S t a n B r a k h a g e in Rolling Stock, 1980–1990 White.text.FINAL.indd 1 2018-01-15 9:59 AM Film and Media Studies Series Wilfrid Laurier University Press invites submissions. For further information, please contact the Film studies is the critical exploration of cinematic texts as art and Series editors, all of whom are in entertainment, as well as the industries that produce them and the the Department of English and audiences that consume them. Although a medium barely a hundred Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University: years old, film has been and continues to be transformed through the emergence of new media forms. Media studies, an interdisciplinary Dr. Philippa Gates field, considers the nature and effects of mass media upon individuals [email protected] and society, and analyzes media content and representations. 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Phone 519-884-0710 Fax 519-884-8307 White.text.FINAL.indd 2 2018-01-15 9:59 AM e g a h k a B r n a S t i n R o l l i n g S t o c k , 1 9 8 0 – 1 9 9 0 { J e r r y W h i t e } White.text.FINAL.indd 3 2018-01-15 9:59 AM This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities. This work was supported by the Research Support Fund. aunn Oorngtaanriiosm geo vdeur ngmouevnet rangeemnecnyt de l’Ontario Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication White, Jerry, 1971–, author Stan Brakhage in Rolling stock, 1980–1990 / Jerry White. (Film and media studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-1-77112-303-7 (hardcover).—ISBN 978-1-77112-305-1 (PDF).— ISBN 978-1-77112-306-8 (EPUB) 1. Brakhage, Stan. 2. Motion pictures—History. I. Title. II. Title: Rolling stock. III. Series: Film and media studies series PN1998.3.B74W55 2017 791.4302’33092 C2017-901936-8 C2017-901937-6 Front-cover images: photo of Stan Brakhage in profile © 1979 Ingrid Lundahl; background photo by Kathryn Bernheimer as it appeared in the Daily Camera (Boulder, CO). Cover and text design by Lara Minja, Lime Design Inc. © 2018 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca This book is printed on FSC® certified paper and is certified Ecologo. It contains post-consumer fibre, is processed chlorine free, and is manufactured using biogas energy. Printed in Canada Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit http://www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777. White.text.FINAL.indd 4 2018-01-15 9:59 AM Do Bhob Quinn, an Brakhage Gaelach & Pour Martha Crago, ma cousine coloradienne White.text.FINAL.indd 5 2018-01-15 9:59 AM This page intentionally left blank Contents Stan Brakhage Texts Stan Brakhage Texts Brakhage Text 1 {73} Brakhage Text 4 {175} 1 Closely Watched Blurs Telluride Zinc Brakhage Text 2 {89} Brakhage Text 4.1 {193} Brakhage at the Ninth Telluride Mailer Madness, Torn Macho Brakhage Text 3 {111} Brakhage Text 4.2 {199} Telluride Gold Losey and Leigh Brakhage Meets Tarkovsky Brakhage Text 5 {201} Brakhage Text 3.1 {139} Telluride Takes, Brakhage Talks Acknowledgements {ix} A Conservative Short Takes on Telluride “Straight” European vs. Brakhage Text 6 {229} Introduction {1} Avant-Garde New American Brakhage Observes Telluride the 13th Brakhage, Tarkovsky, Brakhage Text 7 {255} and Syberberg The Gold, the Bad, & the Usual Critical Interlude Stan Brakhage Reviews the 29 15th Telluride Film Festival Notes on the Films Brakhage Showed to Tarkovsky, 1983 {153} White.text.FINAL.indd 7 2018-01-15 9:59 AM Conclusion {303} Epilogue {311} Pordenone, 2015 2 Appendix A {317} A Stan Brakhage / Brakhage’s First Appearance Telluride Filmography {347} in Rolling Stock: The Swiftly A Stan Brakhage / Perceived Blur: From “I . . . . Rolling Stock Bibliography {351} Sleeping (Being a Dream Journal and Parenthetical Explication)” Works Cited {353} Appendix B {323} Index {361} Brakhage’s Final Appearance in Rolling Stock: International A Certain Cinema: The 12th Denver Kind of Soviet Appendix C {329} Blessings: Letters from Stan Brakhage Brakhage, Parajanov, and Shepitko Appendix D {339} B. Ruby Rich: “Hitler: A Film from 281 Germany: Is this a fascist film or an exposé of fascist filmmaking?” White.text.FINAL.indd 8 2018-01-15 9:59 AM Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN ACADEMIC WORKS are famously long-winded and and between the years 1989 and 2011, we did not fail even once to attend self-indulgent. Aficionados of the genre will find that what follows sets a the event together. This madness, as with so many things, was his doing. new high-water mark as far as that goes. All through university, my Philadelphia days, and graduate school, Bill Even by the usual standards for such things, this book has been an and Stella Pence provided me with a unique summer job that I was uniquely insanely long road. In a way, I started it at the age of 17, when my father ill suited for: one part light construction, one part light accounting. Tom (also called Jerry White), who recently retired as an internationally respected Luddy showed me what an international man of mystery might look like if medical physicist but was a habitué of the Penn State Film Society in his transposed to the milieu of filmmaking. The three of them also staged the university days, drove me up I-25 to see a Stan Brakhage program at the best annual seminar in world cinema a guy could ask for. For all of that I am Denver International Film Festival. That summer, he took me on the much grateful. The fact that the last time I was in Telluride some people were still longer drive to the Telluride Film Festival. We almost didn’t make it; at one calling me “Felix” or asking me where my “kids” were is a testament to the point I was pushing our Toyota Land Cruiser backwards down the hiking- faith in young people that Jim Bedford and Kate Sibley are famous for, and trail-like Imogene Pass as he tried to pop the clutch. We did make it, though, from which I have benefited massively. Lynn Gershmann showed me what ix White.text.FINAL.indd 9 2018-01-15 9:59 AM