Aims and Goals of the Course

This course was designed to present an overview of the astounding career of one of the greatest artists of our time, Stan Brakhage, who is retiring from CU this year as a Distinguished Professor of Film Studies. The purpose of the class is to honor the singular achievement of our friend, colleague, and teacher and we will dedicate ourselves to giving his work all that it is due — and I will demand an atmosphere of the highest receptivity and utmost respect for the work. This class will be unprecedented in its scope — only here, in Stan Brakhage’s home town, is it possible to design a course with this range of Brakhage films, and we will see brand new prints that cover the entire span of his protean career from 1952 to the present — indeed, this will be the first major celebration of Brakhage’s 50 years of filmmaking. The University of Colorado, with funds from the Donner Foundation, has just purchased new prints of every film that Stan has made — some 380 films. And we will be the very first to see these prints — so this opportunity is truly a once in a lifetime undertaking. If you take this course, then you are entering into a tacit agreement with me, of commitment, dedication, and seriousness of purpose, and together we will create a unique forum here at CU this fall for the appreciation of film as an art. I need you to be alert, open, generous, and imaginative — and I need you to be truly present during every class meeting. I am hoping that this will be more than just another college course for you. I want you to open your eyes to new possibilities of visual consciousness.

We will be looking at Stan Brakhage’s career in roughly chronological order to get a sense of the immense arc of his creativity and the changes that occurred over a lifetime of work, and so I have programmed related films from the same era under different ‘headers’ for each class. We will also be investigating a variety of contexts for these works, the cultural climate in which they were made, and we’ll take an occasional look at other filmmakers who were contemporaries of Brakhage on this alternative path of filmmaking throughout the years. Each class session has assigned readings from various sources, and YOU MUST DO THE READING in order to go deeper into these works after the screenings are over. You need both the EYE AND THE MIND. I have carefully designed the syllabus so that you will have enormous resources at your disposal with which to be able to think about these works in depth. Each class will start with a lecture. Then we will watch the films and engage in brief discussions after each work. I will also be handing out shot-by-shot descriptions of many of the films at the beginning of each session, which should help you to recall the individual films in detail after the screenings —so you needn’t take notes during the films. Make no mistake — this will be a very difficult journey, but if you do the work and keep an open mind, I will do everything I can to make it a meaningful and memorable learning experience for all of you. But I need your help. Hence:

Rules of the Game

1. You must attend class, and I mean that in the truest sense — you must be attentive and truly present. Be here on time. I will take roll at precisely 3:30 pm every class, so if you are late, it is up to you to notify me during the break. If you are continually late, we will have a problem - and your grade will be reduced. I will give you some flexibility, but after three absences, your grade will automatically go down by half a grade for each subsequent absence. Four total absences, and the highest grade you can expect will be an A -; Five absences, no higher than a B+, etc. If you have perfect attendance, on the other hand, your grade will be lifted up half a grade at the end of the semester. This attendance rule is already designed to accommodate routine health issues, vacation issues, religious issues, etc. If you have a serious health issue and miss many classes, you must present a note from your doctor and we can discuss it in office hours. Unlike other Film Studies classes, these films are simply not available anywhere else but in this classroom. You must be here to take this class. Period.

Note: If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to me a letter from Disability Services (DS) early in the semester so that your needs may be addressed. DS determines accommodations based on documented disabilities (303-492-8671, Willard 322.

2. No cell phones, no chomping on chips, no reading ONIONS, and no talking during the films and lectures. Most of these films are silent, and that is that is how we will see them - silently. We will have silence and a communal, contemplative atmosphere during the screenings in order to receive these works at their highest level. There will be no disruptive behavior tolerated. See school policy on disruptive behavior.

These class sessions are long and we will take a 15-20 minute break for food, coffee, etc. Expect the class to go until 6:45 pm or so every night, so be forewarned: you cannot leave early to attend another class at 7:00, etc.

3. Class participation is part of your grade. I want lively discussion and real, thoughtful questions about the films — you are welcome to alternative views, even encouraged, but I do need an atmosphere of general receptivity for experimental, difficult work. If you are looking for mindless entertainment, go to the movies, watch TV, but do not expect it to find it here. Please refrain from using "like" and "didn’t like" in your responses as much as possible. This is a history and aesthetics course, and we will approach in that way — as an intellectual discipline.

4. Assignments have due dates. To be fair to your fellow students who DO turn their work in on time, any assignments turned in late will be penalized accordingly. All assignments are to be printed out and handed to me personally. NO COMPUTER OR PRINTER EXCUSES ARE ACCEPTABLE. IF YOU DON’T CONTINUALLY BACK UP YOUR WORK, THEN YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS AS A SERIOUS STUDENT OF FILM IN THE 21^st CENTURY.

Assignments, Due Dates, and Grading Percentages

Required Books:

Film at Wit’s End, by Stan Brakhage
Essential Brakhage, by Stan Brakhage
Light Moving in Time, by William Wees
Chicago Review, No. 47:4 & 48:1 (Spring 2002)

On Reserve:

Visionary Film, by P. Adams Sitney

VARIOUS ARTICLES are on reserve at Norlin listed under my name — see Chinook on the web for the complete listings. There are four copies of each article. You can take them out for two hours to Xerox, and then return. I will ask to see everyone’s Xeroxed articles and required books within a week after the semester starts.

There are three assignments for the semester:

Academic research paper, professional in style, topic of your choice. Please read campus rules about the Honor Code and plagiarism. You may use the texts in class, the articles on reserve, your own research in the library, or serious Web sites (see, for example, this Brakhage links page) but be forewarned — footnote your work, cite all sources, and do not plagiarize or paraphrase without citation. I will take legal action if I find any break from the Honor Code as stated. This paper will be due October 18. and will act as your mid-term. 12 point font, double-spaced, 8-10 pages in length. Going over 10 pages is okay. This paper will include both research AND specific analysis/interpretation.

A Journal. You will write a total of 7-8 entries (of your choice) over the course of the semester, 2-3 pages in length each, 12-point font, double-spaced. Total of about 20-24 pages. You should be writing this journal as we going along, preferably right after class and not all at the end of the semester. This should be a more personal, lyrical response to the work, but with clear references to the assigned readings. I want to know what you’re thinking, feeling, discovering, having trouble with — I want to chart the course of your thinking over the semester. Poetic writing is welcomed. This should be more informal and meaningful writing for you — not so professional. Tell me what you are really seeing and thinking that you didn’t or couldn’t talk about during class discussions. But I am also using the journal to make sure that you’ve done the assigned reading for those entries. Journals due November 21. [YOU CAN SEND ME SOME POTENTIAL JOURNAL ENTRIES BY EMAIL FOR MY COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER.]

Final. This will be a take-home final in an essay/paper format, with a few choices of different topics. Not a research paper primarily, but more of an essay that, in some way, sums up the entire course. Final due on Monday, December 16. 7-10 pages, 12-point font, double spacing.

GRADING PERCENTAGES:
Research Paper — 20%
Attendance and Class Participation — 10%
Film Journal — 40%
Essay Final — 30%

Screening and Reading List

August 27 — Introduction and Overview

Screening:

Brakhage (1998): A documentary by Jim Shedden (A VHS copy of this film is on reserve in the Media Library and at Video Station)

Readings:

"Biographical Background" by Gerald R. Barrett and Wendy Brabner, from Stan Brakhage, A Guide to References and Resources, pp. 1-24 (reserve)

August 29 — The First Avant-garde

Screenings:

Manhatta (1920) — Paul Strand
Rhythmus 21 (1921) — Hans Richter
Ballet Mechanique (1924) — Fernand Leger
Symphony Diagonal (1924) — Viking Eggeling
The Seashell and the Clergyman (1927) - Germaine Dulac
L’ Etoile du Mer (1928) — Man Ray
H₂0 (1929) — Ralph Steiner
Oscar Fishinger selection
Trade Tattoo (1937) — Len Lye
Early Abstractions (1946-57) — Harry Smith

Readings:

"Introduction" from The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of Theory and Criticism, edited by P. Adams Sitney (reserve)
"Visual and Anti-Visual Films," "The Essence of Cinema: The Visual Idea," and "The Avant-Garde Cinema," all by Germaine Dulac, from The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of Theory and Criticism, pp. 31-48 (reserve)

September 3 — Roots

Screenings:

Blood of a Poet (1930) — Jean Cocteau
Geography of the Body (1943) — Willard Maas
Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) — Maya Deren
Fireworks (1947) — Kenneth Anger
The Lead Shoes (1949) — Sidney Peterson
A Movie (1958) — Bruce Conner
Hurry, Hurry (1957) — Marie Menken
Notebook (1962-63) — Marie Menken
Go, Go, Go (1962-64) — Marie Menken

Readings:

"Jean Cocteau: Concealed Admissions," from The Untutored Eye by Marjorie Keller, pp. 44-61 (reserve)
"Program Notes on Three Early Films," by Maya Deren, from Film Culture no. 39, (reserve)
Chapters on Menken, Peterson, Deren and Conner from Film at Wit’s End
Stan Brakhage on Marie Menken", from Film Culture, No. 78, pp. 1-10 (reserve)
"Willard Mass and Marie Menken: The Last Years," by Roger Jacoby, from Film Culture No. 63-64, 1977 (reserve)
Stan Brakhage on The Lead Shoes," from Film Culture 70-71, pp. 40-42 (reserve)
"Lead Shoes as an Abstract Film," by Gregory Taylor, Millennium Film Journal No. 25 (reserve)

September 5 - Beginnings

Screenings:

Interim (1952) — SB
Desistfilm (1954) — SB
Way to Shadow Garden (1954) — SB
Reflections on Black (1955) — SB
Flesh of Morning (1956) — SB
Daybreak/Whiteye (1957) — SB

Readings:

"The Lyrical Film" from Visionary Film, pp. 136-164 (reserve)
"Make Place for the Artist", from Essential Brakhage, pp. 74-76
"Stan Brakhage: The Filmmaker as Poet," from Allegories of Cinema by David James, pp. 29-57 (reserve)
"Critical Survey" by Gerald R. Barrett and Wendy Brabner, from Stan Brakhage, A Guide to References and Resources, pp. 25-39 (reserve)

September 10 — Cats and Collaborations

Screenings:

Nightcats (1956) — SB
The Wonder Ring (1955) — SB
Gnir Rednow (1955) — Joseph Cornell
Loving (1957) — SB
Fuses (1964-67) — Carolee Schneemann
Children’s Party — (1940s — 1969)— Joseph Cornell
Centuries of June — (1955)— Joseph Cornell/SB

Readings:

"Convergences," from The Untutored Eye, pp. 230-240 (reserve)
"Joseph Cornell: The Symbolic Equation," from The Untutored Eye, pp. 139-157 (reserve)
"Carolee Schneemann: Fuses," by Scott MacDonald, from The Garden in the Machine, pp. 61-67
"Carolee Schneeman: Fuses," from Allegories of the Cinema by David James, pp. 317-321

September 12 — Toward a First Person Cinema: Death and Re-Birth

Screenings:

Anticipation of the Night (1958)— SB
Window Water Baby Moving (1959)— SB
Schmeerguntz (1966) — Gunvor Nelson

Readings:

"Metaphors on Vision, the Camera Eye, My Eye," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 12-36
"The Lyrical Film," from Visionary Film, pp. 143-151 (reserve)
"Notes of Anticipation," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 50-59
The Birth Film," by Jane Brakhage, from Film Culture Reader, pp. 230-233
"The Poetic Strain of the Avant-Garde," from Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order by James Peterson, pp. 52-56 (reserve)
"Perspective Reprieved: Brakhage’s Anticipation of the Night," by Ken Kelman, from Essential Cinema, edited by P. Adams Sitney, pp. 234-239 (reserve)

September 17 — Life and Death, the Moth and the Flame

Screenings:

Sirius Remembered (1959) — SB
The Dead (1960) — SB
Thigh Line Lyre Triangular (1961) — SB
Mothlight (1963) — SB
Blue Moses (1962) — SB
Scorpio Rising (1964) — Kenneth Anger
All My Life (1966) — Bruce Baillie
Castro Street (1966) — Bruce Baillie

Readings:

"Whoever Sees God Dies: Cinematic Epiphanies," from Modernist Montage, by P. Adams Sitney, pp. 188-210 (reserve)
"The Lyrical Film," from Visionary Film, pp. 153-165 (reserve)
"The Magus," from Visionary Film, pp. 116-124 (reserve)
"Interview with Stan Brakhage," by P. Adams Sitney, from Film Culture Reader (reserve)

September 19 — Visionary Film

Screenings:

Dog Star Man (1961-64) — SB
The Art of Vision Reel #1 (1961-65) — SB

Readings:

"Major Mythopoeia," from Visionary Film, pp. 173-200 (reserve)
"Giving Sight to the Medium: Stan Brakhage," from Light Moving in Time, pp. 77-105

September 24 — Abstract Expressionism

Screenings:

Fire of Waters (1965) — SB
Nocturne (1980) — Phil Solomon
Jackson Pollock (1951) - Hans Namuth and Paul Faulkenberg
Pollock (2000) - Ed Harris (excerpt)
Blazes (1961) — Robert Breer
The Horseman, Woman, and the Moth (1968) — SB
Eye Myth Educational (1972) — SB

Readings:

"Brakhage, Abstract Expressionism and Interpretative Schema," from Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order, pp. 61-70
"8 Questions," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 118-125

September 26 — Home Movies I

Screenings:

Sam Solomon’s home movies — 1959
The Snowman (1995) — Phil Solomon
Songs 1, 4, 5, 9, 13, 14 (1964-69) - SB
Song 15 (15 Song Traits) - SB

Readings:

"Major Mythopoeia," from Visionary Film, pp. 200-222 (reserve)
"Brakhage’s Songs (1966)," by Guy Davenport from Chicago Review, pp. 157-163 (reserve)
"In Defense of Amateur," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 142-150
"Poetry and Film," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 174-191
"Brakhage and Rilke," by Jerome Hill, from Film Culture no. 37 (reserve)

October 1 — Home Movies II

Screenings:

Urban Peasants (1975) — Ken Jacobs
23^rd Psalm Branch (1964-69) — SB
Songs 16, 21, 22, 27 (1964-69) - SB

Readings:

"Notes on Brakhage’s 23^rd Psalm Branch," by Gail Camhi, from Film Culture nos. 67-69, 1979 (reserve)
"Stan Brakhage speaks on 23^rd Psalm Branch at Filmmaker’s Cinematheque, April 22, 1967," from Film Culture, no. 67-69. (reserve)

October 3 — Home Movies I

Screenings:

Scenes from Under Childhood (1967-70) — SB

Readings:

"The Influence of Olivier Messiaen on the Visual Art of Stan Brakhage in Scenes from Under Childhood, Part1," by Marie Nesthus, from Film Culture, No. 63-64, 1977 (reserve)
"Stan Brakhage: The Family Romance," from The Untutored Eye, pp. 180-213 (reserve)

October 8 — Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained

Screenings:

The Machine of Eden (1970) — SB
The Loom (1986) — SB
The Peaceable Kingdom (1971) — SB
Sexual Meditation: Motel (1970-72) — SB
Sexual Meditation: Hotel — SB
Sexual Meditation: Office Suite- — SB
Sexual Meditation: Open Field — SB

October 15 — Document: The Pittsburgh Trilogy

Screenings:

Law and Order (1969) - Frederick Wiseman, excerpt
Eyes (1971) — SB
Hospital (1970) — Frederick Wiseman, excerpt
Deus Ex (1971) - SB
The Act of Seeing with one's own eyes (1971)— SB

Readings:

"The ‘Document’ Correspondence of Stan Brakhage,", by Marie Nesthus, Chicago Review, pp. 133-156 (res)
"Brakhage’s ‘Eyes’," by Jerome Hill, from Film Culture no.52. Spring 1971 (reserve)
"Brakhage’s The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes," by Daniel Levoff, from Film Culture, No. 56-57, pp. 73-81

October 17 — Autobiography (Sincerities and Duplicities)

Screenings:

Sincerity I through V (1973-80) — SB
Duplicity I through III (1978-80) — SB

October 22 — Home is where the Heart is

Screenings:

The Weir-Falcon Saga (1970) — SB
The Wold-Shadow (1972) — SB
Hymn to Her (1974) — SB
Star Garden (1974) — SB
The Stars Are Beautiful (1974) — SB

Readings:

"The Stars Are Beautiful," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 134-137
"Stan Brakhage: The Family Romance," from The Untutored Eye, pp. 179-229 (reserve)

October 24 — Structural Film

Screenings:

Eat (1964) — Andy Warhol [*18 fps]
Report (1963-67) — Bruce Conner
Wavelength (1967) — Michael Snow
Nostalgia (1971) — Hollis Frampton
Serene Velocity (1970) — Ernie Gehr
Mirage (1981) — Ernie Gehr

Readings:

"Structural Film," from Visionary Film, pp. 407-418 (reserve)
"Rounding Up the Usual Suspects: The Minimalist Strain and Interpretive Schema," from Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order, by James Peterson, pp. 71-125 (reserve)
"Geometric versus Meat-Ineffable," by SB, Chicago Review, pp. 47-51
"Balancing Eye and Mind: Michael Snow," from Light Moving in Time, Chapter 7

October 29 — All that is, is light

Screenings:

Becoming (1955) — Jim Davis
Samahdi (1967) — Jordan Belson
The Text of Light (1974) — SB

Readings:

"The Cosmic Cinema of Jordon Belson," by Gene Youngblood, from Film Culture Reader (reserve)
"The Text of Light," from Film Culture, No 67-69, pp. 135-138 (reserve)
"The Seen," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 154-172
"Films for the Inner Eye," Chapter 6 from Light Moving in Time, by William Wees

October 31 — Young Girls and the Dancing Waters, The Primeval, the Ancients

Screenings:

Eaux d’Artifice (1953) - Kenneth Anger
Murder Psalm (1980) — SB
Clepsydra (1995) — Phil Solomon
Creation (1979) — SB
Egyptian Series (1984) — SB
Arabics #1 and #18 (1980-82) — SB
Babylonian # 3 (1989) — SB

Readings:

"Stan Brakhage: The Family Romance," from The Untutored Eye, pp. 214-229 (reserve)
"Time on… dit," from Musicworks 62, summer 1995, pp. 36-40 (reserve)
"Tension and Two-Dimensional Space," from The Challenge of Modern Art, by Allen Leepa (reserve)
"Eaux d’ Artifice," from The Garden in the Machine (reserve)
"The Frame," by Phil Solomon, Millennium Film Journal, Nos.35/36, pp. 120-135

November 5 — The 10^th Symphony

Screenings:

Tortured Dust (1984)— SB

November 7 — Sound and Vision

Screenings:

Passage Through: A Ritual (1990) — SB
Visions in Meditation #2 — Mesa Verde (1990) - SB
Visions in Meditation #3 — Plato’s Cave (1990) - SB

Readings:

"Stan Brakhage on Music, Sound, Color and Film," from Film Culture No. 67-69 (reserve)
"Film and Music," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 78-84
"Gertrude Stein: Meditative Literature and Film," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 194-202
St. John’s "Dark Night of the Soul" (handout)
Score to Couperin’s Mysterious Barricades (handout)
Lumen IV: Through the Mysterious Barricades — by Philip Corner, audio CD on reserve in the Media Library

November 12 — Sound and Vision II

Screenings:

Kindering (1987) - SB
Faust 4 (1989) — SB
ChristMassSexDance (1991) — SB
Crack Glass Eulogy (1992) - SB
Boulder Blues and Pearls and… (1993) - SB
I…Dreaming (1988) — SB

November 14 — Gardens

Screenings:

The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981) — SB
The Secret Garden (1988) — Phil Solomon
A Child’s Garden and the Serious Sea (1991) — SB
Commingled Containers (1997) — SB
The Cat of the Worm’s Green Realm (1997) — SB

Readings:
"Toward a Minor Cinema," by Tom Gunning, from Motion Picture (reserve)
""Brakhage’s Contradictions,"" by Fred Camper, from Chicago Review, pp. 69-95 (reserve)
"Of Time and The River, Stan Brakhage: Commingled Containers," by Scott MacDonald, from The Garden in the Machine, pp. 356-359 (reserve)
"Stan Brakhage: The Garden of Earthly Delights," by Scott MacDoanld, from The Garden in the Machine, pp. 68-73 (reserve)

November 19 — Painting I — Spirituals

Screenings:

The Dante Quartet (1986)— SB
Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (1991)- SB
Untitled (For Marilyn) (1992)— SB
The Chartres Series (1994) - SB
Last Hymn to the Night Novalis (1995)— SB
Beautiful Funerals (1996)— SB

Readings:

"Stan Brakhage: The 60^th Birthday interview," by Suranjan Ganguly, from Film Culture No. 78, pp. 18-38 (reserve)
"Tales of the Tribe," by P. Adams Sitney, from The Chicago Review, pp. 97-115 (reserve)
On the Spiritual in Art, by Wassily Kandinsky (reserve)

November 21 — Painting II - Collaborations

***Journals Due***

Screenings:

Elementary Phrases (1994) — Brakhage/Solomon
Concrescence (1996) — Brakhage/Solomon
Cannot Exist (1992) — SB
Seasons… (1998-2002) — Solomon/Brakhage

Readings:

"Dark Writing Through Elementary Phrases," by Lee Ann Brown, Chicago Review, pp. 201- 202
"Introduction, Chapters 1,2," from Light Moving in Time, by William Wees

November 26 — Painting III — Aspiring to the Condition of Music

Screenings:

Spring Cycle (1995) — SB
Preludes 13-18 (1996) — SB
Preludes 19-24 (1996) — SB
Divertimento (1997) — SB
Persians 6-12 (2000) — SB

Readings:

Chapter 3 from Light Moving in Time

December 3 - Photography and Painting

Screenings:

Self Song/Death Song (1997) — SB
Yggdrasill Whose Roots are Stars in the Human Mind (1997) — SB
Rounds (2000) — SB
Jesus Trilogy and Coda (2001) — SB
Very (2001) — SB

December 5 — Recent Works

Screenings:

Dark Night of the Soul (2002) — SB
Max (2002) — SB
Coupling (1999) — SB
Lovesongs 1, 2 (2001) — SB
Microgarden (2001) — SB
Panels for the Walls of Heaven (2002) — SB

December 10 — The Anxiety of Influence

Screenings:

Shadows (1959) — John Cassavetes (excerpt)
Superman (1978) — Richard Donner (excerpt — Fortress of Solitude)
Seven (1996) — David Fincher (opening credits)
Wot the Ancient Sod (2001) — Diane Kitchen
Love’s Refrain (2001) — Nathaniel Dorsky
Fear of Blushing (2001) — Jennifer Reeves
Moonstreams, Sand Castles I, II, Garden Path — Mary Beth Reed
Rocket Boy vs Brakhage (1975-89) — Phil Solomon

Readings:

"Argument for the Immediate Sensuous," by Jennifer Reeves, from Chicago Review (reserve)
"Four Silent Nights," by Nathaniel Dorsky, from Chicago Review (reserve)
"Manifesto," from Essential Brakhage, pp. 204-206

December 12 —Everything Under the Sun

The Hart of London (1970) — Jack Chambers
Stellar (1993) — Stan Brakhage

Hart of London VHS on reserve in the Media Library

FINAL TOPICS WILL BE HANDED OUT- DUE ON DECEMBER 16 BY 12:00 NOON.