SONTAG PLATZ (1982) is a word to Paul Klee. The first film upon which I painted. The texture here is smoother and the forms closed more than in theater films. Still I was occupied with the concerns I held dear as a painter.
BIG BROTHER (1983) is a comic book/collage film. The images are taken from commercials and other commercially released films as well as my own shooting. Sections of frames were cut out and then placed into Super 8 film frames which had been painted upon, a mouth here, a leg there. This film can also be read like a comic strip on the rewinds. The film was blown up to 16mm. Ironically my hope had been to keep the film in Super 8 as a discourse on gauge chauvinism, one of the implications in the title.
Note: SONTAG PLATZ and BIG BROTHER are on one reel.
1982/1983, 16mm, color/si, 11m, $33
FIRST OF MAY (1984) is a two-minute epic of sorts. Desires surface. A kind of decay sets in. Water gives in to gravity carrying off the fading effects of a gaudy, carnal down. FLAP (1983) is a very direct approach to moviemaking. A 3x5 card waved in front of the line of a projector beam, shot from a perpendicular angle to the projector. A good old-fashioned light/shadow play.
Note: FIRST OF MAY and FLAP are on one reel.
1984/1983, 16mm, color/si, 5.5m, $20
A discourse on marketing through images. The "surface" is an abstract potpourri of polyrhythms, "named" items jumping into recognition here and there. I pulled magazine ink off the page with scotch tape and glued the tape strips onto film leader and rephotographed. It is a tale of coming to terms, of suspended disbeliefs.
1985, 16mm, color/si, 9m, $27
Photographed in East Somerville, Massachusetts, an empty lot piled with the garbage and remnants of the past lives of its nearby residents cut in with the brave laundry of a present set of inhabitants next door, the children of whom roam through the claustrophobia, making from it their own private sense.
1986-1987, 16mm, color/so, 7m, $24
SNOW MOVIES (1983) was shot in the winter landscape of upstate New York and in snowbound Cambridge, Massachusetts. I have broken down the various purviews and scales to two dimensions with pixilation and framing. Phil S. says it is a capsulized version of the history of Western painting (I paraphrase).
FOURTH OF JULY (1988): Unable to attend official functions, I fight no one, discovering instead the simple entreaties of the adolescent streets.
Note: SNOW MOVIES and FOURTH OF JULY are on one reel.
1983/1988, 16mm, color/si, 11m, $39
CROSS ROAD (1988) was a film made after having fallen down on my knees. A painted salutation to Hermes.
MIDWEEKEND (1985): Great Society Era, social services, "how to" films from the 1960s and other footage from travel, education, documentary and unsplit 8mm film edited with densely painted film leader in rapid sequences of one- to three-frame splices.
Note: CROSS ROAD and MIDWEEKEND are on one reel.
1985/1988, 16mm, color/si, 9m, $30
A series of very short "collectibles." An album of personalities. This is an ongoing project.
1985-1988, 16mm, color/si, 10m, $30
The Twined Shadow of the Dance. One dancer folding back upon herself.
1988, 16mm, color/si, 8m, $24
"If a body meet a body, comin' through the rye. If a body kiss a body, make a body cry." From an old folk song, "Comin' Through the Rye." This painted film is for the daughter of Troy as it fell to the Greeks and to all girls seeking womanhood by way of tears.
1989, 16mm, color/si, 2.5m, $20
Black and white images of various human endeavors cut quickly together with painted leader of muted earthy hues. The tone of the film is established through the concept of conflict between Progress and inevitability.
1989, 16mm, b&w/color/si, 9m, $30
A collage film, cutouts, as in BIG BROTHER (1983), this time onto 16mm film. Images are drawn from Night of the Living Dead, Magician and dental procedure films. One man's attempt to "crack a wall."
1989, 16mm, color/si, 45sec, $20