Stan Brakhage (1933–2003)
Author of Essential Brakhage: Selected Writings on Film-Making
About the Author
A major figure in American avant-garde films, Stan Brakhage made his first film, Interim, at the age of 18, after having a nervous breakdown and dropping out of college. Most of his experimental films since then have been shorts that explore the film medium, offering a modernist critique of show more Renaissance realist space. He frequently alters the strip of film itself by making scratches in the emulsion after recording images on it, disrupting the effect of the real by recalling the two-dimensionality of what appears to be three-dimensional. Mothlight (1963) was made as a collage of bits of leaves, seeds, ferns, flowers, and moth wings, attached not onto film celluloid but onto splicing tape, which was then run through an optical printer. Mothlight is therefore a film made without a camera and even without film. Because the objects in the film were not photographed, they appear more as abstract shapes than as natural things. Other aspects of Brakhage's short films include accelerated and slow motion shots, optical distortions such as tinting, alternation between monochrome and color stock or negatives and positives; and the presence of film leader and the dots that end a roll of film, as well as frames marked by the flare that results when film is exposed as the camera is being loaded or unloaded. These techniques, too, may have a symbolic or visionary dimension. For example, The Wonder Ring (1955) includes some surrealist effects of superimposition achieved very simply while filming in a subway car: Sometimes the viewer can see both the reflections on the window glass and what is behind the glass in the landscape through which the train passes. Many of Brakhage's films do have characters and stories; however, they are not realistic. Dog Star Man (1965) has no coherent narrative, with continuity achieved instead through recurring patterns and motifs. The dog star man of the title climbs a snow-covered hill with a dog, occasionally falling. At the end he chops wood. In between, there are repeated shots of the sun, trees, different seasons, an infant, and sexual organs, all linked metaphorically through juxtaposition and repetition. Such a film constitutes what Brakhage called an adventure of perception, one in which the eye sees reality outside the convention of realism, with its laws of composition and perspective. Such adventures are always his guiding principle in filmmaking. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Stan Brakhage
The Brakhage Lectures: Georges Méliès, D. W. Griffith, Carl Theodore Dreyer, Sergei Eisenstein (1972) 13 copies, 1 review
The Mammals of Victoria 1 copy
Rage Net 1 copy
The Stars Are Beautiful 1 copy
Stellar 1 copy
The Wonder Ring 1 copy
Untitled (For Marilyn) 1 copy
Unconscious London Strata 1 copy
The birds of paradise 1 copy
Window Water Baby Moving 1 copy
The Wold Shadow 1 copy
Nightmusic 1 copy
Persian Series 1-3 1 copy
Eye Myth 1 copy
Mothlight 1 copy
Crack Glass Eulogy 1 copy
From Metaphors on Vision 1 copy
"..." Reel Five 1 copy
Black Ice 1 copy
Cat's Cradle 1 copy
Chinese Series 1 copy
Commingled Containers 1 copy
The Dante Quartet 1 copy
Lovesong 1 copy
The Dark Tower 1 copy
Desistfilm 1 copy
Glaze of Cathexis 1 copy
I Take These Truths 1 copy
Kindering 1 copy
The Riddle of Lumen 1 copy
Associated Works
Stan Brakhage: Correspondences (Chicago Review, 47:4 and 48:1) — Contributor — 8 copies
Tree 4: Winter 1974 — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Brakhage, James Stanley
- Other names
- Sanders, Robert (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1933-01-14
- Date of death
- 2003-03-09
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Kansas City, Missouri, USA
- Place of death
- Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Places of residence
- San Francisco, California, USA
New York, New York, USA
Lump Gulch, Colorado, USA
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - Education
- Dartmouth College (dropped out)
California School of the Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute) - Occupations
- filmmaker
teacher - Organizations
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago
University of Colorado at Boulder
Members
Reviews
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 56
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 320
- Popularity
- #73,923
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 2
- ISBNs
- 25
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 1
Stan Brakhage was one of the most influential of independent American filmmakers. From 1952 to 2003 he issued nearly 400 original films, ranging in length from a few seconds to several hours. Among his best known film works are “Dog Star Man,��� “The Act of Seeing with one’s own eyes,” and “The Dante Quartet.” His many books on film include Metaphors on Vision (Anthology Film Archives, 1963), Film Biographies (Turtle Island, 1977) and Brakhage Scrapbook: Collected Writings, 1964 - 1980 (Documentext, 1982). Brakhage's films are often noted for their expressiveness and lyricism.
The recipient of many awards and prizes, including the 1986 Maya Deren Award from the American Film Institute and the 1989 MacDowell Colony Medal, Brakhage was also a professor of film studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. An artist of prodigous energy and unflagging genius, Stan Brakhage died on March 9, 2003.… (more)