Scenes from Under Childhood

Last updated
Scenes from Under Childhood
Directed by Stan Brakhage
Release date
1967–1970
Running time
Approx. 135 min. (Total)
CountryUnited States

Scenes from Under Childhood is a series of 16mm film in four independent sections by the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced between 1967 and 1970. All four sections are silent, though Brakhage made a version with sound available for the first section.

Contents

The film is often described as an attempt by Brakhage to visualize how his children saw the world. [1] [2] [3] In a 2008 Village Voice review, critic J. Hoberman wrote described the film as a "glorious, two-hour plus romantic epic." [4] In a 1992 poll for the British film magazine Sight & Sound , experimental filmmaker Michael Snow named Scenes from Under Childhood as one of the ten greatest films of all time. [5]

When asked to describe the film, Brakhage himself wrote that it was "a visualization of the inner world of foetal beginnings, the infant, the baby, the child – a shattering of the ‘myths of childhood’ through revelation of the extremes of violent terror and overwhelming joy of that world darkened to most adults by their sentimental remembering of it… a ‘tone poem’ for the eye – very inspired by the music of Olivier Messiaen." [6]

Sections

YearTitleFormatLength
1967 Section One16mm2412 minutes
1969 Section Two16mm40 minutes
1969 Section Three16mm25 minutes
1970 Section Four16mm45 minutes

Archive

Film elements for all four sections of Scenes from Under Childhood are held by the Academy Film Archive as part of the Stan Brakhage Collection. [7] Sections 1 and 3 were preserved by the archive in 2018. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Dog Star Man</i> Series of short American experimental films

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Brakhage</span> American filmmaker and writer

James Stanley Brakhage, better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Experimental film</span> Cinematic works that are experimental form or content

Experimental film, experimental cinema, or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, particularly early ones, relate to arts in other disciplines: painting, dance, literature and poetry, or arise from research and development of new technical resources.

<i>SYR6: Koncertas Stan Brakhage prisiminimui</i> 2005 live album by Sonic Youth with Tim Barnes

SYR6: Koncertas Stan Brakhage prisiminimui is a live album credited to "Sonic Youth su Tim Barnes". It was released on December 6, 2005, and is the sixth in a series of experimental releases issued on Sonic Youth's own SYR label.

<i>Window Water Baby Moving</i> 1959 film by Stan Brakhage

Window Water Baby Moving is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, filmed in November 1958 and released in 1959. The film documents the birth of the director's first child, Myrrena, by his then-wife Jane Brakhage, now Jane Wodening.

<i>Wavelength</i> (1967 film) 1967 Canadian film

Wavelength is a 45-minute film by Canadian experimental filmmaker and artist Michael Snow. Considered a landmark of avant-garde cinema, it was filmed over one week in December 1966 and edited in 1967, and is an example of what film theorist P. Adams Sitney describes as "structural film", calling Snow "the dean of structural filmmakers."

Gregory J. Markopoulos was an American experimental filmmaker.

Fred Worden, filmmaker, has been involved in experimental cinema since the 1970s. His work has been screened at The Museum of Modern Art, in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, The Centre Pompidou, in Paris, The Pacific Film Archive, The New York Film Festival, The London Film Festival, The Rotterdam International Film Festival, The Toronto Film Festival, and The Hong Kong International Film Festival. He was an editor for Criss-Cross Art Communications from the '70s through the '80s and his writings have appeared in Cinematograph. His work is included in the Stan Brakhage Collection, the Austrian Museum, The Centre Pompidou and others. Worden's work develops out of his interest in intermittent projection as the source of cinema's primordial powers: how a stream of still pictures passing through a projector at a speed meant to overwhelm the eyes might be harnessed to purposes other than representation or naturalism.

Philip Stewart Solomon was an American experimental filmmaker noted for his work with both film and video. Recently, Solomon has earned acclaim for a series of films that incorporate machinima made using games from the Grand Theft Auto series. His films are often described as haunting and lyrical.

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.

Over the course of more than five decades, the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced a large body of work. All films in the filmography are assumed to be silent, in color, and are meant to be shown at 24 frames per second, unless otherwise noted. The Brakhage films, comprising his edited originals, intermediate elements, and other original material, are housed at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive, where a long-term project is underway to preserve and restore his entire film output.

The Songs are a cycle of silent color 8mm films by the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced from 1964 to 1969. They are seen as one of Brakhage's major works and include the feature-length 23rd Psalm Branch, considered by some to be one of the filmmaker's masterworks and described by film historian P. Adams Sitney as "an apocalypse of imagination." One of the filmmaker's most overtly political films, 23rd Psalm Branch is often interpreted as being Brakhage's reaction to the Vietnam War.

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."

<i>The Dante Quartet</i> 1987 film by Stan Brakhage

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.

Fire of Waters is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1965.

American artist Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) is justifiably best known for his boxes which constitute a singular contribution to the Surrealist canon and to the art of assemblage. However, he also pursued experimental film-making as an amateur beginning in the 1930s. Cornell was the principal pioneer of collage films in a purely artistic sense and, although the introduction of his films into the public forum was relatively late compared to when they were made, his work as a filmmaker has been widely influential.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Jofen</span> American painter (1925–1993)

Jerry Jofen (1925–1993) was an American painter, collagist, and experimental filmmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Wodening</span>

Jane Wodening is 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.

Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection is a 1953 American short film directed by Stan Brakhage. Shot while in Brakhage's native Denver, the film stars Larry Jordan who later went on to become a film director. Filming was done in Nevadaville, Colorado. Like his other films at the time, it was shot on 16mm film, is black and white and features no dialogue.

References

  1. Village Voice: Scenes from Under Childhood Review
  2. Shooting Down Pictures: Scenes from Under Childhood (1967–1970, Stan Brakhage)
  3. House Next Door: Scenes from Under Childhood
  4. Village Voice: Scenes from Under Childhood Review
  5. Directors' Top Ten
  6. Scenes from Under Childhood at Anthology Film Archives
  7. "Stan Brakhage Collection". Academy Film Archive.
  8. "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.