The Connection by Shirley Clarke
"Shirley Clarke was a vital part of the burgeoning post-war
American film movement. She was one of the first signers — and the only woman —
of the New American Cinema manifesto in 1961. For her first
feature film, she decided to take on a controversial play by Jack Gelber
that was running off-Broadway. The Connection was a play within a play
within a jazz concert. It portrayed a group of drug addicts, some of
them jazz musicians, waiting in a New York loft apartment for their drug
connection. A producer and a writer, meanwhile, have entered their
lives to study them and write a play about them. The brilliantly written
Beat dialogue was blended with jazz music written by the great pianist
Freddie Redd.
Clarke changed the character of the writer to Jim Dunn, a young, preppy filmmaker out to make a name for himself by documenting the "scene." As Clarke was best friends with the hot new indie directors, she added a level of humor by poking fun at the cinema verité movement. She also chose to keep the play's one-set constriction, but she combined the French New Wave’s mobile camera with a whirling choreography of movement and jazz to create an exciting, kinetic film that was acclaimed at the Cannes International Film Festival as a masterpiece. Yet even knowing the avant garde nature of the play and her film, little could Clarke recognize the furor the film was about to create.
Although Hollywood had previously depicted drug addiction in the recent years, it was mostly of the good men gone bad scenario with tragic endings.
THE CONNECTION, with the raw, graphic depiction of drug addicts that Gelber wrote for the stage, A hit at Cannes, it was promptly banned by government censor boards for indecent language and a struggle ensued to have it theatrically screened in the United States. After a two-year battle, the producers and director ultimately won in court and as important as it was judicially, it was sadly a case of too little too late as the film lost its timeliness and failed at the box office. But among filmmakers, it was highly influential. The film has been out of distribution since the early 1980s.
Arthur Ornitz's black-and-white cinematography sparkles on the screen, and the performances of Freddie Redd and saxophone legend Jackie McLean sound impeccable in the new UCLA restoration. The release of THE CONNECTION is one of the cinema events of the year!
The Connection was preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding by the Film Foundation." Milestone
All Apologies by Suki Dejong
ALL APOLOGIES by Suki deJong
21 minutes, 2007
Children
and young adults die from drug and alcohol related causes every day,
with meth, cocaine and opiate abuse being the "usual suspects."
Meanwhile GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate), commonly known as "the date rape
drug," has languished in the shadows. This silent killer has enjoyed
nearly invisible popularity as a drug of choice for bodybuilders and
other athletes for years, and more recently in the rape and club scene.
On September 9, 2002 Julius deJong becomes one of GHB's unsuspecting
victims. Swept away by the pulsating and feverish night life in Miami's
ultra-chic clubs, this talented writer spins out of control: girls,
drugs and fast living send him into a downward spiral from which he
never returns. This is not a drug to fool with. Fast-paced and to the
point, Suki deJong brings us this powerful story with unforgettable
images, potent and revealing interviews.
Suki is an independent documentary filmmaker, graduate of the University of Massachusetts and the The Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking in Sedona, AZ. She attended a semester of graduate work at SCAD in Savannah, GA, 2009. Her first director credit was for the award-winning, ALL APOLOGIES in 2007. Screened at Ft. Lauderdale Film Fest in 2007 and Delray Beach Film Fest 2008, where it won award for Best Doc, Public Service. Currenty working on an advocacy project for an environmental group in Lake Worth, FL, Palm Beach County. D.E.P. DON'T EXPECT PROTECTION, a short documentary, will be screened at the 2010 Delray Beach Film Festival.
Visit: http://vimeo.com/12253469 for the trailer
Aleph by Wallace Berman
http://home.utah.edu/~klm6/3905/berman.html
"This film took a decade to make and is the only true envisionment of the sixties I know." - Stan Brakhage
Aleph, Berman's only film, was begun soon after the release of the first issues of Semina and was created with techniques carried over from collage and painting. The work was originally shot on 8mm black-and-white stock. Berman edited and shaped his unique copy by adding hand coloring, Letraset symbols, and collage portraits of pop-culture icons, which he sometimes superimposed on images of a transistor radio. According to his son, Tosh, the artist regarded the print as a "creative notebook" and made additions over the years. After Berman's death, filmmaker Stan Brakhage salvaged the film and enlarged it to 16mm for public screening.
Heralded by Brakhage as "the only true envisionment of the sixties I know," Aleph captures the era's contradictions - its optimism, sense of alienation, and intensity. The film pulses with energy. Tosh likens Aleph to his father's studio - an overwhelming, seemingly random assemblage of objects placed with exacting care. In Aleph, stills come to life and appear to dance to a staccato beat.
Berman did not give his film a title. Tosh named it Aleph, after the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which was adopted by his father as a monogram. Berman's evocative use of the Hebrew characters reflected a fascination with Kabbalah, a system of Jewish mysticism. Kabbalah translates as "receiving," and through Kabbalah's mysterious workings, Berman believed, language and image receive ecstatic unification as art.
Berman rarely permitted public screenings and preferred to show his film privately, often to a single friend. Tosh remembers his father projecting Aleph without music but occasionally accompanying it with a favorite record, anything from James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" to a work by Edgar Varèse. Here Aleph is presented with new music created by John Zorn, composer-in-residence at Anthology Film Archives.
Aleph, Berman's only film, was begun soon after the release of the first issues of Semina and was created with techniques carried over from collage and painting. The work was originally shot on 8mm black-and-white stock. Berman edited and shaped his unique copy by adding hand coloring, Letraset symbols, and collage portraits of pop-culture icons, which he sometimes superimposed on images of a transistor radio. According to his son, Tosh, the artist regarded the print as a "creative notebook" and made additions over the years. After Berman's death, filmmaker Stan Brakhage salvaged the film and enlarged it to 16mm for public screening.
Heralded by Brakhage as "the only true envisionment of the sixties I know," Aleph captures the era's contradictions - its optimism, sense of alienation, and intensity. The film pulses with energy. Tosh likens Aleph to his father's studio - an overwhelming, seemingly random assemblage of objects placed with exacting care. In Aleph, stills come to life and appear to dance to a staccato beat.
Berman did not give his film a title. Tosh named it Aleph, after the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which was adopted by his father as a monogram. Berman's evocative use of the Hebrew characters reflected a fascination with Kabbalah, a system of Jewish mysticism. Kabbalah translates as "receiving," and through Kabbalah's mysterious workings, Berman believed, language and image receive ecstatic unification as art.
Berman rarely permitted public screenings and preferred to show his film privately, often to a single friend. Tosh remembers his father projecting Aleph without music but occasionally accompanying it with a favorite record, anything from James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" to a work by Edgar Varèse. Here Aleph is presented with new music created by John Zorn, composer-in-residence at Anthology Film Archives.
—From the liner notes of the DVD Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986
Aleph
is an artist's meditation on life, death, mysticism, politics, and pop
culture. In an eight-minute loop of film, Wallace Berman uses Hebrew
letters to frame a hypnotic, rapid-fire montage that captures the go-go
energy of the 1960s. Aleph includes stills of collages created
using a Verifax machine, Eastman Kodak's precursor to the photocopier.
These collages depict a hand-held radio that seems to broadcast or
receive popular and esoteric icons. Signs, symbols, and diverse
mass-media images (e.g., Flash Gordon, John F. Kennedy, Mick Jagger)
flow like a deck of tarot cards, infinitely shuffled in order that the
viewer may construct his or her own set of personal interpretations.
The transistor radio, the most ubiquitous portable form of mass
communication in the 1960s, exemplifies the democratic potential of
electronic culture and serves as a metaphor for Jewish mysticism. The
Hebrew term kabbalah translates as "reception" for knowledge,
enlightenment, and divinity.
According to the artist's son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph "...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning and no end." The hand-painted 8mm film was shot over a ten-year period with some images photographed on 16mm. After Berman's death, the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage preserved the damaged print and transferred the reel to 16mm. The Jewish Museum recently acquired this version of the film as a limited edition DVD.
Wallace Berman (1926-1976) is gaining wider recognition today for a visionary body of work that encompassed assemblage, photography, collage, drawing, sculpture, poetry, and mail art. [His Verifax collage Silent, 1967-69 is currently on view in the second floor exhibition Collective Perspectives: New Acquisitions Celebrate the Centennial.] Berman's engagement with kabbalah reflected the Beat Generation's wider exploration of esoteric spiritual practices such as Zen, palm reading, astrology...and psychedelic drugs. Born on Staten Island, Berman moved with his family to Los Angeles during the 1930's. In the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights and the Fairfax district, the decorative shapes of Hebrew letters on storefront windows and in Yiddish-language newspapers fascinated Berman. According to historian Richard Candida Smith, "Berman's interest in the Hebrew alphabet and its functions in Jewish mysticism was part of an effort to reclaim his ethnic identity." - See more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Aleph#sthash.zTkUUtUH.dpuf
According to the artist's son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph "...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning and no end." The hand-painted 8mm film was shot over a ten-year period with some images photographed on 16mm. After Berman's death, the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage preserved the damaged print and transferred the reel to 16mm. The Jewish Museum recently acquired this version of the film as a limited edition DVD.
Wallace Berman (1926-1976) is gaining wider recognition today for a visionary body of work that encompassed assemblage, photography, collage, drawing, sculpture, poetry, and mail art. [His Verifax collage Silent, 1967-69 is currently on view in the second floor exhibition Collective Perspectives: New Acquisitions Celebrate the Centennial.] Berman's engagement with kabbalah reflected the Beat Generation's wider exploration of esoteric spiritual practices such as Zen, palm reading, astrology...and psychedelic drugs. Born on Staten Island, Berman moved with his family to Los Angeles during the 1930's. In the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights and the Fairfax district, the decorative shapes of Hebrew letters on storefront windows and in Yiddish-language newspapers fascinated Berman. According to historian Richard Candida Smith, "Berman's interest in the Hebrew alphabet and its functions in Jewish mysticism was part of an effort to reclaim his ethnic identity." - See more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Aleph#sthash.zTkUUtUH.dpuf
Aleph
is an artist's meditation on life, death, mysticism, politics, and pop
culture. In an eight-minute loop of film, Wallace Berman uses Hebrew
letters to frame a hypnotic, rapid-fire montage that captures the go-go
energy of the 1960s. Aleph includes stills of collages created
using a Verifax machine, Eastman Kodak's precursor to the photocopier.
These collages depict a hand-held radio that seems to broadcast or
receive popular and esoteric icons. Signs, symbols, and diverse
mass-media images (e.g., Flash Gordon, John F. Kennedy, Mick Jagger)
flow like a deck of tarot cards, infinitely shuffled in order that the
viewer may construct his or her own set of personal interpretations.
The transistor radio, the most ubiquitous portable form of mass
communication in the 1960s, exemplifies the democratic potential of
electronic culture and serves as a metaphor for Jewish mysticism. The
Hebrew term kabbalah translates as "reception" for knowledge,
enlightenment, and divinity.
According to the artist's son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph "...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning and no end." The hand-painted 8mm film was shot over a ten-year period with some images photographed on 16mm. After Berman's death, the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage preserved the damaged print and transferred the reel to 16mm. The Jewish Museum recently acquired this version of the film as a limited edition DVD.
Wallace Berman (1926-1976) is gaining wider recognition today for a visionary body of work that encompassed assemblage, photography, collage, drawing, sculpture, poetry, and mail art. [His Verifax collage Silent, 1967-69 is currently on view in the second floor exhibition Collective Perspectives: New Acquisitions Celebrate the Centennial.] Berman's engagement with kabbalah reflected the Beat Generation's wider exploration of esoteric spiritual practices such as Zen, palm reading, astrology...and psychedelic drugs. Born on Staten Island, Berman moved with his family to Los Angeles during the 1930's. In the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights and the Fairfax district, the decorative shapes of Hebrew letters on storefront windows and in Yiddish-language newspapers fascinated Berman. According to historian Richard Candida Smith, "Berman's interest in the Hebrew alphabet and its functions in Jewish mysticism was part of an effort to reclaim his ethnic identity." - See more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Aleph#sthash.zTkUUtUH.dpuf
According to the artist's son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph "...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning and no end." The hand-painted 8mm film was shot over a ten-year period with some images photographed on 16mm. After Berman's death, the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage preserved the damaged print and transferred the reel to 16mm. The Jewish Museum recently acquired this version of the film as a limited edition DVD.
Wallace Berman (1926-1976) is gaining wider recognition today for a visionary body of work that encompassed assemblage, photography, collage, drawing, sculpture, poetry, and mail art. [His Verifax collage Silent, 1967-69 is currently on view in the second floor exhibition Collective Perspectives: New Acquisitions Celebrate the Centennial.] Berman's engagement with kabbalah reflected the Beat Generation's wider exploration of esoteric spiritual practices such as Zen, palm reading, astrology...and psychedelic drugs. Born on Staten Island, Berman moved with his family to Los Angeles during the 1930's. In the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights and the Fairfax district, the decorative shapes of Hebrew letters on storefront windows and in Yiddish-language newspapers fascinated Berman. According to historian Richard Candida Smith, "Berman's interest in the Hebrew alphabet and its functions in Jewish mysticism was part of an effort to reclaim his ethnic identity." - See more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Aleph#sthash.zTkUUtUH.dpuf
Aleph
is an artist's meditation on life, death, mysticism, politics, and pop
culture. In an eight-minute loop of film, Wallace Berman uses Hebrew
letters to frame a hypnotic, rapid-fire montage that captures the go-go
energy of the 1960s. Aleph includes stills of collages created
using a Verifax machine, Eastman Kodak's precursor to the photocopier.
These collages depict a hand-held radio that seems to broadcast or
receive popular and esoteric icons. Signs, symbols, and diverse
mass-media images (e.g., Flash Gordon, John F. Kennedy, Mick Jagger)
flow like a deck of tarot cards, infinitely shuffled in order that the
viewer may construct his or her own set of personal interpretations.
The transistor radio, the most ubiquitous portable form of mass
communication in the 1960s, exemplifies the democratic potential of
electronic culture and serves as a metaphor for Jewish mysticism. The
Hebrew term kabbalah translates as "reception" for knowledge,
enlightenment, and divinity.
According to the artist's son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph "...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning and no end." The hand-painted 8mm film was shot over a ten-year period with some images photographed on 16mm. After Berman's death, the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage preserved the damaged print and transferred the reel to 16mm. The Jewish Museum recently acquired this version of the film as a limited edition DVD.
Wallace Berman (1926-1976) is gaining wider recognition today for a visionary body of work that encompassed assemblage, photography, collage, drawing, sculpture, poetry, and mail art. [His Verifax collage Silent, 1967-69 is currently on view in the second floor exhibition Collective Perspectives: New Acquisitions Celebrate the Centennial.] Berman's engagement with kabbalah reflected the Beat Generation's wider exploration of esoteric spiritual practices such as Zen, palm reading, astrology...and psychedelic drugs. Born on Staten Island, Berman moved with his family to Los Angeles during the 1930's. In the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights and the Fairfax district, the decorative shapes of Hebrew letters on storefront windows and in Yiddish-language newspapers fascinated Berman. According to historian Richard Candida Smith, "Berman's interest in the Hebrew alphabet and its functions in Jewish mysticism was part of an effort to reclaim his ethnic identity." - See more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Aleph#sthash.zTkUUtUH.dpuf
According to the artist's son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph "...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning and no end." The hand-painted 8mm film was shot over a ten-year period with some images photographed on 16mm. After Berman's death, the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage preserved the damaged print and transferred the reel to 16mm. The Jewish Museum recently acquired this version of the film as a limited edition DVD.
Wallace Berman (1926-1976) is gaining wider recognition today for a visionary body of work that encompassed assemblage, photography, collage, drawing, sculpture, poetry, and mail art. [His Verifax collage Silent, 1967-69 is currently on view in the second floor exhibition Collective Perspectives: New Acquisitions Celebrate the Centennial.] Berman's engagement with kabbalah reflected the Beat Generation's wider exploration of esoteric spiritual practices such as Zen, palm reading, astrology...and psychedelic drugs. Born on Staten Island, Berman moved with his family to Los Angeles during the 1930's. In the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights and the Fairfax district, the decorative shapes of Hebrew letters on storefront windows and in Yiddish-language newspapers fascinated Berman. According to historian Richard Candida Smith, "Berman's interest in the Hebrew alphabet and its functions in Jewish mysticism was part of an effort to reclaim his ethnic identity." - See more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Aleph#sthash.zTkUUtUH.dpuf
Aleph
is an artist’s meditation on life, death, mysticism, politics, and pop
culture. In an eight-minute loop of film, Wallace Berman uses Hebrew
letters to frame a hypnotic, rapid-fire montage that captures the go-go
energy of the 1960s. Aleph includes stills of collages created using a
Verifax machine, Eastman Kodak’s precursor to the photocopier. These
collages depict a hand-held radio that seems to broadcast or receive
popular and esoteric icons. Signs, symbols, and diverse mass-media
images (e.g., Flash Gordon, John F. Kennedy, Mick Jagger) flow like a
deck of tarot cards, infinitely shuffled in order that the viewer may
construct his or her own set of personal interpretations. The transistor
radio, the most ubiquitous portable form of mass communication in the
1960s, exemplifies the democratic potential of electronic culture and
serves as a metaphor for Jewish mysticism. The Hebrew term kabbalah
translates as “reception” for knowledge, enlightenment, and divinity.
According to the artist’s son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph
‘...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning
and no end.’
Aleph
is an artist's meditation on life, death, mysticism, politics, and pop
culture. In an eight-minute loop of film, Wallace Berman uses Hebrew
letters to frame a hypnotic, rapid-fire montage that captures the go-go
energy of the 1960s. Aleph includes stills of collages created
using a Verifax machine, Eastman Kodak's precursor to the photocopier.
These collages depict a hand-held radio that seems to broadcast or
receive popular and esoteric icons. Signs, symbols, and diverse
mass-media images (e.g., Flash Gordon, John F. Kennedy, Mick Jagger)
flow like a deck of tarot cards, infinitely shuffled in order that the
viewer may construct his or her own set of personal interpretations.
The transistor radio, the most ubiquitous portable form of mass
communication in the 1960s, exemplifies the democratic potential of
electronic culture and serves as a metaphor for Jewish mysticism. The
Hebrew term kabbalah translates as "reception" for knowledge,
enlightenment, and divinity.
According to the artist's son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph "...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning and no end." The hand-painted 8mm film was shot over a ten-year period with some images photographed on 16mm. After Berman's death, the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage preserved the damaged print and transferred the reel to 16mm. The Jewish Museum recently acquired this version of the film as a limited edition DVD.
Wallace Berman (1926-1976) is gaining wider recognition today for a visionary body of work that encompassed assemblage, photography, collage, drawing, sculpture, poetry, and mail art. [His Verifax collage Silent, 1967-69 is currently on view in the second floor exhibition Collective Perspectives: New Acquisitions Celebrate the Centennial.] Berman's engagement with kabbalah reflected the Beat Generation's wider exploration of esoteric spiritual practices such as Zen, palm reading, astrology...and psychedelic drugs. Born on Staten Island, Berman moved with his family to Los Angeles during the 1930's. In the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights and the Fairfax district, the decorative shapes of Hebrew letters on storefront windows and in Yiddish-language newspapers fascinated Berman. According to historian Richard Candida Smith, "Berman's interest in the Hebrew alphabet and its functions in Jewish mysticism was part of an effort to reclaim his ethnic identity." - See more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Aleph#sthash.zTkUUtUH.dpuf
According to the artist's son Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman treated Aleph "...as a creative notebook, and like a true diary, it has no beginning and no end." The hand-painted 8mm film was shot over a ten-year period with some images photographed on 16mm. After Berman's death, the late experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage preserved the damaged print and transferred the reel to 16mm. The Jewish Museum recently acquired this version of the film as a limited edition DVD.
Wallace Berman (1926-1976) is gaining wider recognition today for a visionary body of work that encompassed assemblage, photography, collage, drawing, sculpture, poetry, and mail art. [His Verifax collage Silent, 1967-69 is currently on view in the second floor exhibition Collective Perspectives: New Acquisitions Celebrate the Centennial.] Berman's engagement with kabbalah reflected the Beat Generation's wider exploration of esoteric spiritual practices such as Zen, palm reading, astrology...and psychedelic drugs. Born on Staten Island, Berman moved with his family to Los Angeles during the 1930's. In the Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights and the Fairfax district, the decorative shapes of Hebrew letters on storefront windows and in Yiddish-language newspapers fascinated Berman. According to historian Richard Candida Smith, "Berman's interest in the Hebrew alphabet and its functions in Jewish mysticism was part of an effort to reclaim his ethnic identity." - See more at: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Aleph#sthash.zTkUUtUH.dpuf
