Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

[vertovfan]

Re:voir is releasing their long-awaited Peter Emanuel Goldman DVDs on December 7. Looks like you can get a package deal if you order both of them.

[onedimension]

It's obvious from reading this thread that the A-G/E/N-n home screening 'market' is incredibly fractured- I'm assuming a combination of low sales numbers, rights issues, legal issues, stipulations from filmmakers about the conditions in which their works can be shown (i.e. not on a TV), and getting access to materials.. is there any hope of some niche label arising that could have the financial backing and resources to cut through all that thicket?

[Lemmy Caution]

The world's smallest film, A Boy and His Atom.


A 1-minute stop motion film made by manipulating individual atoms, or more precisely two atom CO molecules.

As per wiki:

One minute in length, it was made by moving carbon monoxide molecules viewed with a scanning tunneling microscope, a device that magnifies them 100 million times.

Carbon monoxide molecules were manipulated into place on a copper substrate with a copper needle at a distance of 1 nanometer. They remain in place, forming a bond with the substrate because of the extremely low temperature of 5 K (−268.15 °C, −450.67 °F) at which the device operates. The oxygen component of each molecule shows up as a dot when photographed by the scanning tunneling microscope, allowing the creation of images composed of many such dots.

The team created 242 still images with 65 carbon monoxide molecules. The images were combined to make a stop-motion film. Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometers. It took four researchers two weeks of 18-hour days to produce the film.

It's kind of charming how this super-high tech film harkens back to early animation of 100 years ago, as well as early video games from 50+ years ago.

[repeat]

There's a free Peter Liechti retrospective streaming worldwide on DocAlliance until this Sunday (the 16th) - featuring The Sound of Insects (a masterpiece), Hans im Glück, Martha's Garden, Signer's Suitcase plus a smattering of short films that might be difficult to see elsewhere. Wholeheartedly recommended for all fans of free-form cinema, essay films, experimental music (unfortunately Kick That Habit is not included!). (Participants in the documentaries list project should take note, several of these films should be obligatory viewing for that endeavour)

[rockysds]

Cohen's blu-ray release of What is Cinema? contains a pretty cool collection of avant-garde shorts:

Ballet Mécanique — Fernand Léger (1924) (1080p; 11:25)
Return to Reason — Man Ray (1923) (1080p; 2:23)
Leave Me Alone — Man Ray (1926) (1080p; 15:59)
The Sea Star — Man Ray (1928) (1080p; 15:39)
The Mysteries of the Chateau of Dice — Man Ray (1929) (1080p; 19:43)
The Life and Death of 9413 — A Hollywood Extra — Slovko Vorkapich and Robert Florey (1927) (1080p; 13:34)
Peyote Queen — Storm de Hirsch (1965) (1080p; 8:56)
Notes on the Circus — Jonas Mekas (1966) (1080p; 12:37)
Flo Rounds a Corner — Ken Jacobs (1999) (1080p; 6:13)
Turn It Back — Lewis Klahr (2013) (1080p; 2:55)
The Emblazoned Apparitions — Phil Solomon (2013) (1080p; 5:40)

[knives]

Is Cuadecuc, Vampir supposed to have a soundtrack like a skipping record or is there something wrong with my player? For ten of the last twenty minutes or so the score just keeps doing this woo, wack noise and its just awful.

[zedz]

I couldn't find an existing thread for Re:Voir, so I created one in the Labels subforum to announce this news:

They're offering a subscription for their new 2014-15 releases.

Here's what you get for 99E:

We treasure the support that our friends and customers have offered us over these last 20 years. Your passion and interest in experimental cinema is what keeps us going. As a special offer, we are giving our valued customers a chance to own all of our new releases at a special subscription price of 119 euros TTC (plus shipping) for 10 of our new releases. This represents a more than 50% savings. The titles you will receive with a subscription are as follows:
1) Boris Lehman - Mes entretiens filmés
2) Stephen Dwoskin - Age Is…
3) Philippe Garrel - Les Hautes Solitudes
4) Christian Lebrat - Vibrations
5) Frédérique Devaux and Michel Armager - Cinéxperimentaux 1-4
6) Frédérique Devaux and Michel Armager - Cinéxperimentaux 5 : Rose Lowder
7) Pip Chodorov - Free Radicals
8) Marcel Hanoun - L'authentique procès de Carl-Emmanuel Jung
9) Jürgen Reble - Das Goldene Tor
10) Jürgen Reble - Passion
These titles will be shipped in 3 separate shipments between January and February 2015. Added shipping costs for customers in the EU are 15euros, for all other international customers 24euros.
Happy New Year from RE:VOIR!

[zedz]

Just stumbled across this English-friendly release of the complete works of master Estonian animator Priit Parn. Does anybody have this set?

[vertovfan]

The avant-garde shorts on the What Is Cinema? blu-ray look amazing. I had modest expectations (maybe upconverted versions of the ones already released on DVD) but these seem to be the real deal. I never expected to see shorts by Fernand Leger, Man Ray and Jonas Mekas in 1080p - unobtrusively included as an extra, no less!

[whaleallright]

Let alone Phil Solomon! I'm sort of shocked that they scarcely promoted this aspect of the release, last I checked I couldn't even find a listing of the films on the Cohen website. Frankly I was much more interested in these "bonuses" than in the main feature.

[Telstar]

Portabella set now available for purchase from Intermedio.

I now see that there is another Portabella set available from Blaq Out. Is anyone familiar with this or aware of whatever differences there are between the two sets? Amazon.es lists both with English subs, with the Blaq Out as 8 dvds and Intermedio as 7 dvds.

[AlexHansen]

Looking at the company's website, it looks like the Blaq Out's set is the same just adds a disc featuring "Interviews with Pere Portabella, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou (film historian) and Jean-Paul Aubert (Spanish film specialist)."

[swo17]

Lookout Mountain Studios is no longer offering DVDs of Pat O'Neill's films for sale on their website. It looks like Lux in the UK still has copies for sale though (most are listed here, and here is Trouble). Or failing that, you might be able to wrangle some DVDs out of Lookout Mountain if you beg politely enough. I personally think all six of them are worth getting.

[aewb]

Just found out that CFMDC are releasing a Jack Chambers boxset soon.

This 3-volume set brings together for the first time the complete film works of Jack Chambers (1931-78), largely regarded as one of Canada’s most important visual artists. With a well-established career as a painter, he embarked on a short-lived but significant career as a filmmaker in the mid-1960s. Chambers’ artistic practice was described as “perceptual realism” and stood in counterpoint to the dominant abstract styles of his day. He completed five films in his lifetime.

Available on DVD or Blu-Ray.

[swo17]

Also, here's a recent release: Gunvor Nelson on Blu-ray

[zedz]

Also, here's a recent release: Gunvor Nelson on Blu-ray

This is also available (for the same price) from the Re:Voir store, along with a DVD of films by her (Light Years) that I've never noticed there before. Anybody know when that slipped out?

[AlexHansen]

A blu-ray of Joseph Bernard's Super 8 films is now available; more info can be found at his site. I was completely wowed by the screening last year in Ann Arbor and can't wait to give the disc a spin when it arrives.

[criterionsnob]

Kino Lorber to release Lost Lost Lost & Walden: Two Diary Films by Jonas Mekas on blu-ray on November 17.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Kino Lorber to release Lost Lost Lost & Walden: Two Diary Films by Jonas Mekas on blu-ray on November 17.

And some special features to sweeten the deal!

Audio commentary by Jonas Mekas (both features)
Booklet essay by Ed Halter
JONAS (1967 - 1968), a film by Gideon Bachmann
Short Films by Jonas Mekas:
CASSIS (1964)
HARE KRISHNA (1966)
NOTES ON THE CIRCUS (1966)
REPORT FROM MILLBROOK (1965 - 1966)
TRAVEL SONGS (1967 - 1981)
WILLIAMSBURG (1949 - 2002)

[Minkin]

So, I was at the Santa Barbara Art Museum, and they were having an exhibition on László Moholy-Nagy. The giftshop sold most all of his works - but each film was a separate disc and was $13+ (even for a six minute film - is this the record for least amount of content on a DVD?) + the DVDs were not shrinkwrapped + the discs didn't stay in the tray. So I passed, thinking Amazon or someone else must have them. I'm not finding any at this point anywhere. The DVDs were produced by the László Moholy-Nagy Foundation - and are interlaced on top of everything else.

So, my question is - have any of his films been released in any other territory/anywhere (preferably as a collection). I suppose I'm most interested in: Ein Lichtspiel schwarz weiss grau (1930) and Lobsters (1935) - which I watched when I was at the BFI, and discovered upon entering the giftshop that Moholy-Nagy worked on it. The exhibition runs until the 27th, so I'm hoping to find an answer before then, so I can run back and pickup some of the discs if need be.

[swo17]

The only DVD appearances I'm aware of are on Centre Pompidou's Les Mouvement des images (which has Ein Lichtspiel schwarz weiss grau) and La Ville moderne (which has Impressionen vom alten Marseiller Hafen) DVDs, and the unused special effects footage included as an extra on Criterion's release of Things to Come, all of which are great!

[antnield]

The BFI's first GPO Film Unit volume, Addressing the Nation, contains The Coming of the Dial which Moholy-Nagy provided "abstract sequences" for.

[Minkin]

Thanks for the responses guys (I did see them back in September).

I ended up waiting on any of the László Moholy-Nagy DVDs sold at the museum - since the PQ was so awful, they were far too expensive for single films + most of the discs were beaten up from having fallen on the floor when people opened the cases (who doesn't shrinkwrap stuff?), and I'll hope something better might turn up. I assume that the BFI have the rights to Lobsters - since its in their archive and they have it available on their player/at those viewing pods. Hopefully somebody puts it + the rest of his films out in some comprehensive edition.

It is a bit odd that the DVDs don't appear to be available online anywhere - do they just travel around with roving László Moholy-Nagy exhibitions?

[domino harvey]

Autographed copies of Kino's Jonas Mekas Blu-ray are up on their website

[vertovfan]

Len Lye and Robert Breer releases from the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Zealand:

http://www.govettbrewster.com/shop/book ... by-len-lye" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.govettbrewster.com/shop/film ... -z-box-set" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;