Stan Brakhage
Directing
Born January 14, 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA
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.
Filmography
Songs
Self (Uncredited)
Visions in Meditation
Arabic Numeral Series
Persian Series
Brakhage on Brakhage
Self
Derealization
Brakhage by Mothlight
Self (voice)
20 Little Films
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Himself
Drawings by Billy and His Friends
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume Two
Sweetgrass
For Stan
Himself
Dinner with Brakhage and Gamow
Brakhage Crosses Central Park
Self
A Visit to Stan Brakhage
Preserving Cultural Traditions in a Period of Instability
Voice
By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume One
Chinese Series
Sonic Youth: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui (April 12, 2003)
Self (archive footage)
Keeping an Eye on Stan
Encomium
Self
Panels for the Walls of Heaven
Resurrectus Est
Life with Stan #4: Stan Painting
SB
Seasons...
Ascension
Song of the Mushroom
Stan Brakhage Exits the Cinema and Enters the Light of Day
Himself
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Himself
Max
Persian Series #16
Micro-Garden
Garden Path
Lovesong 5 & 6
Dark Night of The Soul
Lovesong 4
Lovesong
Lovesong 3
Occam's Thread
Rounds
Very
Night Mulch
Lovesong 2
Jesus Trilogy and Coda
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Self
Persian Series #10
Persian Series #11
Looking at Forest of Bliss
Himself
The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him
Water for Maya
Persian Series #6
The Lion and the Zebra Make God's Raw Jewels
Moilsome Toilsome
Persian Series #1
Persian Series #2
Persian Series #3
Persian Series #4
Persian Series #5
The Earth Song of the Cricket
The Dark Tower
The Birds Of Paradise
Coupling
Cloud Chamber
Worm and Web Love
Cricket Requiem
Brakhage
Self
"..." Reel 3
"..." Reel 5
The Female Mystique and Spare Leaves (for Gordon)
"..." Reel 4
"..." Reel 2
Self Song & Death Song
Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind
Birth of a Nation
Self
Stan Brakhage on Gregory Markopoulos
Stan Brakhage on Jim Davis
The Cat of the Worm's Green Realm
Last Hymn to the Night - Novalis
Divertimento
Comingled Containers
Cannibal! The Musical
Noon Sr.
Prelude 7
Prelude 8
Prelude 9
Prelude 10
Prelude 11
Prelude 13
Prelude 14
Shockingly Hot
Prelude 15
Prelude 16
Prelude 17
Prelude 18
Prelude 19
Prelude 20
Prelude 21
Prelude 22
Prelude 23
Prelude 24
Blue Value
Sexual Saga
Two Found Objects of Charles Boultenhouse
Polite Madness
The Fur of Home
Concrescence
Beautiful Funerals
I Take These Truths
I...
We Hold These
The 'b' Series
Prelude 1
Prelude 2
Prelude 3
Prelude 4
Prelude 5
Prelude 6
In Consideration of Pompeii
Spring Cycle
Paranoia Corridor
The "Lost" Films
Earthen Aerie
Black Ice
From: First Hymn to the Night – Novalis
Chartres Series
The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
Jonas in the Desert
Self
The Mammals of Victoria
Naughts
Elementary Phrases
Cannot Exist
Cannot Not Exist
Stellar
Study in Color and Black and White
Autumnal
Three Homerics
The Harrowing
Tryst Haunt
Abstract Cinema
Himself
Boulder Blues and Pearls and...
Ephemeral Solidity
Blossom-Gift/Favor
Untitled (For Marilyn)
Joseph Cornell: Worlds in a Box
Self
Christ Mass Sex Dance
Agnus Dei Kinder Synapse
Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse
Crack Glass Eulogy
A Child’s Garden and the Serious Sea
Passage Through: A Ritual
Vision of the Fire Tree
Glaze of Cathexis
Visions in Meditation #3: Plato's Cave
Visions in Meditation #4: D.H. Lawrence
City Streaming
Babylon Series #2
Babylon Series #3
The Thatch of Night
Babylon Series #1
Faust IV
Visions in Meditation #1
Visions in Meditation #2: Mesa Verde
I... Dreaming
Faust 3: Candida Albacore
Faust's Other: An Idyll
Rage Net
Marilyn's Window
Matins
The Dante Quartet
Loud Visual Noises
Faustfilm: An Opera
Doodlin': Impressions Of Len Lye
Self
Kindering
The Loom
Invocation: Maya Deren
Himself
Dance Shadows by Danelle Helander
Fireloop
Night Music
Confession
The Aerodyne
Reflecting Thought: Stan Brakhage
Self
Jane
Tortured Dust
Tortured Dust Part 1
Tortured Dust Part 2
Tortured Dust Part 3
Tortured Dust Part 4
Egyptian Series
Hell Spit Flexion
Arabic Numeral Series 14
Arabic Numeral Series 15
Arabic Numeral Series 16
Arabic Numeral Series 17
Arabic Numeral Series 18
Arabic Numeral Series 19
Nodes
Stan & Jane Brakhage
Self
Unconscious London Strata
Made Manifest
Aftermath
Arabic Numeral Series 12
Arabic Numeral Series 7
Arabic Numeral Series 8
Arabic Numeral Series 9
Arabic Numeral Series 0 + 10
Arabic Numeral Series 11
Arabic Numeral Series 13
Arabic Numeral Series 1
Arabic Numeral Series 2
Arabic Numeral Series 3
Arabic Numeral Series 4
Arabic Numeral Series 5
Arabic Numeral Series 6
The Garden of Earthly Delights
RR
Murder Psalm
Duplicity III
Roman Numeral: IV
Roman Numeral: V
Roman Numeral: VI
Roman Numeral: VII
Roman Numeral: VIII
Roman Numeral: IX
Sincerity V
Other
Salome
@
Roman Numeral: I
Grand Opera: An Historical Romance
Himself (voice)
Roman Numeral: II
Sincerity IV
Creation
Roman Numeral: III
Burial Path
Thot-Fal'N
Bird
Centre
Nightmare Series
Sluice
Sincerity III
Purity and After
Duplicity I
Duplicity II
Tragoedia
Soldiers and Other Cosmic Objects
The Domain of the Moment
The Dream, N.Y.C., The Return, The Flower
Absence
Desert
Highs
Rembrandt, Etc., and Jane
Trio
Window
Airs
Short Films 1976
Short Films 1975: #1 (Jane’s Memory)
Short Films 1975: #2 (Dante’s Styx)
Short Films 1975: #3 (Hollis Frampton)
Short Films 1975: #4 (Lady in Glass)
Short Films 1975: #5 (Niagara Falls)
Short Films 1975: #6 (Stars, Chickens, Eyes, Candles)
Short Films 1975: #7 (Turning the Raccoon Loose)
Short Films 1975: #8 (Small Town Streets)
Short Films 1975
Sincerity II
Short Films 1975: #9 (Forest Love Scene)
Short Films 1975: #10 (Painted Lightning)
The Stars Are Beautiful
Narrator (voice)
The Text of Light
Hymn to Her
Star Garden
Skein
Aquarien
Clancy
Flight
Sol
“He was born, he suffered, he died.”
Dominion
Sincerity I
Sexual Meditation: Open Field
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
The Women
The Process
Screening Room
Himself
The Riddle of Lumen
Sexual Meditation: Faun's Room, Yale
Sexual Meditation: Office Suite
Reality's Invisible
Self
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes
The Wold-Shadow
Sexual Meditation: Hotel
The Shores of Phos: A Fable
Eye Myth Educational
The Presence
Fox Fire Child Watch
The Trip to Door
Door
Western History
Sexual Meditation: Room with View
The Peaceable Kingdom
Angels'
Eyes
The Machine of Eden
The Animals of Eden and After
The Weir-Falcon Saga
Scenes from Under Childhood
Scenes from Under Childhood, Section Four
Sexual Meditation #1: Motel
Scenes from Under Childhood, Section Three
Scenes from Under Childhood, Section Two
My Mtn. Song 27 Part II: Rivers
Filmmakers
Himself
Legendary Epics Yarns and Fables Part 2: Stan Brakhage
Himself
Song 28
Song 29
American 30s Song
Window Suite of Children's Songs
Scenes from Under Childhood, Section One
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Self
The Horseman, the Woman, and the Moth
Lovemaking
Song 26
My Mountain: Song 27
Eye Myth
Song 24
Song 25
For Life, Against the War
23rd Psalm Branch
23rd Psalm Branch: Part I
23rd Psalm Branch: Part II
Song 16
Song 17
Song 18
Song 19
Song 20
Song 21
Song 22
Pasht
Two: Creeley/McClure
Fire of Waters
Three Films: Blue White/Blood's Tone/Vein
Song 11
Song 12
Song 13
Song 14
Black Vision
The Art of Vision
Man
Song 10
Song 9
Dog Star Man
Dog Star Man: Part IV
Dog Star Man: Part III
Dog Star Man: Part II
Song 1
Song 2
Song 3
Song 4
Song 5
Song 6
Song 7
Song 8
Mothlight
Oh Life - a Woe Story - the A Test News
Dog Star Man: Part I
Blue Moses
Prelude: Dog Star Man
Thigh Line Lyre Triangular
Sartre's Nausea
Ballad of the Colorado Ute
Films by Stan Brakhage: An Avant-Garde Home Movie
The Dead
Colorado Legend
Sirius Remembered
Window Water Baby Moving
Self (uncredited)
Wedlock House: An Intercourse
Pittsburgh
Cat's Cradle
Self
Anticipation of the Night
Loving
Daybreak and Whiteye
Flesh of Morning
Trumpit
The One Romantic Venture of Edward
Nightcats
Zone Moment
The Wonder Ring
Centuries of June
In Between
The Extraordinary Child
Desistfilm
Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection
Interim