| Mothlight | |
|---|---|
 A still from Mothlight, showing the wing of an insect | |
| Directed by | Stan Brakhage |
Release date |
|
Running time | 4 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent |
Mothlight is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1963. [1] The film was created without the use of a camera.
Mothlight is a silent "collage film" that incorporates "real world elements." [2] Brakhage produced the film without the use of a camera, [3] using what he then described as "a whole new film technique." [4] Brakhage collected moth wings, flower petals, and blades of grass, and pressed them between two strips of 16mm splicing tape. [5] The resulting assemblage was then contact-printed at a lab to allow projection in a cinema. The objects chosen were required to be thin and translucent, to permit the passage of light. [4] Brakhage reused the technique to produce his later film, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981). [2] Mothlight has been described as boasting a "three-part musical structure." [2]
Brakhage was initially drawn to the idea of using moths in a film when he noticed many of them burning to death in a candle:
Here is a film that I made out of a deep grief. The grief is my business in a way, but the grief was helpful in squeezing the little film out of me, that I said "these crazy moths are flying into the candlelight, and burning themselves to death, and that's what's happening to me. I don't have enough money to make these films, and ... I'm not feeding my children properly, because of these damn films, you know. And I'm burning up here ... What can I do?" I'm feeling the full horror of some kind of immolation, in a way." [6]
After spending some time following live moths with a camera, an exercise that proved fruitless, [6] Brakhage instead turned his attention towards using dead moths:
"Over the lightbulbs there's all these dead moth wings, and I ... hate that. Such a sadness; there must surely be something to do with that. I tenderly picked them out and start pasting them onto a strip of film, to try to ... give them life again, to animate them again, to try to put them into some sort of life through the motion picture machine." [6]
Mothlight won awards at the 1964 Brussels International Film Festival, and the 1966 Spoleto Film Festival. [7] James Peterson describes Mothlight as belonging "to a new class of films, those that direct attention away from the screen and to the physical object in the projector." [8] Darragh O'Donoghue, writing for Senses of Cinema, praised the way Brakhage "evokes the moth not through cartoon mimicry, but by the fragile sensation of its movement, batting against the screen, hurtling in descent." [9]
Along with Window Water Baby Moving (1959), Mothlight remains one of Brakhage's best-known works, [10] and his most rented. [11] It is currently[ when? ] available in the DVD collection By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume 1, released by the Criterion Collection. [12]
Dog Star Man is a series of short experimental films, all directed by Stan Brakhage, featuring Jane Wodening. It was released in instalments between 1961 and 1964 and comprises a prelude and four parts. In 1992, Dog Star Man was included in its entirety in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation.
James Stanley Brakhage was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film.
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Drawn-on-film animation, also known as direct animation or animation without camera, is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or objects are photographed frame by frame with an animation camera.
Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. The film archive and theater is located at 32 Second Avenue on the southeast corner of East 2nd Street, in a New York City historic district in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan.
Marie Menken was an American experimental filmmaker, painter, and socialite. She was noted for her unique filming style that incorporated collage. She was one of the first New York filmmakers to use a hand-held camera and trained Andy Warhol on its use. Her film Glimpse of the Garden was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes is a 1971 American film by Stan Brakhage. Its title is based on the literal translation of the term autopsy. The film documented the highly graphic autopsy procedures used by forensic pathologists, such as the removal of organs and the embalming process.
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Thigh Line Lyre Triangular is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1961, which depicts the birth of the director's third child, a daughter named Neowyn. The film, which involves painting and hand-scratching over photographic images, is more abstract than the director's earlier Window Water Baby Moving, which documented the birth of Brakhage's first-born, Myrrenna.
Eye Myth is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1967. The film has a running time of only nine seconds, but took about a year to produce.
Cat's Cradle is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1959. The film was described by Brakhage as "sexual witchcraft involving two couples and a 'medium' cat."
The Dante Quartet is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, completed in 1987. The film was inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, and took six years to produce.
The Garden of Earthly Delights is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1981. The film was partly inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s painting of the same name.
I... Dreaming is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1988. The film features a soundtrack of Stephen Foster songs, composed by Joel Haertling.
Fire of Waters is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1965.
Commingled Containers is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1997.
The Wold Shadow is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1972.
Mary Jane Wodening was an American artist and writer. She is best known for her collaborations with experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, to whom she was married from 1957 until 1987. During this period, she was known as Jane Brakhage. Wodening featured in Brakhage's short film Window Water Baby Moving, in which her husband filmed her giving birth.
Anticipation of the Night is a 1958 American avant-garde film directed by Stan Brakhage. It was a breakthrough in the development of the lyrical style Brakhage used in his later films.
Modernist film is related to the art and philosophy of modernism.
