Avant-Garde Masters Grants Preserve the Work of Four Filmmakers
09/10/2024Early films by Nathaniel Dorsky, as well as works by Tatsu Aoki and Midwestern feminist filmmakers JoAnn Elam and Kathleen Laughlin will be preserved and made accessible through the 2024 Avant-Garde Masters Grants, awarded by The Film Foundation and the National Film Preservation Foundation with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
Four early works by renowned filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky will be preserved by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Fool’s Spring: Two Personal Gifts (1966-67), a birthday gift exchange between Dorsky and longtime partner and filmmaker Jerome Hiler, will be made available to the public for the first time. Pneuma (1977-83) and Ariel (1983) are experiments with the material and chemical properties of film, yielding vibrant abstractions of energy and color. Drawing on these experiments, Alaya (1976-87) represents a return to the photographic image in its meditation on sand, wind, and light. Stan Brakhage raved “Alaya manages a perfection of ‘musical’ light across a space of time greater in length than would seem possible…and with minimal means of line and tone—little short of a miracle!”
Known primarily for the landmark feminist 16mm films Rape (1975) and Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982), Chicago filmmaker JoAnn Elam (1949-2009) was also extremely dedicated to 8mm filmmaking. Drawn to the format’s ability to intimately capture the nuances of everyday life, Elam asserted in the “Small Gauge Manifesto” (co-written with Chuck Kleinhans) that “Small gauge film is not larger than life, it’s part of life.” Elam’s interest in the artistry of domestic life is evidenced in her “avant-garde home movies”, Garden & Joe (ca. 1980) and Joe Cutting Tree (ca. 1980), featuring her husband engaged in practical labor. Blizzard of '79 (1979) captures the filmmaker’s snow-covered neighborhood after a legendary storm. A Country Mile (ca. 1973) turns a simple walk down a rural, wooded path into a mesmerizing journey, while Memphremagog (ca.1973) is a frenetic travel montage that ends in a warm, familial destination. 7/4/77 (1977) shows friends enjoying a Fourth of July gathering. Chicago Film Archives will preserve these works as part of the JoAnn Elam Collection.
The Walker Art Center will preserve Opening/Closing (1972) by Kathleen Laughlin. Filmed in a single night in a South Minneapolis laundromat, washer and dryer doors open and close in an animated rhythm, enlivening a monotonous and routine task. With a background in visual arts and animation, Laughlin contributed to the flourishing independent filmmaking community in the Twin Cities as a teacher and graphic designer at Film in the Cities, the landmark media arts center.
Chicago Film Society will preserve four early works by celebrated Chicago filmmaker, musician, educator, and arts advocate Tatsu Aoki. Exploring the confluence between filmmaking and musical performance, Aoki employs in-camera tricks, stop-motion animation, pixelization, inverted colors, and superimpositions to dazzling effect. 3725 (1981) playfully portrays domesticity in the filmmaker’s apartment while Dream Works (1983) considers the inner life of a cat. Through overlapping images of cars, lane lines, and light fixtures, Rapturous (1984) turns an ordinary parking garage into a “a mildly hypnotic kaleidoscope” while Harmony (1991) captures the hustle and bustle of Chicago’s famed Loop.
Now in its twenty-first year, the Avant Garde Masters program, created by The Film Foundation and the NFPF, has helped 34 organizations save 234 films significant to the development of the avant-garde in America thanks to the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The grants have preserved works by 91 artists, including Kenneth Anger, Shirley Clarke, Bruce Conner, Joseph Cornell, Oskar Fischinger, Hollis Frampton, Barbara Hammer, Marjorie Keller, George and Mike Kuchar, and Stan VanDerBeek. Click here to learn more about all the films preserved through the Avant-Garde Masters Grants.
National FIlm Preservation Foundation