"An extraordinary film, which powerfully evokes the feeling of the city, but more important, a film of fine graphic design." - Lenny Lipton
"Things to watch for include: the way DeWitt thinks inside his camera, the use of single-frame techniques to enhance certain images, the lens-integrity in zoom and focusing effects (he borrowed Vanderbeek's equipment to make this film), and the moderate use of solarization (re-exposed/negative print) and multiple exposure. There is a lot to be learned from ATMOS FEAR." - David Buehler
Awards: Zellerbach Award for Film as Art, 1966; SF Int'l Film Festival; First Prize, Independent Filmmakers Competition, 1971.
Broadcast nationally on the Camera Three program, 1971.
1966, 16mm, color/so, 6m, $25
"THE LEAP is impressive for its mixture of pure video space with representational filmic space. Thus an ordinary man seems to interact physically with videographic apparitions, moving in and out of different time space realities, fluctuating between the physical and metaphysical with each stride of his leap toward freedom." - Gene Youngblood
"... a vividly visual abstraction set to electronic music (by Man Meyer) which commits chaos and absurdity to a sense of resolution ... a highly deserving prize winner." - Norman K. Dorn
The escape from the confines of the past by a release of inner energy.
Awards: Gund Award for short film, SF Int'l Film Festival, 1969; Foothill College Film Festival; Third Independent Filmmakers Competition, St. Lawrence University, NY.
Broadcast nationally on the Camera Three Program, 1969.
1968, 16mm, color/so, 8m, $30
"[FALL] subtly but powerfully equates the myth of Icarus with possible nuclear holocaust. ... DeWitt's achievement lies in conveying this obvious comparison in freshly stirring imagery and with an awesome sense of the glory of Icarus-mankind's rise and the catastrophe of his fall." - Edgar Daniels
"What is most powerfully effective in FALL is the extraordinary sophistication of DeWitt's visual techniques, his graphic eye, and his complex designs. Because each unit of the exposition is so painstakingly conceptualized and nurtured, an audience is afforded a unique kind of purview on the elements as they are reconstituted in the more complex overlays. Thus the early, Magritte-like compositions of eye and sky establish basis for later more complicated efforts .... Color changes worked on given images (the bird, the sky) avoid the oversimplifications of hues/cues. Certain effects, as when clouds pass through the falling body which is outlined in flaming orange, can only be described as awesome. ... [A] work of immense dedication and exceptional skill." - John Fell
1971, 16mm, color/so, 16m, $45
Video illusions created with experimental technology, this collection includes synthesized visual music and a unique form of "mime de style." The pantomime combines synthetic sets with the live performance of DeWitt in his mime persona, Zierot le Fou. One technique explored at length is video tape-head delay. Both picture and sound are echoed through multiple generations. This allows the mime to interact with an earlier recording of his own movement. In the visual music pieces this rhythmic repetition produces minimalist structures suggestive of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. The 1974 date of creation places PHILHARMONIA, one of the included works, at the origin of this now recognized musical style.
Produced at WNET (The TV Lab), Syracuse University (Synapse) and SUNY/Albany (The Electronic Music Studio). Broadcast by PBS in 1975 and 1976.
Awards: First Prize, ReFocus 75; Computer Arts Festival, CUNY, 1974; Computer Arts Exhibition, Tokyo, 1976; Computing in Arts and Humanities, NYU, 1977.
1975, VHS, color/so, 30m, $50 Home; $100 Other
This program is a collection of comic pantomime skits with high tech tricks. MULTIPLE IDENTITY MARATHON, for example, was realized by matching processed images of mime performance to a caustic verbal attack on charitable telethons. The voiceovers of Proctor and Bergman appeal for contributions while we see victims of "multiple identity" parade on the TV screen. Another skit, JUST A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ... captures the routine of a 9 to 5 institutional drone. Based on the stage performance of the Denver-based mime Mike Berg, this video realization uses synthetic sets and props that graphically match the mime's environment. Finally, an excerpt from GULLIBLE'S TRAVELS (1972) satirizes television hype with a viperous bite.
Produced at WNET (TV Lab), Syracuse University (Synapse), SUNY/Albany (Electronic Music Studio and Educational Communications Center), and Northern Michigan University.
Award: Second Ithaca Video Festival, 1976
1976, VHS, color/so, 30m, $50 Home; $100 Other
Combining verité interviews, off-air footage and a Monty Pythonesque performance by the Air Farce players, this is a Docu-satire. News programs, commercials, soap operas, sports and game shows are presented as a deconstructivist video collage. Pantomime, stand-up comedy and animation are used for the satire. The off-air clips, some dating back to 1974, seem frighteningly current. A concluding commentary by Nicholas Johnson hints at how to talk back to your television set. Produced through the New York State Council on the Arts facilities at Syracuse University (Synapse) and WNET (The TV Lab). Collaborators included Ralph Arlyck and Vibeke Sorenson.
Exhibition: Input 80, Corp. of Public Broadcasting; Global Village Documentary Festival, 1979; Hometown USA Festival, National Federation of Local Cable Programmers.
1979, VHS, color/so, 30m, $40 Home; $80 Other
A survey of the artist's work in pantomime as captured on film and video using experimental technologies. Here the illusions are as much a product of the recording media as they are "mime de style." WALKING DOWN STAIRS uses an electronic waveform that looks like an escalator. In BALLOONATICS the lighter-than-air balloon is filled with electrons instead of helium. This proves that there is no gravity in a CRT. This program concludes with a demonstration of Pantomation, a machine-vision computer explicitly designed to integrate mime and dance with video and computer graphics.
Produced at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Video Synthesis Lab), WNET (TV Lab), Syracuse University (Synapse), and MRC Films (New York City). Award: CAPS Video Festival, 1980
1980, VHS, color/so, 30m, $60 Home; $120 Other