"Seattle filmmaker Jon Behrens has been developing his unique style of cinema since the early 1980s. Critics have described his films as 'dreamy,' 'atmospheric,' 'disturbing' and 'seductively alienating.' His films have been screened in film festivals and alternative venues throughout the [world].
"Reminiscent of the underground films of the '60s, his films are filled with time-lapsed cinematography, multiple exposures and film solarization. Relying only minimally on actors or story lines, Behrens communicates his themes primarily through the visual image. ..." - Flicker Cinema Journal
Jon Behrens' website: www.jonbehrensfilms.com
Screenplay: Duane Wright; Music: Common Language.
SYMMETRY is a sad and psychedelic tale of a spiral-like downfall of a young woman, following the breakup with a boyfriend. Heavily filtered light, monotone dialogue, and foreboding aerial footage. One of very few Behrens films with actors and dialogue.
1991, 16mm, b&w tint/so, 13m, $40
Original Music: Rubato
Surrealistic, dreamy, atmospheric, hypnotic. Super high contrast journey through a collection of past life experiences. Heavily filtered light, shadows, multiple exposures, and film tinting. Almost an extension of the late '80s Behrens film entitled Exposures.
1992, 16mm, b&w tint/sound on cassette tape, 12m, $35
Timmi Harrop and Crispen grace the screen in this liquid-like atmospheric industrial performance piece. Multiple exposures, water, and some really strange underwater cinematography shots create this environment, drowning the viewer in symphony of sight and sound. This film was the first in a series of what I call water-related cinema. It was well-received during its Summer 1993 release and was screened at many film festivals in the United States and Europe.
1993, 16mm, b&w/sound on cassette tape, 3.5m, $20
This film was the third and final installment of my Urban Landscape Series and is my personal favorite of the three. In this film I utilized all the techniques that I had learned over the years and put them all into this film. I finally felt that my mission was complete regarding structures and that I could move forward and try other ideas. RUBATO provided the film's soundtrack.
1994, 16mm, b&w tint/sound, 10m, $45
This film was the first and last film that was supposed to be the first in a series of collaborations with fellow artist and friend Rasha Refaie. It is a film that was inspired by a dream that Rasha had about a girl who is awakened by a lump under her pillow. She removes the pillow to find a silver-colored egg. She then puts the egg into a small pouch and leaves her house and gets onto her white bicycle and pedals away. The film then takes the viewer through a succession of scene changes. Scene after scene of Rasha pedaling through city streets, parks and ultimately the graveyard where she discovers that she has a really bad bloody nose. She can't stop it because she can't find her silver egg.
1995, 16mm, b&w/sound on cassette tape, 15m, $45
This film is made up of footage from an untitled film from years earlier and new footage shot by me and fellow filmmaker and friend Steve Creson. The film consists of timed exposures of light layered on layer after layer. The film was then intercut with split screen sections. This film was the first full color motion picture that I have done and it is also the first collaboration with filmmaker Steve Creson. The film also contains an original soundtrack by long-time friend and film score maker Rubato.
1996, 16mm, color/sound on cassette tape, 5m, $20
The film is made up from footage that I shot of a performance artist Kitty the Fire Eater doing her fire-eating routine at the Pike Street Cinema on the last night of its life. I then took all the footage and cut it up into sections not more than 11 inches long. I then added more footage of an organic nature that I had shot earlier and repeated the process. I then took all the cutup footage and put it into a garbage bag and cut it all back together at random. This film is inspired by Wm. S. Burroughs' early cutup poems. The film is not seven minutes long and it was not shot in May. I chose the title the same way: I cut up a page out of a magazine and came up with SEVEN MINUTES IN MAY.
1996, 16mm, color/si, 2m, $20
I had wanted to make this film for many years. It was not until the summer of 1996 that the film finally came together. Again with the help of Steve Creson we loaded up all of our cameras and gear and hopped onto a plane and flew to Arizona where I wanted to shoot a film that was in the same vein as earlier films like UNDERCURRENTS, REFLECTIONS and Exposures but this time I wanted to study the rock formations and colors of northern Arizona and southern Utah. I used a lot of multiple exposure and time lapse cinematography techniques. The film also contains an outstanding musical score by Rubato.
1997, 16mm, color/sound on cassette tape, 12m, $35
When I was on holiday/film shoot in Boulder, Colorado in the summer of 1997 I was spending a lot of time hanging around with writers, poets and book publishers (I am none of the above). The poet and friend Darrin Daniel heard that one of my heroes, Mr. Stan Brakhage, was doing these film salons at the University of Colorado. We saw some incredible imagery; I got to meet Stan and was so inspired by the event that the moment I arrived home to Seattle I made this film. My first fully hand-painted film.
1997, 16mm, color/si, 3m, $20
[FLUFFY FLUFFY CALM CALM] is sort of a film poem - it is a story of a week in the life of an eyeball. The viewer sees the eyeball darting around and also sees what the eyeball sees as well. The week has been condensed down to nine minutes. The film was an experiment that worked. I shot all the eye shots, using my friend Letitia Tyler, on two hundred feet and shot all the other shots on another two hundred feet and never made a work print. I went right into cutting the negative together not ever seeing what the film looked like projected. I just wanted the editing to be all part of the eye theme. When I had a print made I was hoping that it would all say something. And it did.
1998, 16mm, b&w/si, 10m, $30
This is a film that I had planed on making for more than two years before I began to shoot it. The Idea was to shoot an entire 400 ft. magazine of film from start to finish without stopping. When news came that they were going to destroy the King County Domed Stadium I thought that this would be a perfect subject for this film. I got up at 3:45 am on that faithful morning and loaded up my beloved Auricon Pro 600 movie camera and made my way to the location that I had seeked out weeks prior. I set up my camera and framed up my shot and began shooting exactly 5 minutes before the Stadium was due to be imploded. My Idea was to document the last moments before destruction, the moments during destruction and the moments after destruction, a full 400ft of film shot in one take from one angle with out stopping. The film was shot in black and white and printed on color stock with a royal blue tint. I had always wanted to make a film way and pay homage to one of my early film influences the late great Andy Warhol. - J.B.
"At the time of its destruction, the Kingdome (built in the mid 70s) was the largest concrete structure in the world. As ugly as it was, it was also beautiful, and noble, and were it not for 500 tons of TNT and Micro Soft billions behind the demolition, it would have outlived all of us. So on this day, filmmaker Jon Behrens set his camera up for an event, but what he captured was more than real-time space and scope: quite accidentally, Behrens placed his camera in a spot and made the decision to expose a monumental collapse. What we have is more than a record. As if the shifting sand and silt in the air from the implosion threatens to cover us, miraculously, Time is given a chance to make or break our new vistas. And so on this morning sad Seattle was transformed into a London Fog scene. Behrens camera captured this, but it was his decision as an artist to know that it did not need editing; the last ten minutes of existence is pure in form, pure in feeling, and true to life. Watch it again and again, not for the big guns, but to see the awesome power of film to represent destruction, and new skies, new earth, new cities." -- Chris Chase OLYMPIA FILM FESTIVAL
"Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done. " --Aaron Burr
2000, 16mm, b/w/tint, silent, 10min $40
This film is a collaboration with filmmaker Joel Schlemowitz , on ALL SAINTS DAY 2000 we each shot 100 ft of film, at the same time of the day , 3000 miles apart, and we did not tell each other what we shot. The film was hand processed and cut up into 2ft length's and then cut back together alternating from Joel's footage to Jon's until all the film was gone. The soundtrack for this film was done the same way.
2001 16mm color/bw sound, 5min $30
This film is made up of hand painted and batik sections of film that I then step printed on an optical printer. I also used fingers, potatoes, sponges to print textures and patterns. The film was then cut into a rhythmic pattern that may play a few tricks on your brain.
2001, 16mm, color, silent, 10 min $45
This film is a collaboration with filmmaker Joel Schlemowitz , on ALL SAINTS DAY 2001 we each shot another 100 ft of film, at the same time of the day , 3000 miles apart, and we did not tell each other what we shot as we did last time. The film was hand processed and cut up into 2ft length's and then cut back together alternating from Joel's footage to Jon's until all the film was gone. This film is the follow up to ALL SAINTS DAY which was done using the same techniques the year prior soundtrack for this film was done the same way.
2002 16mm color/bw sound 5min $30
A film collaboration between filmmakers Jon Behrens and R. K. Adams. This Cinematic experiment was done using what is called a mat box. The two filmmakers each shot different Images, one shooting outside of the star the other shooting inside the Star. They also used stripe shaped mat shots alternating between the two. This film was shot, the sound design created and edited and printed in three days. This is the first film collaboration between these two veteran Seattle Filmmakers. - Steven Underwood, NW CINEMA COLLECTIVE
Cinematic Abstractions #4 is a realization of a pure cinema. Two uncorrupted visions merge into a greater vision in this accidental collaboration of color and motion. - R.K. Adams
2002 16mm color sound 7min. $35
This film was made up from footage of a discarded film project of Marc Burgio. The two of us Founded and ran the Seattle Underground film festival aka SUFF. When we were planning the festivals 4th and final year we thought that it was high time that we had a film trailer for our festival. This film was hacked together after several beers and a few hours work. I provided the films sound design.
2002 16mm b/w sound, 1&1/2 min. $15 or free when you rent two or more films of my films.
This is the second film of the Anomalies Cycle. It is a hand Painted and manipulated film. I also used the technique of bleaching and batiking of the film emulsion. The footage was then step printed on a J-K Optical Printer. Although similar in style to The Flickering of the Minds Eye, I began to experiment more with other colors and different textures such as dried leaves and flowers, hair, insect parts, and a variety of different types of inks and paints. The sound track for this film was performed by NEGATIVLAND
2003 16mm color/sound/12min $55
The second collaboration I did with R.K. Adams, we proceeded to experiment with the Idea of using panels in our films. When we talked about doing this we decided that we wanted to pay homage to the upcoming spring, the result was this film. - Jon Behrens
"This collaboration merges 5 elements of cinematic vision. Classic Jon Behrens hand painted elements frame a single image torn into four pieces. The mood alternates between color and black & white cinematography in this experimental homage to spring." —Ryan Adams Alpha Cine Labs
Vernal
Vernal equinox (Astron.), the time when the sun crosses the equator
when proceeding northward. -- Vernal grass (Bot.), a low, soft grass
(Anthoxanthum odoratum), producing in the spring narrow spikelike
panicles, and noted for the delicious fragrance which it gives to
new-mown hay; -- also called sweet vernal grass. -- Vernal signs
(Astron.), the signs, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, in which the sun
appears between the vernal equinox and summer solstice.
Obeisance
Obeisance O*bei"sance (?), n. [F. obéissance obedience, fr.
obéissant. 1. Obedience. [Obs.] Chaucer. 2. A manifestation of
obedience; an expression of difference or respect; homage; a bow; a
courtesy. Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance unto the king. 1 Kings i.
16.
2003, 16mm, color/b/w, sound, 6min $45
ANTIPODE POLYCHROMASIA is 6 minutes of pure cinematic bliss. Hand painted textures and Parisian architecture are painterly composite in brilliant color using almost forgotten film printing techniques. A hauntingly familiar soundtrack punctuates this visual collaboration.
2004, 16mm, color/sound, 6min $35
THE ASTRUM ARGENTIUM Is the third film in a series that is being called the Anomalies cycle. It is mostly a hand painted and step printed film. This time I used stained glass dyes and also experimented with photographing growing crystals with time lapse cinematography. I also created the sound design for this film.
2006, 16mm, color/sound, 6 min $45
2008, 16mm, color/sound, 7.5 min $45
This is a collection of films that I collaborated on with R.K. Adams. Aside from being a champion filmmaker, over the years he has worked as a color timer at Alpha Cine Labs and has worked on a number of my films. We have become very good friends and have made a handful of films together. Included on this DVD for the very first time are films we made together along with films we made on our own. There is also just for fun a plethora of bonus material Including filmmaker commentary, trailers, filmmaker bios, and more.
FILMS INCLUDED ON DVD ARE:
Cinematic Abstractions # 4 (see film description above)
Vernal Obeisance (see film description above)
Anomalies of the Unconscious (see film description above)
Antipode Polychromasia (see film description above)
plus Lengthening, a film by R.K. Adams
Lengthening is a 5-minute meditation on desire and anticipation by
cataloging decreasing night. Its sparse visual narrative is
brilliantly scored by an original piano composition by Cyril
Couchran. (2002 16mm color, sound, 5 min)
DVD, $40 individuals; $80 institutions