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

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
Language	Silent

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] In the words of Chicago Reader critic Fred Camper, it is "a film about watching movies." ^[3]

Production

Preservationist Kemp Niver restored early silent films by transferring paper prints from the Library of Congress to 16 mm reels which he could distribute. ^[4] In 1968, Jacobs read about a screening by Niver at the Museum of Modern Art, in a New York Times article by Vincent Canby. ^[5] He rented a print to show his students at St. John's University. ^[6] The reel included Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son, The Suburbanite (1904), and An Acadian Elopement (1907). ^[7] Jacobs was unfamiliar with the nursery rhyme on which the Biograph film is based. Because of its dense visual composition, he did not notice the pig being stolen and was left confused why the chase was happening. ^[8] Only after many viewings did he notice that a pig was present in the scene. ^[9]

Jacobs worked with his friend Jordan Meyers to rephotograph the Biograph film at his home. Using a Victor Animatograph projector, Jacobs projected the original film onto a translucent screen. He or Meyers then recorded images off the screen, shooting with a handheld Arriflex 16 mm camera. ^{[10] [11]} Jacobs first presented unfinished versions of the film in private screenings. ^{[12] [13]} He added a color sequence resembling a shadow play as well as a section where the image moves vertically due to the film strip jumping in the projector gate. ^{[14] [15]}

Legacy

The film is considered a landmark in avant-garde and structural filmmaking, and remains Jacobs' best-known work. ^[3] It was inducted to the National Film Registry in 2007, and is part of Anthology Film Archives' "Essential Cinema" repertory. ^[16]

See also

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

References

1. Artfourm
2. TCM.com
3. Chicago Reader
4. Bordwell 1997, p. 102.
5. Habib 2020, p. 265.
6. Habib 2018, p. 40.
7. Habib 2020, pp. 265–266.
8. Turvey, Malcolm (2011). "Ken Jacobs: Digital Revelationist*". October (137): 117–120. JSTOR   23014890.
9. MacDonald 2015, p. 200.
10. Pierson, James & Arthur 2011, p. 99.
11. Habib 2020, pp. 266, 272.
12. Takahashi, Tess (2012). "Experimental Screens in the 1960s and 1970s: The Site of Community". Cinema Journal . 51 (2): 165. doi:10.1353/cj.2012.0013.
13. Sitney 1970, p. 335.
14. Sitney 1974, p. 405.
15. Eagan 2010, pp. 681–682.
16. Anthology Film Archives: Film Screenings

Bibliography

• Bordwell, David (1997). On the History of Film Style. Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0-674-63428-2.
• Eagan, Daniel (2010). America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry. Continuum Publishing. ISBN   978-0-8264-1849-4.
• Habib, André (2018). "Drafts and Fragments: Reflections around Bill Morrison and the Paper Print Collection". In Herzogenrath, Bernd (ed.). The Films of Bill Morrison. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN   978-90-8964-996-6.
• Habib, André (2020). "Finding Early Cinema in the Avant-Garde". In Bernardi, Joanne; Cherchi Usai, Paolo; Williams, Tami; Yumibe, Joshua (eds.). Provenance and Early Cinema. Indiana University Press. ISBN   978-0-253-05299-5.
• MacDonald, Scott (2015). Binghamton Babylon: Voices from the Cinema Department, 1967–1977. SUNY Press. ISBN   978-1-4384-5889-2.
• Pierson, Michele; James, David E.; Arthur, Paul, eds. (2011). Optic Antics: The Cinema of Ken Jacobs. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-538497-0.
• Sitney, P. Adams (1970). "Structural Film". In Sitney, P. Adams (ed.). Film Culture Reader . Praeger Publishing. ISBN   978-0-8154-1101-7.
• Sitney, P. Adams (1974). Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-501761-8.

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