Stan Brakhage
Encyclopedia
James Stanley Brakhage better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American
non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film
.
Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a large and diverse body of work
, exploring a variety of formats, approaches and techniques
that included handheld camerawork, painting directly onto celluloid
, fast cutting
, in-camera editing, scratching on film, and the use of multiple exposure
s. Interested in mythology
and inspired by music, poetry, and visual phenomena, Brakhage sought to reveal the universal in the particular, exploring themes of birth, mortality, sexuality, and innocence.
Brakhage's films are often noted for their expressiveness and lyricism.
on January 14, 1933, Brakhage was adopted and renamed three weeks after his birth by Ludwig and Clara Brakhage.
As a child, Brakhage was featured on radio
as a boy soprano
and sang in church choirs and as a soloist at other events. He was raised in Denver, Colorado
, where he attended high school with the filmmaker Larry Jordan
and the musicians Morton Subotnick
and James Tenney
. Together, Brakhage, Jordan, Tenney and Subotnick formed a drama group called the Gadflies.
Brakhage briefly attended Dartmouth College
on a scholarship before dropping out to pursue filmmaking. He completed his first film, Interim, at the age of 19; the music for the film was composed by his school friend James Tenney
. In 1953, Brakhage moved to San Francisco to attend the San Francisco School of the Arts, then called the California School of the Arts. He found the atmosphere in San Francisco more rewarding, associating with poets Robert Duncan
and Kenneth Rexroth
, but did not complete his education, instead moving to New York City
in 1954. There he met a number of notable artists, including Maya Deren
(in whose apartment he briefly lived), Willard Maas
, Jonas Mekas
, Marie Menken
, Joseph Cornell
, and John Cage
. Brakhage would collaborate with the latter two, making two films with Cornell (Gnir Rednow and Centuries of June) and using Cage's music for the soundtrack of his first color film, In Between.
Brakhage spent the next few years living in near poverty, depressed about what he saw as the failure of his work. He briefly considered suicide. While living in Denver, Brakhage met Mary Jane Collom, whom he married in late 1957. Known as Jane Brakhage, she became his first wife. Brakhage tried to make money on his films, but had to take a job making industrial shorts to support his family. In 1958, Jane gave birth to the first of the five children they would have together, an event Brakhage recorded for his 1959 film Window Water Baby Moving
.
, a critic who would later become an influential experimental filmmaker in his own right, cited Brakhage for bringing to cinema "an intelligence and subtlety that is usually the province of the older arts."
From 1961 to 1964, Brakhage worked on a series of 5 films known as the Dog Star Man
cycle. The Brakhages moved to Lump Gulch, Colorado
in 1964, though Brakhage continued to make regular visits to New York. During one of those visits, the 16mm film equipment he had been using was stolen. Brakhage couldn't afford to replace it, instead opting to buy cheaper 8mm
film equipment. He soon began working in the format, producing a 30-part cycle of 8mm films known as the Songs
from 1964 to 1969. The Songs include one of Brakhage's most acclaimed films, 23rd Psalm Branch, a response to the Vietnam War and its presentation in the mass media.
Brakhage began teaching film history and aesthetics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1969, commuting from his home in Colorado
.
, depicting autopsy—are collectively known as "The Pittsburgh Trilogy." In 1974, Brakhage made the feature-length Text of Light, consisting entirely of images of light refracted in a glass ashtray
. In 1979, he experimented with Polavision, a format marketed by Polaroid
, making about five 2 minute films. The whereabouts of these films are now unknown. He continued his visual explorations of landscape and the nature of light and thought process, and through the late 70s and early 80s produced filmic equivalents of what he termed "moving visual thinking" in several series of photographic abstractions known as the Roman, Arabic, and Egyptian series.
Stan Brakhage taught at the University of Colorado
in Boulder off and on, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1986, Brakhage separated from Jane, and in 1989 he married his second wife, Marilyn. The two would have two children together. In the late 1980s, Brakhage returned to making sound film
s, with the four-part Faustfilm cycle, and also completed the hand-painted film, The Dante Quartet
.
. Several more sound films were completed, including "Passage Through: A Ritual," edited to the music of Philip Corner, and "Christ Mass Sex Dance" and "Ellipsis No. 5," both with music by James Tenney. He also produced the major meditations on childhood, adolescence, aging and mortality collectively known as the "Vancouver Island Quartet," as well as numerous hand-painted works.
Brakhage was diagnosed with bladder
cancer
in 1996, and his bladder was removed. The surgery seemed successful, but the cancer eventually returned. He retired from teaching and moved to Canada
in 2002, settling with his second wife Marilyn and their two sons in Victoria, British Columbia
. Brakhage died there on March 9, 2003, aged 70. The last footage Brakhage shot has been made available under the title Work in Progress. At the time of his death, Brakhage was also working the Chinese Series, made by scratching directly on to film.
Though not a practicing Christian
during his adulthood, Brakhage requested a traditional Anglican service. The funeral was attended largely by family members, as well as a few friends from the filmmaking world, and included a performance of J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
, the director of Antz
, as well as the creators of South Park
, Matt Stone
and Trey Parker
, and he is featured in their student film Cannibal! The Musical
.
The work of contemporary film and video artist Raymond Salvatore Harmon
(1974- ) has been compared to Brakhage's abstract films.
The credits of the film Seven
(1995), with their scratched emulsion, rapid cutaways and bursts of light are in Brakhage's style.
The opening track of Stereolab
's album Dots and Loops
(1997), "Brakhage", is named after him.
The concluding credits to The Jacket
(2005) are an homage, the background imitating his Mothlight
.
Film Archive, where a long-term project is underway to preserve and restore his entire film output.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century 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...
.
Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a large and diverse body of work
Filmography of Stan Brakhage
Over the course of more than five decades, the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced a large body of work. The following attempts to be a comprehensive filmography....
, exploring a variety of formats, approaches and techniques
Cinematic techniques
- Basic Definitions of Terms :Aerial Shot:A shot taken from a crane, plane, or helicopter. Not necessarily a moving shot.Backlighting:The main source of light is behind the subject, silhouetting it, and directed toward the camera....
that included handheld camerawork, painting directly onto celluloid
Drawn on film animation
Drawn-on-film animation, also known as direct animation or animation without camera, is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or objects are photographed frame by frame with an...
, fast cutting
Fast cutting
Fast cutting is a film editing technique which refers to several consecutive shots of a brief duration . It can be used to convey a lot of information very quickly, or to imply either energy or chaos...
, in-camera editing, scratching on film, and the use of multiple exposure
Multiple exposure
In photography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.-Overview:...
s. Interested in mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
and inspired by music, poetry, and visual phenomena, Brakhage sought to reveal the universal in the particular, exploring themes of birth, mortality, sexuality, and innocence.
Brakhage's films are often noted for their expressiveness and lyricism.
Biography
Born Robert Sanders in Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
on January 14, 1933, Brakhage was adopted and renamed three weeks after his birth by Ludwig and Clara Brakhage.
As a child, Brakhage was featured on radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
as a boy soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
and sang in church choirs and as a soloist at other events. He was raised in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, where he attended high school with the filmmaker Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan is an independent filmmaker who has been working in the Bay Area in California since 1955, and making films since 1952. He has produced some 40 experimental and animation films, and three feature-length dramatic films. He is most widely known for his animated collage films. In 1970 he...
and the musicians Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...
and James Tenney
James Tenney
James Tenney was an American composer and influential music theorist.-Biography:Tenney was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College and the University of Illinois...
. Together, Brakhage, Jordan, Tenney and Subotnick formed a drama group called the Gadflies.
Brakhage briefly attended Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
on a scholarship before dropping out to pursue filmmaking. He completed his first film, Interim, at the age of 19; the music for the film was composed by his school friend James Tenney
James Tenney
James Tenney was an American composer and influential music theorist.-Biography:Tenney was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College and the University of Illinois...
. In 1953, Brakhage moved to San Francisco to attend the San Francisco School of the Arts, then called the California School of the Arts. He found the atmosphere in San Francisco more rewarding, associating with poets Robert Duncan
Robert Duncan (poet)
Robert Duncan was an American poet and a student of H.D. and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the poets of the New American Poetry and Black...
and Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...
, but did not complete his education, instead moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1954. There he met a number of notable artists, including Maya Deren
Maya Deren
Maya Deren , born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s...
(in whose apartment he briefly lived), Willard Maas
Willard Maas
Willard Maas was an American experimental filmmaker and poet.-Personal life and career:He was the husband of filmmaker Marie Menken...
, Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...
, Marie Menken
Marie Menken
Marie Menkevicius was an American experimental filmmaker and socialite.-Early life:The daughter of Catholic-Lithuanian immigrants, she grew up in Brooklyn.-Personal life:...
, Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage...
, and John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
. Brakhage would collaborate with the latter two, making two films with Cornell (Gnir Rednow and Centuries of June) and using Cage's music for the soundtrack of his first color film, In Between.
Brakhage spent the next few years living in near poverty, depressed about what he saw as the failure of his work. He briefly considered suicide. While living in Denver, Brakhage met Mary Jane Collom, whom he married in late 1957. Known as Jane Brakhage, she became his first wife. Brakhage tried to make money on his films, but had to take a job making industrial shorts to support his family. In 1958, Jane gave birth to the first of the five children they would have together, an event Brakhage recorded for his 1959 film Window Water Baby Moving
Window Water Baby Moving
Window Water Baby Moving is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, filmed in November 1958 and released in 1959. The film documents the birth of the director's first child, Myrrena.-Production:...
.
The 1960s and beginning of recognition
When Brakhage's early films had been exhibited in the 1950s, they had often been met with derision, but in the early 1960s Brakhage began to receive recognition in exhibitions and film publications, including Film Culture, which awarded several of his films, including The Dead, in 1962. The award statement, written by Jonas MekasJonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...
, a critic who would later become an influential experimental filmmaker in his own right, cited Brakhage for bringing to cinema "an intelligence and subtlety that is usually the province of the older arts."
From 1961 to 1964, Brakhage worked on a series of 5 films known as the Dog Star Man
Dog Star Man
Dog Star Man is a series of short experimental films, all directed by Stan Brakhage:* Prelude: Dog Star Man * Dog Star Man: Part I * Dog Star Man: Part II * Dog Star Man: Part III...
cycle. The Brakhages moved to Lump Gulch, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
in 1964, though Brakhage continued to make regular visits to New York. During one of those visits, the 16mm film equipment he had been using was stolen. Brakhage couldn't afford to replace it, instead opting to buy cheaper 8mm
8 mm film
8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...
film equipment. He soon began working in the format, producing a 30-part cycle of 8mm films known as the Songs
Songs (Stan Brakhage cycle)
The Songs are a cycle of silent color 8mm films by the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced from 1964 to 1969. They are seen as one of Brakhage's major works and include the feature-length 23rd Psalm Branch, considered by some to be one of the filmmaker's masterworks and...
from 1964 to 1969. The Songs include one of Brakhage's most acclaimed films, 23rd Psalm Branch, a response to the Vietnam War and its presentation in the mass media.
Brakhage began teaching film history and aesthetics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1969, commuting from his home in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
.
1970s and 1980s
Brakhage explored further approaches to filmmaking in the 1970s. In 1971, he completed a set of three films inspired by public institutions in the city of Pittsburgh. These three films--Eyes, about the city police, Deus Ex, filmed in a hospital, and The Act of Seeing with One's Own EyesThe Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes is a 1971 American experimental film by Stan Brakhage. It was filmed on 16mm without synchronized sound in a Pittsburgh morgue. The title is based on a literal translation of the term autopsy...
, depicting autopsy—are collectively known as "The Pittsburgh Trilogy." In 1974, Brakhage made the feature-length Text of Light, consisting entirely of images of light refracted in a glass ashtray
Ashtray
An ashtray is a receptacle for ash and butts from cigarettes and cigars. Ashtrays are typically made of fireproof material such as glass, heat-resistant plastic, pottery, metal, or rock....
. In 1979, he experimented with Polavision, a format marketed by Polaroid
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
, making about five 2 minute films. The whereabouts of these films are now unknown. He continued his visual explorations of landscape and the nature of light and thought process, and through the late 70s and early 80s produced filmic equivalents of what he termed "moving visual thinking" in several series of photographic abstractions known as the Roman, Arabic, and Egyptian series.
Stan Brakhage taught at the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
in Boulder off and on, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1986, Brakhage separated from Jane, and in 1989 he married his second wife, Marilyn. The two would have two children together. In the late 1980s, Brakhage returned to making sound film
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
s, with the four-part Faustfilm cycle, and also completed the hand-painted film, The Dante Quartet
The Dante Quartet
The Dante Quartet is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, completed in 1987. The film was inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy, and took six years to produce.-Production:...
.
1990s - 2000s and death
Brakhage remained extremely productive through the last two decades of his life, sometimes working in collaboration with other filmmakers, including his University of Colorado colleague Phil SolomonPhil Solomon
Phil Solomon is an American experimental filmmaker noted for his work with both film and video. Recently, Solomon has earned acclaim for a series of films that incorporate machinima made using games from the Grand Theft Auto series...
. Several more sound films were completed, including "Passage Through: A Ritual," edited to the music of Philip Corner, and "Christ Mass Sex Dance" and "Ellipsis No. 5," both with music by James Tenney. He also produced the major meditations on childhood, adolescence, aging and mortality collectively known as the "Vancouver Island Quartet," as well as numerous hand-painted works.
Brakhage was diagnosed with bladder
Urinary bladder
The urinary bladder is the organ that collects urine excreted by the kidneys before disposal by urination. A hollow muscular, and distensible organ, the bladder sits on the pelvic floor...
cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in 1996, and his bladder was removed. The surgery seemed successful, but the cancer eventually returned. He retired from teaching and moved to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 2002, settling with his second wife Marilyn and their two sons in Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
. Brakhage died there on March 9, 2003, aged 70. The last footage Brakhage shot has been made available under the title Work in Progress. At the time of his death, Brakhage was also working the Chinese Series, made by scratching directly on to film.
Though not a practicing Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
during his adulthood, Brakhage requested a traditional Anglican service. The funeral was attended largely by family members, as well as a few friends from the filmmaking world, and included a performance of J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
Influence
Brakhage is revered as one of the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, and his work has had some small impact on mainstream cinema. Among Brakhage's students were Eric DarnellEric Darnell
Eric Darnell is an American director, writer, voice actor, songwriter and animator. He is best known for co-directing Antz with Tim Johnson, as well as co-directing Madagascar and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa with Tom McGrath....
, the director of Antz
Antz
Antz is a 1998 American computer animated action adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation. It features the voices of well-known actors such as Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, and Danny Glover as...
, as well as the creators of South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
, Matt Stone
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of South Park along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker....
and Trey Parker
Trey Parker
Trey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...
, and he is featured in their student film Cannibal! The Musical
Cannibal! The Musical
Cannibal! The Musical is a 1993 independent film directed by co-creator of South Park, Trey Parker, while studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder...
.
The work of contemporary film and video artist Raymond Salvatore Harmon
Raymond Salvatore Harmon
Raymond Salvatore Harmon is an American media artist, painter, and filmmaker. As a graffiti artist Harmon has used the tags BETA and RSH...
(1974- ) has been compared to Brakhage's abstract films.
The credits of the film Seven
Seven (film)
Seven is a 1995 American thriller film, which also contains horror and neo-noir elements, directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It was distributed by New Line Cinema and stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, R...
(1995), with their scratched emulsion, rapid cutaways and bursts of light are in Brakhage's style.
The opening track of Stereolab
Stereolab
Stereolab are an alternative music band formed in 1990 in London, England. The band originally comprised songwriting team Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier , both of whom remained at the helm across many lineup changes...
's album Dots and Loops
Dots and Loops
Dots and Loops is the fifth studio album by the band Stereolab, released in September 1997. Jan St. Werner of Mouse on Mars contributes to several tracks...
(1997), "Brakhage", is named after him.
The concluding credits to The Jacket
The Jacket
The Jacket is a 2005 psychological thriller film directed by John Maybury that is partly based on the Jack London novel of the same name, released in the US as The Star Rover. Massy Tadjedin wrote the screenplay based on a story by Tom Bleecker and Marc Rocco...
(2005) are an homage, the background imitating his Mothlight
Mothlight
Mothlight is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1963. The film was created without the use of a camera, by pressing objects between two strips of clear mylar film, and passing them through an optical printer.-Description:...
.
Filmography
The Brakhage films, comprising his edited originals, intermediate elements, and other original material, are housed at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
Film Archive, where a long-term project is underway to preserve and restore his entire film output.
Writings
Brakhage wrote a number of books about films, including Metaphors on Vision (1963), A Moving Picture Giving and Taking Book (1971), Film Biographies (1977, Turtle Island Books) and the posthumously published Telling Time: Essays of a Visionary Filmmaker (2003).External links
- Filmography by Fred Camper.
- On Stan Brakhage
- A Conversation Between Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage
- Stan Brakhage bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
- Directory of links to pages about Brakhage
- Rental of Brakhage's films in 16mm and other formats
- Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
- They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
- Magic & Images/ Images & Magic, by David Levi-Strauss —an opening paper for a conference at Princeton University, "Magic and the American Avant-Garde Cinema", March 11, 2006.
- The Flame is Ours The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure1961-1978 Edited by Christopher Luna at Big Bridge 15