Table Of ContentStan Brakhage
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IN THE SERIES
Wide Angle Books
Edited by Erik Bamouw, Ruth Bradley,
Scott MacDonald, and Patricia Zimmermann
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Stan Brakhage
F LMMAKER
David E. James
Edited by
Temple University Press Philadelphia
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Temple UniversityPress
1601 North BroadStreet
Philadelphia PA 19122
www.temple.edultempress
Compilation and individual articles copyright © 2005 byTemple University, except
"Amateursin the IndustryTown: Stan Brakhageand Andy Warhol in Los Angeles,"
and "Stan Brakhage:TheActivityofHis Nature," copyright © 2005 byDavid E. James.
"Brakhage'sFaustian Psychodrama," copyright © 2004by P. AdamsSitney.
Reprinted by permissionofGeorges Borchardt, Inc., for the author.
"Camera LucidaI Camera Obscura," by Annette Michelson, copyright ©
Artforum (January 1973).
"BecomingDarkWith ExcessofLight," copyright © 2005 by PaulArthur.
All rights reserved
Published 2005
Printed in the United StatesofAmerica
Textdesign byKateNichols
(..,) The paper used in this publicationmeets the requirements of
the American National Standard for Information Sciences-PermanenceofPaperfor
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.49-1992
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication Data
Stan Brakhage :filmmaker I edited by David E. James.
p. em.- (Wideanglebooks)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-59213-271-5 (alI<. paper)
ISBN 1-59213-272-3 (pbk. :alI<. paper)
1. Brakhage,Stan-Criticism and interpretation. I. James, David E., 1945-II. Series.
PN1998.3.B74S72 2005
791.4302'33'092-dc22
2004062556
246897531
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Contents
Acknowledgments • Vll
Introduction Stan Brakhage: The Activity ofHis Nature •
DAVID E. JAMES • 1
Stan Brakhage • PARKERTYLER • 20
Brakhage. Breer. Menken. The Pure Poets ofCinema •
JONAS MEKAS • 27
Brakhage and Rilke • JEROME HILL • 29
On The Art ofVision· ROBERT KELLY· 32
The First Time I Heard the Word "Brakhage" •
EDWARD DORN • 34
Camera Lucida/Camera Obscura • ANNETTE MICHELSON • 36
Brakhage Memoir • JAMES TENNEY • 57
Amateurs in the Industry Town: Stan Brakhage and Andy Warhol in Los
Angeles • DAVID E. JAMES • 61
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vi Contents
It Is Painting· CAROLEESCHNEEMANN • 78
Brakhage: Poesis • R. BRUCE ELDER • 88
Recollections ofStan Brakhage • JONAS MEKAS • 107
The Roman Numeral Series • NICKY HAMLYN • 113
Letter re: Stan· BRUCE BAILLIE • 129
Stan Brakhage, Agrimoniac • CRAIG DWORKIN • 132
Brakhage Package • CHICK STRAND • 150
Brakhage's Faustian Psychodrama· P. ADAMS SITNEY • 153
Stan Brakhage: American Visionary • WILLIE VARELA • 169
Brakhage's Occasions: Figure, Subjectivity, and Avant-Garde
Politics· TYRUS MILLER· 174
Notes on Sincerity and Irony· ABIGAIL CHILD· 196
Becoming Dark with Excess ofLight: The Vancouver Island Films •
PAUL ARTHUR • 207
As I Am Writing This Today· PHIL SOLOMON· 226
Contributors • 229
Index • 233
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Acknowledgments
W
egratefullyacknowledge thefollowing for permissionto reprint
noted material: Jonas Mekas and Anthology Film Archives for
thephotographofStanBrakhagebyBriggsDyeronthecoverof
the paperback edition, the photographs ofSergei Eisenstein, and the essays
"Stan Brakhage" by Parker Tyler, "Notes on the New American Cinema"
(extract) by Jonas Mekas, "Brakhage and Rilke" by Jerome Hill, and "On
The Art ofVision" by Robert Kelly; Jennifer Dorn for Edward Dorn's "The
First Time I Heard the Word 'Brakhage"'; Annette Michelson for "Camera
Lucida/Camera Obscura," © Artforum, January 1973; the LiteraryEstate of
Ronald Johnson for the extracts from the poem ARK, © 1996; Carolee
Schneemann for the photo ofher painting Jane Brakhage, herphoto "Mary
Jane Collom Brakhage. South Shaftsbury, Vermont, 1957(?)," herself-timed
photo "Stan, babyMyrenna, Jane, C.S., Jim Tenney. Sidney, Illinois, 1960,"
and Jim Tenny's photos, "Jane, Stan & C.S. South Shaftsbury, Vermont,
1958" and "Jane, Stan, C.S. South Shaftsbury, Vermont, 1958"; and Willie
Varela for two photographs ofStan Brakhage.
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DAVID E. JAMES
Introduction
Stan Brakhage
The Activity of His Nature
Milton produced Paradise Lost for the same
reason that a silk worm produces silk. It was
an activity ofhis nature.-KARi.MARX
W
ork on this collection of texts began some three years ago,
whenwe hoped to publishitin2003to celebrateStanBrakhage's
seventieth birthday. Instead, belatedly, it mourns his death.
The baby who would become James Stanley Brakhage was born on
14January 1933 in an orphanage in Kansas City, Missouri.l Hewas adopted
and named byayoung couple, Ludwig, acollegeteacherofbusiness, and his
wife, Clara, who had herselfbeen raised byastepmother. The family moved
from town to town in the Middle West and, sensitive to the stresses ofhis
parents' unhappy marriage, Stanley was a sickly child, asthmatic and over
weight. His mother took a lover, eventually leaving her husband, who sub
sequently came to terms with his homosexuality and also himself took a
lover. In 1941, mother and son found themselves alone in Denver. Put in a
boys' home, the child picked up the habitsofa pettycriminal, butbeforehis
delinquencybecameserious, hewasplaced withastable, middle-classfamily
in which he began to discover his gifts. Heexcelled in writingand dramatics
and in singing, becoming one of the leading voices in the choir of the
Cathedral of St. John's in Denver. Retrieving her now-teenaged son, his
mother tried to make a musician of him, but Stanley resisted his tutors,
even attempting to strangle his voice teacher.
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Description:Stan Brakhage: Filmmaker is a collection of essays, photographs, personal statements, and reminiscences about the celebrated avant-garde filmmaker who died in 2003. The director of nearly four hundred short films, including Dog Star Man, Parts I-IV, and the Roman Numeral Series, Brakhage is widely r
