Filmed and edited by Robert Nelson. Starring Ron Davis and Judy Goldhaft. Design by William T. Wiley and Robert Hudson. Sound collage by Steve Reich.
"Dada-inspired performance in which absurd actions take place in an environment of strange symbols and graphic forms." (Mark Webber)
"None of us knew anything about making movies at that time, but we all knew about art (namely, that it had something to do with having a good time)." (RAN)
Note: Please play sound from the beginning of the film. The track begins approximately six minutes into the movie.
1963, 16mm, b/w, so, 15m, $60
“Original idea and inspiration from La Course aux Potirons (1907) by Louis Feuillade.” (RAN)
“A major American underground classic. This film originally served as a theatrical intermission in the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s social-political satire “A Minstrel Show, or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel”, but it quickly took on a life of its own. Oh Dem Watermelons takes hilarious and absurd jabs at the watermelon as a tired Black stereotype, using a wild mix of collage, animation, and irreverence, set to a propulsive soundtrack by Steve Reich.” (Mark Toscano)
1965, 16mm, color, so, 11m, $50
“Nelson concocted this collage film from a mix of staged absurdist erotica and bizarre found footage. He uses (and subverts) all the obscenity, shallowness, and unsubtle coercion of American media and advertising to create a raucous, satirical come-on.” (Mark Toscano)
“Like a bite on the ass with rubber teeth.” (Q.A. Standish)
“I’d imagine Confessions could cause some kind of riot, in fact, if you show it in Austin.” (Film Quarterly)
Note: Please project all the black leader at the beginning of the film.
1965, 16mm, b/w, so, 16m, $60
“A kinetic film sketch designed to involve the viewers muscles. The rocky seaside cliffs near Stinson Beach, California, hold the wrecked carcass of a ‘52 pickup that is a rusting monument to Hot Leatherette.” (RAN)
1967, 16mm, b/w, so, 5m, $30
Made by Robert Nelson and William T. Wiley.
“This film can be of immeasurable aid to would-be actors who are weak in the jape.” (William T. Wiley)
1967, 16mm, color, so, 9m, $45
Made by Robert Nelson and William Allan
“In their starkly minimal film, The Awful Backlash, directors Robert Nelson and William Allan, focus solely on a pair of hands as they begin to unravel what appears to be a tangled fishing line. Any further evidence of the title’s confusing ‘awfulness’ – other than the literal disentanglement of the line remains, however, tentative, left as it were, literally, at a loose end. The viewer knows nothing of the incident that led to this backlash or entanglement; nor of the directors’ initial motive for the title indeed not of any other attempt at blending an additional storyline beyond what is seen. There is, perhaps, one link with a reverse reaction – a sense of gradual recovery taking place, as the thread unfolds from a position of multiplicity back to a singular line.” (Pamela Kember, Rethinking Refunctioning, ‘Awful Backlash’ catalogue, May 2000)
1967, 16mm, b/w, so, 14m, $60
Made by Robert Nelson and William Allan in cooperation with KQED-TV San Francisco. Starring an ensemble cast that includes Bill Gourley, Bruce Nauman, Nelson, Allan, and a host of others.
“War is Hell is such a delicate blending of cinematic cliches, extremely realistic views of war (the effects on the individuals), and vaudeville blackouts, that I still cannot understand how they have managed to make it work and work so well.” (from a letter received by a TV station that showed War is Hell)
1968, 16mm, b/w, so, 29m, $100
Starring Robert Nelson, William T. Wiley, and Diane Nelson. Music by Blue Crumb Truck.
One of Nelson’s greatest, and a major classic. Exactly thirty minutes long.
“Even when we know the game is an illusion, the experience of Bleu Shut is entirely a pleasure: the ‘game’ is fun, the Nelson/Wiley debates, infectiously funny; and Nelson’s choice of imagery, quirky and amusing. Bleu Shut reveals, and allows us to enjoy, our gullibility within the pervasive absurdity of modern life.” (Scott MacDonald)
1970, 16mm, color, so, 30m, $125
Starring Robert Nelson, William T. Wiley, William Geis, and Mike Henderson.
“A ‘film wake’. Though celebratory in mood, it has a mournful subtext... death and dying. We dedicated it to Dr. Sam West, departed friend and patron of the arts, trusting that his ghost would approve our hijinx and seeming irreverence.” (RAN)
1974, 16mm, color, so, 5m, $30
Made by Robert Nelson, Dick Blau, and Joe Chang.
"Hamlet Act demonstrates what can be done when a film text is made to oppose a theatrical text, creating a new synthesis. The dialectic oppositions set up between film/video, film/theatre, video/theatre, and film/video/theatre create a total transformation of Hamlet from its pre-20th century signification system to a contemporary signification system. Hamlet, caught in the web of psychological forces is seen, through his position between film/video/theatre, as a metaphor for contemporary technology." (Owen Shapiro)
"Hamlet Act is a remarkably staged excerpt from Shakespeare's play which brilliantly and artfully experiments with multiple layers of self-reference and (re)presentation." (Mark Toscano)
1982, 16mm, b/w, so, 21m, $80
Made by The Jones Family.
“Nelson experiments with presenting his viewer with the two sides of every subject in a dense visual masterwork of stark superimpositions.” (Mark Toscano)
“An experiment in group portraiture in which we are simultaneously seeing opposite sides of the sitters’ heads. Probably not a solution for every group portrait, but a distinctive result has been achieved here nonetheless.” (Q.A. Standish)
1988, 16mm, b/w, so, 9m, $45