Stanford Cinematheque: FILM BODIES

Stanford Cinematheque presents FILM BODIES, an evening of short films on 16mm by Stan Brakhage, Carolee Schneemann, and Scott Stark. Psychodramas of abstraction reflected back in their collagist film form: these filmmakers see the celluloid as a site of physical construction, emphasizing the malleability of the medium and its potentials beyond static realism. Through superimposition, cutting, taping, or scratching the film strips, the filmmakers assemble provoking choreographies of bodies and light. Fuses (1967) — an avant garde pornographic work that features the artist and her lover, composer Jim Tenney — was greatly influenced by Brakhage’s own Loving (1957) and Window Water Baby Moving (1959). The latter, a short film documenting the birth of his first daughter, distills the filmmaker’s technological and allegorical experiments with bodies and technique. In Thigh Line Lyre Triangular (1961) Brakhage returns to the scene of birth with his third daughter, aiming to improve the emotional capture he deemed lacking in Window Water Baby Moving. Thirty years later, Stark extends the conversation of sex on screen, remixing old-school pornos and removing the obscene. In the braiding of entwined experimental legacy shared by Brakhage, Schneemann, and Stark, our program also invites viewers to consider the survival of bodies of filmography, censorship, and film legacies. 

The selection of silent works will be accompanied by a live, improvisational score led by The ½ Core+. 

This event is a collaboration between Stanford Cinematheque, Stanford Art & Art History, The Clayman Institute for Gender Research, the Program in Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies (FGSS), the Program in American Studies, and the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. An informal reception will follow the screenings. Prints made available thanks to Canyon Cinema. 

As a graduate student-run film collective based in the Department of Art & Art History, Cinematheque advances a dynamic programming effort of film and video for the greater Stanford community. Cinematheque aims to serve as a generative hub of ongoing discovery for current students thinking about film and media across the University as well as a connective link between the University and the broader regional film culture. 

VISITOR INFORMATION: Room 115 is located in the McMurtry Building on Stanford campus at 355 Roth Way. Visitor parking is available in designated areas and payment is managed through ParkMobile (free after 4pm, except by the Oval). Alternatively, take the Caltrain to Palo Alto Transit Center and hop on the free Stanford Marguerite Shuttle. If you need a disability-related accommodation or wheelchair access information, please contact Julianne Garcia at juggarci [at] stanford.edu (juggarci[at]stanford[dot]edu). This screening event is open to Stanford affiliates only.

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