Educational Media Reviews Online

A year after Bruce Conner’s death, an anthology of films by 11 filmmakers who could essentially be Conner’s artistic progeny, finds its way into a compilation produced by Cinemad, the film zine, for its tenth anniversary. The compilation also includes a film by Conner himself. The 60-page booklet with essays and interviews along with the 16-film/video DVD are dedicated to the memory of Conner, one of the foremost experimental filmmakers and artists of the 20th century.

Started in 1998 as a photocopy zine, Cinemad covered experimental, avant-garde, underground, cult, independent films and filmmakers. It has released yearly anthologies and many of its interviews are found at www.IBLAMESOCIETY.com.

All the films presented on the DVD exhibit an astute curatorial eye and among them, the following are worth noting in more detail: Bruce Conner’s Valse Triste (1978), Sam Green’s lot 63, grave C (2006), and Bill Morrison’s Light is Calling (2004). Upon rewatching Conner’s Valse Triste, one is still awed by the selection of the found footage he uses. His sources for the footage reveal beautifully shot images whether documentary or fiction and whose quality emanates from pristine prints. He typically sets his films to music and the effect can be anything from hilarious to heart-wrenching. There is a reason Bruce Conner continues to be recognized for his groundbreaking experimental work: it is impossible to not be impressed with the compelling imagery and sound in his films even after numerous viewings. Valse Triste is just one of the many films made by Conner that absolutely need to become available to wider audiences. A compilation Bruce Conner DVD would be my choice as a top priority project for a distributor of experimental films.

The discovery of a wonderful little gem in a compilation is always thrilling. The little gem on Cinemad Almanac 2009 is Sam Green’s lot 63, grave C a 10-minute video documentary about the young man who was stabbed by the Hell’s Angels during the Rolling Stones Altamont concert in 1969. The documentary uses archival footage along with original footage that is cleverly put together and edited to produce a film with a definite look and a distinctive style. All this is packed into ten minutes. This film could be used as a template in teaching documentary filmmaking to students. It is an excellent example of the way to make an original, innovative, yet very personal film generated by a single idea. Finally, Bill Morrison’s Light is Calling is a capsule of his earlier longer opus Decasia. It shows the beauty of decaying nitrate film stock which, when it decomposes, creates bubbles and layers of textured emulsion that move and evolve in a beautiful rhythm with projection. The film in question is The Bells (1926) a film inspired by Poe and starring Boris Karloff and Lionel Barrymore. The decomposition adds additional layers to the images edited together for this film and stirs emotions of loss and remembrance of the 90% of silent films that are now lost. The Bells, however, is luckily not one of the casualties.

Cinemad Almanac 2009 is very highly recommended for its choice of films and its producers are encouraged to continue putting out such yearly compilations.