Avant - Garde 3: Experimental Cinema 1922-1954

From GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE and THE RAYMOND ROHAUER COLLECTION

From the little theaters of the 1920s to the ad hoc film societies of the 50s, avant-garde cinema knew no established form and held no predictable position. The boundaries of its history are still hotly debated, but its rough sensibilities informed and permeated the city symphonies of Alberto Cavalcanti, the visual music of Mary Ellen Bute and John Whitney, the classroom films of Sidney Peterson, the confessional film poems of Willard Maas and John E. Schmitz, the Lettrist cinema of Marc O, and even marginal exploitation films and home movies. Drawn from the rich collections of Raymond Rohauer and the George Eastman House, Kino s third volume of experimental films continues to illuminate the degree to which cinema s evolution has been influenced by those filmmakers who occupy its periphery.

DANSE MACABRE (US 1922 Color Tinted 6 Min.) Dir: Dudley Murphy

RIEN QUE LES HEURES (Nothing But Time) (US 1926 B&W 46 Min.) Dir: Alberto Cavalcanti - Music by Larry Marotta

THE TELL-TALE HEART (US 1928 B&W 20 Min.) Dir: Charles F. Klein - Music by Sue Harshe

TARANTELLA (US 1940 Color 4 Min.) Dir: Mary Ellen Bute and Ted Nemeth

TOMATOS ANOTHER DAY (US 1930 B&W 7 Min.) Dir: James Sibley Watson

THE UNCOMFORTABLE MAN (US 1948 B&W 23 Min. Intentionally silent) (Dir: Kent Munson and Theodore Huff)

THE PETRIFIED DOG (US 1948 B&W 18 Min.) Dir: Sidney Peterson

THE LEAD SHOES (US 1949 B&W 16 Min.) Dir: Sidney Peterson

FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON (US 1951 B&W 14 Min.) Dir: James Broughton

PLAGUE SUMMER (US 1951 B&W 15 Min.) Dir: Chester Kessler

LA MORT DU CERF (The Death of a Stag) (France 1951 B&W 12 Min.) Dir: Dimitri Kirsanoff

IMAGE IN THE SNOW (US 1952 B&W 26 Min.) Dir: Willard Maas

CELERY STALKS AT MIDNIGHT (France 1952 Color 3 Min.) Dir: John Whitney

THE VOICES (US 1953 B&W 14 Min.) Dir: John E. Schmitz

CLOSED VISION (US 1954 B&W 65 Min.) Dir: Marc O

EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF A GIN BOTTLE (US 1925 B&W 11 Min.) Dir: Bela von Block - Music by Paul Mercer, Bruce Bennett and Davis Petterson

SCHICHLEGRUBER DOING THE LAMBETH WALK (UK 1941 B&W 2 Min.) Dir: Charles A. Ridley

FALLING PINK (US circa late 1950s Color 9 Min.) Dir: Robert H. Spring - Music by Paul Mercer and Bruce Bennett

DEMENTIA (excerpt) (US 1955 B&W 5 Min.) Dir: John Parker

TOMATOS ANOTHER DAY (outtakes) (US 1930 B&W 5 Min.) Dir: James Sibley Watson