Image of Stan Brakhage

Stan Brakhage

Stan Brakhage is one of the most influential filmmakers in American avant-garde cinema, noted for his unflinching social commentaries and technical innovations. Over his nearly 40-year career, he has made over 200 films of varying length. He made his first film, Interim (1952) at age 18 after dropping out of college. Brakhage films seek to change the way we see. They encourage viewers to eschew traditional narrative structure in favor of pure visual perception that is not reliant on naming what is seen; rather his goal is to create a more visceral visual experience, for he believes that a "stream-of visual-consciousness could be nothing less than the pathway of the soul." To this end, his films are shot in highly sensual colors and utilize minimal soundtracks. His work can be divided into distinct periods. His first short films explored the properties and possibilities of light. In many of his experimental ventures, Brakhage has forgone traditional cinematography in favor of working directly with the film stock itself. He has occasionally painted, inked, scratched and dyed images onto it; he has also tried pasting organic objects on the film. His most famous example is the 1963 short Mothlight in which he glued moth wings onto the stock. Some of his early films were based on his most intimate experiences that included making love to his new bride--depicted on negative film--in Wedlock House: An Intercourse (1959), and an attempt to bring his dead dog back to life with a camera in Sirius Remembered (1959). During the 1960s, Brakhage's iconoclastic views were celebrated for their poetry, but during the '70s, his focus changed to social issues and he alienated many supporters with such disturbing film series as the "Pittsburgh documents" in which he presented many gruesome views of inner city life with films such as Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (1971) which was shot in a morgue. He also continued with autobiographical material with the "Sincerity/Duplicity series. During the 1980s, Brakhage's focus again changed--this time he became intrigued with creating truly "abstract" films such as Arabics (1982) which consists of brilliant bursts of colored light which he claims, represent "envisioned music." In addition to filmmaking, Brakhage also wrote books about films and filmmaking and also served as a teacher.


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Born:
Jan 14, 1933 In Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Movie/TV Credits:
47
First Appeared:
Movie Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film 2011-07-24
Latest Project:
In the movie The Extraordinary Child 1954-11-12
Known For
Poster of As Is Was
Poster of Invocation: Maya Deren
Poster of Grand Opera: An Historical Romance
Poster of Screening Room
Filmography
Movie Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film Himself
Movie For Stan Himself
Movie Notes on Marie Menken Himself (archive footage)
Movie Keeping an Eye on Stan
Movie Stan Brakhage Exits the Cinema and Enters the Light of Day Himself
Movie In the Mirror of Maya Deren Himself
Movie Vakvagany Himself
Movie Garden Path
Movie As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty Himself
Movie Looking at Forest of Bliss Himself
Movie Keepers of the Frame Himself
Movie Brakhage Himself
Movie Birth of a Nation Himself
Movie Stan Brakhage on Gregory Markopoulos
Movie Stan Brakhage on Jim Davis
Movie Cannibal! The Musical Noon Sr.
Movie As Is Was
Movie Jonas in the Desert Himself
Movie Abstract Cinema
Movie Z (Zee Not Zed)
Movie Joseph Cornell: Worlds in a Box Himself
Movie Watunna Narrator
Movie Faust's Other: An Idyll
Movie I... Dreaming
Movie Invocation: Maya Deren Himself
Movie Tortured Dust
Movie Grand Opera: An Historical Romance Himself (voice)
Movie The Stars Are Beautiful Narrator
Series Screening Room Himself
Movie Reality's Invisible Himself
Movie Filmmakers Himself
Movie Diaries, Notes, and Sketches Self
Movie The Art of Vision Man
Movie Dog Star Man
Movie Song 1
Movie Dog Star Man: Part III
Movie Dog Star Man: Part IV
Movie Dog Star Man: Part I
Movie Dog Star Man: Part II
Movie Prelude: Dog Star Man
Movie Window Water Baby Moving Self (Father)
Movie Wedlock House: An Intercourse
Movie Cat's Cradle Self
Movie Flesh of Morning
Movie Trumpit
Movie The One Romantic Venture of Edward
Movie The Extraordinary Child