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

[Calvin]

Stephen Broomer is launching a new label called Black Zero that specialises in Canadian experimental cinema with the first discs being available next week

Palace of Pleasure (John Hofsess, 1967, 38 minutes)

A long-neglected classic of Canadian experimental cinema, a triumph of erotic art, a film about which Gene Youngblood once wrote, “See it and you'll see a window on the future: a Joyce-Burroughs assemblage of bold, poetic surreal visions of physical love in every conceivable form.”

In 1967, John Hofsess released The Palace of Pleasure, a dual-screen therapeutic exploration of the erotic imagination. Intended as a trilogy, only the first two sequences were completed.

The first part, Redpath 25, is a fantasy meeting between a young woman and her dream lover; the second part, Black Zero, is a macabre, ritual vision of sexual freedom and domestic life that haunts the mind long after the screen has darkened.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Newly restored 4K digital master from the film’s surviving elements, in a 1080p presentation approved by director John Hofsess
Commentary by film preservationist Stephen Broomer
The Columbus of Sex: a speculative reconstruction, an exploration of Hofsess’s lost feature film
The Looking Cure: the therapeutic aesthetics of John Hofsess, a video essay by Broomer
Resurrection of the Body, a speculative sequel to Hofsess’s film
Liner notes by Hofsess and Broomer

Everything Everywhere Again Alive (Keith Lock, 1975, 72 minutes)

Everything Everywhere Again Alive is a landmark work of Canadian underground cinema, a film diary with mystic and symbolic overtones. In the early 1970s, Toronto filmmaker Keith Lock moved to Buck Lake, near Orillia, Ontario, where members of the Toronto art scene were undertaking an experiment in communal living. Lock filmed the achievements and daily rituals of his fellow communards, his camera bearing witness as a community assembled and dispersed. The resulting film uses poetic strategies, including logograms and other graphic disruptions, to extend its themes of renewal and rebirth, and to mark the encounter between reason and imagination, the concrete and the abstract.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Newly restored 2K digital master from the film’s original elements, in a 1080p presentation, approved by director Keith Lock
Audio commentary featuring Lock
Return to Buck Lake, a new documentary featuring Lock and Buck Lake founder Tom Brouillette
Going, a short film by Keith Lock documenting the journey from Toronto to Buck Lake
A Circle in the Wilderness, a new interview with Lock
Changing Seasons: The Canadian Pastoral in Keith Lock’s Everything Everywhere Again Alive, a video essay by Stephen Broomer
Liner notes by Buck Lake member and filmmaker Anna Gronau

Arthur Lipsett's Strange Codes as well.

[What A Disgrace]

These past few years have been utterly swamped with new labels and I'm loving it.

[beamish14]

Stephen Broomer is launching a new label called Black Zero that specialises in Canadian experimental cinema with the first discs being available next week

Palace of Pleasure (John Hofsess, 1967, 38 minutes)

A long-neglected classic of Canadian experimental cinema, a triumph of erotic art, a film about which Gene Youngblood once wrote, “See it and you'll see a window on the future: a Joyce-Burroughs assemblage of bold, poetic surreal visions of physical love in every conceivable form.”

In 1967, John Hofsess released The Palace of Pleasure, a dual-screen therapeutic exploration of the erotic imagination. Intended as a trilogy, only the first two sequences were completed.

The first part, Redpath 25, is a fantasy meeting between a young woman and her dream lover; the second part, Black Zero, is a macabre, ritual vision of sexual freedom and domestic life that haunts the mind long after the screen has darkened.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Newly restored 4K digital master from the film’s surviving elements, in a 1080p presentation approved by director John Hofsess
Commentary by film preservationist Stephen Broomer
The Columbus of Sex: a speculative reconstruction, an exploration of Hofsess’s lost feature film
The Looking Cure: the therapeutic aesthetics of John Hofsess, a video essay by Broomer
Resurrection of the Body, a speculative sequel to Hofsess’s film
Liner notes by Hofsess and Broomer

Everything Everywhere Again Alive (Keith Lock, 1975, 72 minutes)

Everything Everywhere Again Alive is a landmark work of Canadian underground cinema, a film diary with mystic and symbolic overtones. In the early 1970s, Toronto filmmaker Keith Lock moved to Buck Lake, near Orillia, Ontario, where members of the Toronto art scene were undertaking an experiment in communal living. Lock filmed the achievements and daily rituals of his fellow communards, his camera bearing witness as a community assembled and dispersed. The resulting film uses poetic strategies, including logograms and other graphic disruptions, to extend its themes of renewal and rebirth, and to mark the encounter between reason and imagination, the concrete and the abstract.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Newly restored 2K digital master from the film’s original elements, in a 1080p presentation, approved by director Keith Lock
Audio commentary featuring Lock
Return to Buck Lake, a new documentary featuring Lock and Buck Lake founder Tom Brouillette
Going, a short film by Keith Lock documenting the journey from Toronto to Buck Lake
A Circle in the Wilderness, a new interview with Lock
Changing Seasons: The Canadian Pastoral in Keith Lock’s Everything Everywhere Again Alive, a video essay by Stephen Broomer
Liner notes by Buck Lake member and filmmaker Anna Gronau

Arthur Lipsett's Strange Codes as well.

I think this label was designed for my personal benefit

[ianthemovie]

Has anyone ordered any of Barbara Hammer's films on DVD through her website before? I'm guessing they are probably DVD-R but the website doesn't specify.

[ianthemovie]

I'm wondering if anyone has experience ordering DVDs from Peripheral Produce. I was hoping to get a copy of their DVD of Deborah Stratman's films but their website hasn't been updated since 2022 and their Facebook similarly seems to no longer be active...

[dadaistnun]

This probably isn't much help given the time frame, but I ordered that very disc from them in 2021 and it arrived quickly. FWIW, Stratman still links to their site from hers, on the same distribution page that has information about her 2024 film Last Things, so it appears she's keeping her site up to date.

[ianthemovie]

Just an update to say that I successfully received my order from Peripheral Produce. I had received no confirmation for my order, no tracking number, and my efforts to reach out to them at two different email addresses went unacknowledged or bounced back as undeliverable. After a week I was about to reach out to PayPal to request a refund when my order suddenly appeared in my mailbox in a padded mailer covered in about ten Forever stamps. So they are still in business, in spite of appearing otherwise!