Video autobiography from age six to thirteen. Scenes and narrative shot on location, ending with a video transfer of the actual 16mm film footage of the artist's elaborate wartime Bar Mitzvah.
1972, VHS, b&w/so, 60m, $100
Excerpts from footage shot with a black and white 1/2" Sony Portapak during Bill Creston's trips to France, Spain, and Portugal in 1973 and 1974, and featuring many noted European artists, several of whom are now regulars on the current American video scene.
1974, VHS, b&w/so, 120m, $100
A film consisting primarily of rapid segments shot in and around New York City with original music and sound usually cut in equal length to each image. The principal subject of the film is New York street culture: birds, dogs, transportation, derelicts, pedestrians and seamy life, intercut with a very few fragments of nature, indoor and simple subjects. Each sound has been written as dialogue or collected from the radio or produced on synthesizer to accompany each image and establish attitude: amusement, amazement, contrast, bewilderment, humor, absurdity.
Exhibition: Museum of Modern Art, NY; "Old and New Masters of Super 8," Anthology Film Archives, NY; Millennium, NY; Brussels Int'l Film Festival; Caracas Int'l Film Festival; Ann Arbor Film Festival.
1981, S8mm, color/so, 18m, $55
A 14-minute S8mm film which extends the ranges of Creston's earlier works, especially RUNNER, Leonard Moltz, and Open 7 Days. In this film, each segment is accompanied by original dialogue and monologue which permit the viewer direct access to the artist's underlying rationale for voyeurism. The writing reflects an uncanny ear for street talk and gesture. It is spoken with nuance and inflection by seven artist-actors under Creston's direction.
Exhibition: Museum of Modern Art, NY; "Old and New Masters of Super 8," Anthology Film Archives; Exit Art Int'l Forum of S8mm, NY; Brussels Int'l Film Festival; Caracas Int'l Film Festival.
1984, S8mm, color/so, 14m, $40
Starring: Barbara Rosenthal, Richard Miller, Lorraine Schanzer, Ken Freeman, Tom Gormley, Sam Creston, Selma Creston, Ola Creston, Sena Clara Creston and Bill Creston. A ten-minute film consisting of carefully sequenced non-linear scripted one-liners molded and edited into the heightened patterns of this filmmaker's absurdist social observation. Exhibition: Museum of Modern Art, NY; Anthology Film Archives; Brussels Int'l Film Festival; Caracas Int'l Film Festival.
1984, S8mm, color/so, 14m, $40
In this short, absurdist narrative, casting himself once again as an elderly derelict approached by a passerby, Creston explores conventionality and unconventionality, need and desire, pride and the human condition. Winner 2003-4 NYFA Filmmaking Grant. Screened at Anthology Film Archives, NYC; Pioneer Theater, NYC; DUTV, Philadelphia.
DVD black and white sound, 9 minutes $300 signed
KELSEY: A video portrait of artist, madman and street entrepreneur Denham Arthur Oswald Kelsey, III. This tape was first shown at the Kitchen in 1973, and then at the First Annual Video Documentary Festival at Global Village.
THE INDIANA TAPES: An intimate portrait of a back country Indiana preacher and his family.
1972, VHS, b&w/so, 105m, $100
Includes: BERT LAHR: fifteen minutes of Carl Methfessel's humorously painful and ingratiating warm-ups to his imitations of Bert Lahr. CRACKS: A man tries to divine the meaning of the sidewalk. Original voice-over improvisation by Carl Methfessel. CRIPPLE: Twelve minutes of uncomfortable travel on uneven crutches in an unlikely environment. Collaboration with Carl Methfessel. NEWSDEALER: A short portrait of Mickey, the corner philosopher-newsdealer. THE EXECUTION: A prophetic tape about the sudden death of a character, played by the late Carl Methfessel, and featuring Methfessel's experimental saxophone soundtrack. S.E.G.: A humorous experiment with a vintage video special effects generator, and the news story of an altercation between elderly German roommates.
1971-1974, VHS, b&w/so, 59m, $100