Screening Room

Brakhage returned to the program in the fall of 1980, where he showed Window, two excerpts from Short Films: 1975, Roman Numeral Series I and Creation.

Robert Fulton was an extraordinary non-fiction filmmaker and gifted aerial cinematographer who left a legacy of remarkable films shot all over the world. He was an exceptional pilot, a devout Buddhist and a brilliant independent thinker and talker. He taught for a time in Harvard's Visual and Environmental Studies Department and worked closely with Robert Gardner on large and small projects over several decades. He won many awards, including an Emmy for work in television. Fulton died in a private airplane crash in 2002 whereupon Harvard Film Study Center established the Robert E. Fulton III Fund for new filmmakers in memorium. Robert Fulton appeared on Screening Room in April 1973, and returned in April 1979 to screen the films Street Film, Path of Cessation and Chant.

Often called "the father of West Coast independent cinema," James Broughton (1913-1999) considered himself to be, first and foremost, a poet. Writing poems and making films were, for Broughton, simply two different ways of creating images with feeling. Broughton gained notoriety as a filmmaker after collaborating with Sidney Peterson on The Potted Psalm in 1946, and he went on to make many films throughout his remaining years. He is known for his lyrical, celebratory style of dealing with everyday life, the body, and sexuality, and for blending poetry with film. He published books on film, as well as books of poems, and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Relentless exploration of the nature of performance, the construction of meaning, and the relations of the sexes has guided Yvonne Rainer's long career, first in avant–garde choreography and dance and then in filmmaking. Her honors include Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships along with numerous exhibitions of her work, including recent retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. Her other films include Lives of Performers (1972), Film About a Woman Who... (1974), The Man Who Envied Women (1985), Privilege (1991), and Murder and Murder (1996).

A major figure in the American experimental film movement of the 1960s and ‘70s and a widely published theorist, Hollis Frampton made such acclaimed and influential films as Zorns Lemma, the Hapax Legomena series, and the unfinished Magellan. Retrospectives of his work have been shown at the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Modern Art, and elsewhere.The journal October twice devoted whole issues to Frampton, and the entire body of his work is preserved in the Royal Film Archive of Belgium. Frampton taught at Cooper Union, Hunter College, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. In January 1977, Hollis Frampton appeared on Screening Room to discuss his work and screen Lemon, Pas De Trois, excerpts from Maxwell’s Demon, Surface Tension and Critical Mass, and footage from what ultimately became Magellan." - DER website

Breer chats with Gardner about his approach to filmmakin'. He screens RECREATION, A MAN AND HIS DOG OUT FOR AIR, 69, GULLS AND BUOYS, FUJI and RUBBER CEMENT.

In this episode from 1975, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax is the guest and viewers are treated to a partitioned screening of his path-breaking 40 minute film Dance and Human History: Movement Style and Culture #1, accompanied by short interludes of Gardner/Lomax discussion before and after each segment. It is a kind of ‘lecture-demonstration’ version of the film. Skillful editing keeps viewers attention away from the fact of Gardner’s smoking most of the time.

Independent animator and painter Suzan Pitt, whose surreal and psychological films have gained her worldwide acclaim, continually pushes the boundaries of the animated form, sometimes working with live actors or using animation in opera stagings. Her film Asparagus won the top prize at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival and showed in theatres with David Lynch's Eraserhead for two years. She has had major exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of Art, the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York, and the Stedlijk Museum in Amsterdam. She currently teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.

Caroline Leaf’s animated work springs from her expert storytelling and pioneering animation techniques. One significant contribution to filmmaking is her technique of manipulating sand on a light-box, which she began as a student at Harvard. She later worked as an animator and director at the National Film Board of Canada. Her film The Street garnered an Academy Award nomination in 1976. On this episode, she screens the remarkable The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend and parts of The Street and The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa which were works-in-progress at the time. Visit her personal website at www.carolineleaf.com.

Ricky Leacock visited Screening Room on June 15, 1973, with Al Mecklenburg and Jon Rosenfeld. He demonstrates super-8 sync technology and screens excerpts from his films.

Derek Lamb appeared on Screening Room in June 1973 with over a dozen films and film clips that demonstrated a wide range of animation techniques.

John and Faith Hubley appeared on Screening Room in April 1973 to discuss and screen their films Eggs, The Hat, Children of the Sun, and Zuckerkandl.

Robert Fulton appeared on Screening Room in April 1973 to screen and discuss Machu Pichu and Reality's Invisible.

In March 1973, Hilary Harris visited Screening Room to screen and discuss films such as Longhorns, Highway, and Seawards the Great Ships, as well as footage from a work-in-progress about New York City.

John Whitney was a guest on the inaugural episode of Screening Room in November, 1972. He showed and discussed Permutations, 1-2-3-Osaka, Matrix, Matrix III and a film by his son, John Whitney Jr., called Terminal Self.