Robert Beavers is an American experimental film

Experimental film

Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...

maker. Born and raised in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, he attended Deerfield Academy

Deerfield Academy

Deerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....

 which he left before graduating to move to New York in 1965 to pursue filmmaking. He lived in New York until 1967 when he and his partner, Gregory Markopoulos

Gregory Markopoulos

Gregory J. Markopoulos was a Greek-American experimental filmmaker. Born in Toledo, Ohio to Greek immigrant parents, Markopoulos began making 8 mm films at an early age. He attended USC Film School in the late 1940s, and went on to become a co-founder — with Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan...

, left the United States for Europe, where they continued to live and make films until Markopoulos' death in 1992.

Both filmmakers restricted the screenings of their films after leaving America, and instead held yearly screenings of Markopoulos' and Beavers' work from 1980-1986 at the Temenos, a site near Lyssaraia in Arcadia, Greece. After Markopoulos' death, Beavers founded Temenos, Inc., a non-profit devoted to the preservation of Markopoulos' and Beavers' work. Beavers has worked extensively on re-editing his films to create the larger film cycle "My Hand Outstretched to the Winged Distance and Sightless Measure."

Selected filmography

• Spiracle (1966)

16mm, color, sound; 12 minutes

• ~Early Monthly Segments (1968?70/2002)~

35mm, color, silent; 33 minutes

• ~Winged Dialogue (1967/2000) and
• ~Plan of Brussels (1968/2000)

35mm, color, sound; 21 minutes

The final edit combines both films on one reel

• ~The Count of Days (1969/2001)

35 mm, color, sound; 21 minutes

The final edit includes part of "Early Monthly Segments" on the same reel

• ~Palinode (1970/2001)

35mm, color, sound; 21 minutes

The final edit includes part of "Early Monthly Segments" on the same reel

• ~Diminished Frame (1970/2001)

35mm, black and white, and color, sound; 24 minutes

The final edit includes part of "Early Monthly Segments" on the same reel

• ~Still Light (1970/2001)

35mm, black and white, and color, sound; 25 minutes

• ~From the Notebook of (1971/1998)

35mm, color, sound 48 minutes

• ~The Painting (1972/1999)

35mm, color, sound; 22 minutes

• ~Work Done (1972/1999)

35mm, color, sound; 22 minutes

• ~Ruskin (1975/1997)

35mm, black and white, and color, sound; 45 minutes

• ~Sotiros (1976-78/1996)

35mm, color, sound; 25 minutes

The final edit comprises three earlier films; "Sotiros Responds" (1976), "Sotiros (Alone)" (1977), and "Sotiros in the Elements" (1978)

• ~AMOR (1980)

35mm, color, sound; 15 minutes

• ~Efpsychi (1983/1996)

35mm, color, sound; 20 minutes

• ~Wingseed (1985)

35mm, color, sound; 15 minutes

• ~The Hedge Theater (1986?90/2002)

35mm, color, sound; 19 minutes

Includes footage from "Borromini" (1986) and "San Martino/Il Sassetta" (1987-90)

• ~The Stoas (1991-97)

35mm, color, sound; 22 minutes

• ~The Ground (1993?2001)

35mm, color, sound; 20 minutes

• Pitcher of Colored Light (2007)

35mm, color, sound; 24 minutes

~Part of the cycle "My Hand Outstretched to the Winged Distance and Sightless Measure" (1967-2002)

External links

• The Temenos Association
• Millennium Film Journal no. 32/33 Devoted to Gregory Markopoulos and Robert Beavers
• The Films of Robert Beavers: My Hand Outstretched
• To The Winged Distance: Films by Robert Beavers