Scott Bartlett’s film OffOn (1967) — screening in its original 16mm format on Wed. April 14, 2010 — is a pioneering work of both visual music and electronic cinema, fusing film and video in a way never before achieved. Regardless of the intellectual folderol , it is an extraordinarily powerful (and psychedelic) piece of filmmaking on its own merits.
In 1980, while teaching at UCLA, Bartlett led a class of students in crafting a “remake” of the original, using many of the original elements and some of the same TV studio techniques and technology that was then still lingering, but soon to become obsolete and lost to the march of time.
Here is a short documentary produced at the time, depicting the process of making that 1980 recreation. A 16mm print of this documentary can be rented for public exhibition from The Film-makers’ Cooperative.
Now best remembered for his 1927 feature film, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, at the beginning of the decade Walter Ruttmann created some of the earliest German abstract films amidst the same Munich art community as Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling. Edition Filmmuseum recently issued a PAL-format set of two DVDs gathering all of his surviving works from 1920-1931 in newly restored and reconstructed versions.
This is his first film; three more followed in the same series.
Initially a Cubist, the painter Hans Richter went on to become one of the founding members of the Zurich branch of the Dada art movement. After moving to Munich in 1919 with his partner Viking Eggeling, together the artists began to explore form as rhythm in their work, initially in a series of theoretical writings and “scroll-paintings.” Soon, perhaps inevitably, they both branched out into animated film as a means to express their ideas.
This is a wonderful segment about Mary Ellen Bute from the Oct. 24, 1999 episode of a British TV program called Dope Sheet. (A “dope sheet” is a planning document used by animators.) It includes comments from Cecile Starr, John Canemaker, and Scorsese’s favorite editor Thelma Schumacher, who did her first work with Bute.
On Saturday, April 10, we are presenting an entire program featuring all of Bute’s abstract short animated films, made between 1934 and 1952. It’s a rare opportunity to see the remarkable — and thoroughly delightful — works by this unjustly neglected pioneer.
A still from "When the Organ Played 'Oh Promise Me'," a rare Auroratone film by Cecil Stokes, ca. early 1940s.
We are pleased to announce a very special addition to the Sixties Synaesthetics program on Wed. April 14 at the Northwest Film Forum.
An extremely rare example of Auroratone films will precede the rest of the program. We will be presenting When the Organ Played ‘Oh Promise Me’, provided courtesy of film collector Robert W. Martens.
Unseen for 50 years, at this time it is the only known surviving Auroratone film in existence. Due to the extreme rarity of the print, we will be showing the film from a high-resolution Digibeta video transfer, prepared by DuArt Film and Video in NYC especially for this screening.
All but forgotten today, Auroratone films typically consisted of abstract visuals — often time-lapse photography of crystalline growth filmed in polarized light — accompanied by slow, mildly sad and melancholic music. They were created in the early 1940s by Cecil Stokes (1910-1956), who intended for them to be used as a therapeutic aid in the treatment of post traumatic stress, manic depression, anxiety disorders, and similar conditions.
Another still from "When the Organ Played 'Oh Promise Me'," by Cecil Stokes, ca. early 1940s.
Stokes formed the Auroratone Foundation of America to distribute the films. One partner in the effort was none other than Bing Crosby, who also recorded songs for a number of the films including this one. Organist Eddie Dunstedter, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Air Force, also contributed.
In 1945, six Auroratone films were donated to Crile General Hospital, a military and VA hospital in Parma, Ohio, near Cleveland. Two doctors there, Capt. Herbert E. Rubin and 2nd Lt. Elias Katz, used the films as part of their treatment regime. In studies later published in several medical journals ca. 1946, they reported the films did indeed have a positive effect. “Most patients became more accessible…[and] spoke more freely,” making it “possible for the psychiatrist to establish rapport.”
In 2007 or so, Robert Martens found this particular print in a collection of 16mm films his brother Daniel inherited from their grandfather, Gustave, who was an avid home movie maker and occasional collector. During the 1940s, the elder Mr. Martens worked for a time as a film projectionist for various mental health institutions in the New York City area, and it is believed he acquired the Auroratone film during that period.
Robert posted a low-resolution capture of the Auroratone to YouTube, where it soon caught the eye of amazed and mystified viewers. This is where we found it, and we very grateful for his generous response to our inquiries, and the effort he has taken to make the film available for this program.
Included below is the YouTube clip. A much higher-resolution transfer will be shown on April 14. Don’t miss it!
The restorations — a dozen in all — were first premiered in 2008, when Anthology completed the work with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Breer was present at the 2008 premiere to introduce the films.
The 16mm originals, dating from 1956 through 1986, were enlarged to 35mm. Anthology has also preserved Breer’s series Form Phases I-IV (1954-1956) in their original 16mm format, at the request of the filmmaker.
Among the films preserved as 35mm was Blazes (1961), which will be presented in its original 16mm format as part of our own Visual Music series.
The Wexler Center for the Arts at Ohio State University recently presented