Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986

Post by **silentfilm** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:04 pm

http://www.filmpreservation.org/

Special features
5-1/4 hours on 2 discs
26 films never before on quality video
Interactive screens about the films
72-page book of program notes, with a foreword by Martin Scorsese
New music by John Zorn
Portraits of the filmmakers
Playable worldwide

2-DVD box set, with 72-page book
312 minutes, NTSC, playable worldwide
$44.99

In the years following World War II, a new generation of Americans began experimenting with cinema. Some came to filmmaking from painting or sculpture; others from music, anthropology, photography, or political activism. A few took up the camera to create art with friends. Armed with inexpensive 16mm and 8mm equipment, these filmmakers started from scratch and pushed film in directions it had never gone before. Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986 presents 26 films by artists who helped to redefine cinema. It is the first anthology of the period available on DVD.

The new 5-1/4 hour, 2-disc anthology, released on March 3, 2009 by Image Entertainment, samples an array of film types and styles, from abstract animation to documentary and balances acknowledged classics with rediscoveries. The films are drawn from the preservation work of five of America's foremost avant-garde archives—the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Anthology Film Archives, the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, and the Pacific Film Archive. None of the titles has been available before on good-quality video in the United States. Each artist is represented by one work:

Bruce Baillie, Here I Am (1962)
Wallace Berman, Aleph (1956-66?)
Stan Brakhage, The Riddle of Lumen (1972)
Robert Breer, Eyewash (1959)
Shirley Clarke, Bridges-Go-Round (1958)
Joseph Cornell, By Night with Torch and Spear (1940s?)
Storm De Hirsch, Peyote Queen (1965)
Hollis Frampton, (nostalgia) (1971)
Larry Gottheim, Fog Line (1970)
Ken Jacobs, Little Stabs at Happiness (1959-63)
Lawrence Jordan, Hamfat Asar (1965)
George Kuchar, I, An Actress (1977)
Owen Land, New Improved Institutional Quality: In the Environment of Liquids and Nasals a Parasitic Vowel Sometimes Develops (1976)
Standish Lawder, Necrology (1969-70)
Saul Levine, Note to Pati (1969)
Christopher Maclaine, The End (1953)
Jonas Mekas, Notes on the Circus (1966)
Marie Menken, Go! Go! Go! (1962-64)
Robert Nelson & William T. Wiley, The Off-Handed Jape...& How to Pull it Off (1967)
Pat O'Neill, 7362 (1967)
Ron Rice, Chumlum (1964)
Paul Sharits, Bad Burns (1982)
Jane Conger Belson Shimane, Odds & Ends (1959)
Harry Smith, Film No. 3: Interwoven (1947-49)
Chick Strand, Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
Andy Warhol, Mario Banana (No. 1) (1964)

The anthology was produced with the full support of the filmmakers and estates. Funding was provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts; telecine services were donated by Film Technology, Inc. John Zorn contributed new music; Martin Scorsese wrote the foreword to the program notes. AMPAS generously gave technical assistance. Net proceeds from Treasures IV will support further film preservation.

Made on a shoestring, avant-garde films have always existed at the margins of commercial distribution. Over the last two decades film archives stepped forward to save what they can. They have collaborated with artists, compared alternative versions, tracked down the best surviving source material, and preserved scores of works. There are still many more films awaiting preservation and the process continues only thanks to public support.

Richard M Roberts · Post by **Richard M Roberts** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 2:43 pm

Pass.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Penfold · Post by **Penfold** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 3:13 pm

Own and enjoy the previous volumes of the series....but I'm with Mr Roberts on this one....

Post by **Mike Gebert** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:21 pm

You're passing up Necrology?

You're passing up New Improved Institutional Quality: In the Environment of Liquids and Nasals a Parasitic Vowel Sometimes Develops?

gjohnson · Post by **gjohnson** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 8:49 pm

Did anyone catch the avant-garde documentary shorts on TCM about NYC a couple of Sundays ago?

...............YIKES!!

Gary J.

boblipton · Post by **boblipton** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:15 pm

Every time I post a bad review of an avant-garde work on the IMDB it gets slammed. Of course, people don't care for my negative review of THE COMEDY CENTRAL ROAST OF WILLIAM SHATNER either. Or my comments on PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE in which I note that despite the claims of various people that Mr. Wood was a 'subversive' artist, that doesn't make PLAN 9 worthwhile.

There's nothing wrong with experimental art except for the unwillingness of some people to admit that some experiments succeed and some fail. That's why you experiment: to figure out what works.

Bob

Paul Penna · Post by **Paul Penna** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:17 pm

boblipton wrote:Every time I post a bad review of an avant-garde work on the IMDB it gets slammed. Of course, people don't care for my negative review of THE COMEDY CENTRAL ROAST OF WILLIAM SHATNER either. Or my comments on PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE in which I note that despite the claims of various people that Mr. Wood was a 'subversive' artist, that doesn't make PLAN 9 worthwhile.

I swear that if I hear the word "subversive" used in a cinematic accolade just one more time, I'm going to overthrow the government.

Richard M Roberts · Post by **Richard M Roberts** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:43 am

Paul Penna wrote:
boblipton wrote:Every time I post a bad review of an avant-garde work on the IMDB it gets slammed. Of course, people don't care for my negative review of THE COMEDY CENTRAL ROAST OF WILLIAM SHATNER either. Or my comments on PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE in which I note that despite the claims of various people that Mr. Wood was a 'subversive' artist, that doesn't make PLAN 9 worthwhile.
I swear that if I hear the word "subversive" used in a cinematic accolade just one more time, I'm going to overthrow the government.

If I ever hear the words "Ed Wood" and "artist" in a sentence together again...........!

RICHARD M ROBERTS (who will watch BRIDE OF THE MONSTER again before he ever watches the TREASURES AVANT-GUARDE set)

Jack Theakston · Post by **Jack Theakston** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:38 am

You guys just can't appreciate Wood's mise-en-scene... (let me shoot the next person who uses THAT term!)

Frankly, I'll take Wood's inept, but totally entertaining opera over junk-food avant-garde any day. Call me unsophisticated, but leave the abstract to still art, please.

Richard M Roberts · Post by **Richard M Roberts** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 4:06 am

Jack Theakston wrote:You guys just can't appreciate Wood's mise-en-scene... (let me shoot the next person who uses THAT term!)
I remember the first time I saw the word mise-en-scene in a book, something by Lotte Eisner no doubt, and all I could say was "Mice in the scene? There's no mice in the scene, it ain't a damn Disney picture!".

What about "stimming" and "umwelt", as well as another favorite:"the absolute film"?

Frankly, I'll take Wood's inept, but totally entertaining opera over junk-food avant-garde any day. Call me unsophisticated, but leave the abstract to still art, please.

Amen! And there's more real surrealism in silent comedy than in anything Salvador Dali ever thought up. Dadism was silent comedy for people without senses of humor.

Welleschmertz!

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Post by **Mike Gebert** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:26 am

There is a handful of avant-garde films of this era that I think are really good. They don't seem to be on this set, though, perhaps because Kenneth Anger (the early, funny ones) and Bruce Conner have released their own stuff already.

Dadaism was silent comedy for people without senses of humor.

Perfect.

boblipton · Post by **boblipton** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:41 am

Paul Penna wrote:

I swear that if I hear the word "subversive" used in a cinematic accolade just one more time, I'm going to overthrow the government.

I want the movie rights.

Bob

Post by **Mike Gebert** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:45 am

Sorry I can't help, but I signed a loyalty oath when I took a library job in college.

That's what they get you for in a revolution, you know, breach of contract. Just like they get gangsters for tax evasion.

boblipton · Post by **boblipton** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:53 am

Gangster, heck! They get the real dangers to society on tax evasion: Cabinet nominees.

Bob

Richard M Roberts · Post by **Richard M Roberts** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:03 pm

Mike Gebert wrote:Sorry I can't help, but I signed a loyalty oath when I took a library job in college.

I was thrown out of the Cub Scouts for refusing to sign a loyalty oath, and my own Mom was the assistant den mother!

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Jim Roots · Post by **Jim Roots** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:00 pm

Richard M Roberts wrote:
Mike Gebert wrote:Sorry I can't help, but I signed a loyalty oath when I took a library job in college.

I was thrown out of the Cub Scouts for refusing to sign a loyalty oath, and my own Mom was the assistant den mother!

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Was she proud of you?
(Genuinely curious question, not a sarcasm.)

Jim

Richard M Roberts · Post by **Richard M Roberts** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:33 pm

Jim Roots wrote:
Richard M Roberts wrote:

I was thrown out of the Cub Scouts for refusing to sign a loyalty oath, and my own Mom was the assistant den mother!

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Was she proud of you?
(Genuinely curious question, not a sarcasm.)

Jim

She voted me out!

RICHARD M ROBERTS

"Thanks Mom, My mother folks!" -- Woody Allen, LOVE AND DEATH

Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986

Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986

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