Early Monthly Segments, filmed when Beavers was 18 and 19 years old, now forms the opening to his film cycle, "My Hand Outstretched to the Winged Distance and Sightless Measure." It is a highly stylized work of self-portraiture, depicting filmmaker and companion Gregory J. Markopoulos in their...
"The first experimental films I saw were mostly trance films or reactions to trance films. [My] first films, like Anthony (1966), are rather like trance films; that’s part of the reason I didn’t think of them as my own." (Tom Chomont)
Phases of the Moon: The Parapsychology of Everyday Life
01968HD
“I usually avoid the term ‘film poem,’ because it was overused in the ‘40s and ‘50s. But somehow it fits Phases of The Moon; it is a film poem and nothing else. A small, miniature film poem, a jewel, if the word masterpiece is too stuffy.” (Jonas Mekas, 1973)
In March and April of 1966, Markopoulos created this filmic portrait of writers and artists from his New York circle, including Parker Tyler, W. H. Auden, Jasper Johns, Susan Sontag, Storm De Hirsch, Jonas Mekas, Allen Ginsberg, and George and Mike Kuchar, most observed in their homes or studios....
“Approximately thirty images comprise Oblivion. Most obsessively repeat themselves. Although the images appear to be solarized, the film was actually contact-printed, combining high contrast black and white negative with a colour positive of the same image. The high contrast accounts for the...
"Panic Bodies is a 70-minute, six-part exploration of the ways we experience the body's betrayals: disease, decline and death. The film is a panorama of emotionally charged recollections of strange relatives and estranged siblings, staged recreations of fast-fading pasts and personal mythologies,...
"I would say that the films of Mike Kuchar interest me very much. Also, some footage by a young film-maker in Boston, Tom Chomont, his footage (unedited) for Night Blossoms. I was particularly impressed with Mr. Chomont’s footage because it reminded me of the painting (form and color) of Odilon...
"I, Prolugue, II, The Angel Morpheus/The Major Arcana, III, Jeu de la main. The title refers to (a) quote attributed to Stan Brakhage regarding the avant-garde artist: 'Orpheus has been too long in Hell.' Part II alludes both to the sixth strophe of the Third Song of 'Les Chants du Maldoror' by le...
