory.
The Essential Cinema Collection that the committee came up with consisted of about 330 films.
- 5/3/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Repertory theaters on the coasts are truly offering a window onto the world this spring, with Jia Zhangke and Bong Joon-ho retrospectives, as well as New French Cinema in New York, "Freebie and the Bean," "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" and Jason Reitman's favorite films invade Los Angeles, and the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin is offering a fond farewell to the video cassette. But consider this a hello to seeing classics, oddities and rarities on the big screen over the next few months.
Cities: [New York] [Los Angeles] [Austin] More Spring Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]
[Anywhere But a Movie Theater]
New York
92YTribeca
Is there a more energetic way to start the spring than with a screening of Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (Feb. 20, with editors Rumsey Taylor, Leo Goldsmith and Jenny Jediny in attendance)? Perhaps not, but it's only the start of an exciting spring season at the 92YTribeca Screening Room, which will present several special events over the next few months.
Cities: [New York] [Los Angeles] [Austin] More Spring Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]
[Anywhere But a Movie Theater]
New York
92YTribeca
Is there a more energetic way to start the spring than with a screening of Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (Feb. 20, with editors Rumsey Taylor, Leo Goldsmith and Jenny Jediny in attendance)? Perhaps not, but it's only the start of an exciting spring season at the 92YTribeca Screening Room, which will present several special events over the next few months.
- 2/20/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
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