Event 1- Metaphors in Vision

I attended the event “Metaphors on Vision: Films by Stan Brakhage” shown in the Billy Wilder Theatre at the Hammer Museum. The event put on by UCLA Film and Television showcased Stan Brakhage’s revolutionary work in using an 8mm lenses camera. 

The Hammer Museum is a perfect location to show these films as it is a space that brings together new technological and art advances to make beautiful works in such an industrialized and open looking space. The theatre’s space was big and open with a large amount of seating and a stage in front of the screen for the lecturer to discuss the films before hand. The showing started with Thomas Beard; (pictured below, from right: myself, Thomas beard and my friend) who had restored the films and put them on display, discussing his thought about the works and how Brakhage has revolutionized filmmaking.

Brakhage’s films that were shown included the 23^rd psalm branch and other Psalms. In his works he used a 8mm lensed camera instead of the 16mm camera, which was used at the time for most film work. The most interesting thing that Thomas Beard recognized is that with the 8mm, Brakhage had to film what he was interested in, instead of what we see today, “a glammed up Hollywood production.”  Brakhage captured raw footage and emotion in these films and that’s what art is about, exposing something or someone in their truest forms. These films were made from 1945 until 1965, all shot in 8mm and explored different subjects such as the Vietnam war and family life.

I feel like these films were a great connection to technology and art which we explore every week through different mediums such as math and science.  I have started to develop a deeper understand of art through these topics and in this showing of films I was about to see that through Brakhage’s depiction of his subjects he was able to show us his own visions of art emotionally and give us insight into the medium uncommonly used in his time of film making. Pictured on the right: a screen shot from the film, 23rd Psalm Branch, an anti war cry. 

Sources

Beard, Thomas. “Metaphors on Vision.” Metaphors on Vision | UCLA Film & Television Archive, www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2018/04/13/metaphors-on-vision.

Brakhage, Stan, director. The 23rd Psalm Branch. 1945.

Frye, Brian L. “Stan Brakhage.” Senses of Cinema, 18 Feb. 2018, sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/brakhage/.

Henderson Jonathan. “23^rd Psalm Branch by Brakhage.” Forced Perspective, a montage of film reviews, criticism and theory, 1 Feb. 2011. https://fpscinema.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/23rd-psalm-branch/.

“Stan Brakhage: Metaphors on Vision.” San Francisco Cinematheque, www.sfcinematheque.org/screenings/stan-brakhage-metaphors-on-vision/.

“Stan Brakhage's Metaphors on Vision.” Stan Brakhage's Metaphors on Vision | Whitney Museum of American Art, whitney.org/Events/StanBrakhage.

Speirs, Shaughnessy. “From the Archives: Experimental Filmmaker Stan Brakhage Rants about Bad Art.” Westword, 21 May 2016, www.westword.com/arts/from-the-archives-experimental-filmmaker-stan-brakhage-rants-about-bad-art-5798546.