Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (film)

This article is about the 1969 film. For the nursery rhyme of the same name, see Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son.

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Directed by	Ken Jacobs
Distributed by	The Film-Makers' Cooperative
Release date	1969 (1969)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son is a 1969 American experimental film made by Ken Jacobs. ^[1]

Summary

The 1969 film uses the 1905 film of the same name as its source material.

In a meticulous experiment in rephotography, Jacobs deconstructs, manipulates, and recontextualizes a small fragment of found footage: a 1905 film showing a group of people chasing a thief through a barn, (shot and directed by G.W. ‘Billy’ Bitzer), ^[2] "rescued via a paper print filed for copyright purposes with the Library of Congress," according to Jacobs. ^[3] Jacobs' refashioning of the footage is an essayistic meditation on the nature of cinematic representation; in the words of Chicago Reader critic Fred Camper, it is "a film about watching movies." ^[4]

Legacy

The film is considered a landmark in avant-garde and structural filmmaking, and remains Jacobs' best-known work. ^[4] It was inducted to the National Film Registry in 2007, and is part of Anthology Film Archives' "Essential Cinema" repertory. ^[5]

See also

• List of American films of 1969
• 1905 in film
• Metafilm

References

1. Artfourm
2. TCM.com
3. Anthology Film Archives: Film Screenings
4. Chicago Reader
5. Anthology Film Archives: Film Screenings

External links

• Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son at the Film-Makers' Cooperative
• Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son at IMDb - 1969 film
• Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son at IMDb - 1905 film
• Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son at Rotten Tomatoes
• Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son at the TCM Movie Database
• Jacobs discussing the work in 1969 at St. John's University
• Optic Antics, the first major academic survey of Jacobs' work, including Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son