In memoriam Stan Brakhage

 

On March 9, 2003 one of the great artists in the history of film passed away. The importance of Stan Brakhage’s deeply personal and autonomous work is almost diametrically opposed to the present visibility of his films. Many know his name, but very few have seen the vast body of work which he created.

 

With seven programmes, the Film Museum pays homage to nearly five decades of Brakhage film making: from his breakthrough in the 1950's with Window Water Baby Moving and Anticipation of the Night (a truly subersive cinema which, among things, dealt with sexuality, birth and suicide), to the radical "material film" Mothlight and the mythical "epic" Dog Star Man, and finally, to the aggression of Murder Psalm (1981) and the lyricism of A Child's Garden and the Serious Sea (1991).