Okay! I've put it up now online:
http://milestonefilms.com/products/the- ... ley-clarke" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Sorry, I'm always reluctant before it's released because Shopify has it as SOLD OUT and people worry. But here's the info here as well:
EXPERIMENTAL – DISC 1
1. Brussels Loops (58:52)
2. Bridges-Go-Round 1 (4:07)
3. Bridges-Go-Round 2 (4:16)
4. Scary Time (16:02)
5. Skyscraper (21:11)
6. Butterfly (3:41)
7. Tongues (20:22)
8. Savage/Love (26:20)
9. 24 Frames Per Second (2:59)
10. Three Video Variations on 24 Frames Per Second (11:39)
Shirley Clarke’s favorite movie characters were Groucho Marx, Betty Boop and above all, her beloved Felix the Cat. Clarke’s impishness, sense of adventure, and desire to battle society’s norms were all inspired by Felix. Clarke’s bold experimentation in these short films influenced hundreds of filmmakers and challenged the conventions of her time. First up is a feature-length collection of brilliant silent 3-minute vignettes now known as the Brussels Loops. Commissioned for the 1957 American Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair, most were shot by the acclaimed documentarian D.A. Pennebaker and edited by Clarke. Since the producer refused to allow them to be shown with music, Clarke said she cut them as jazz pieces. With the Loops comes a longer, rough-cut version of Pennebaker/Clarke’s wonderful short Gestures (that later was shortened and became Melting Pot) and a Pennebaker/Clarke short called World Kitchen, which never screened. World Kitchen is courtesy of Mr. Pennebaker and makes its world premiere here.
Bridges-Go-Round is seen in its two versions fully restored from the Clarke’s 16mm negative (its earliest version can be seen in the Brussels Loops). Scary Time and Skyscraper are courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art and were restored by Metropolis Post. Scary Time was commissioned by the United Nations which then banned it for years because of its disturbing images of disease and famine. Skyscraper, nominated for a 1961 Academy Award® for best documentary short, was a collaboration between Clarke, Willard van Dyke, Irving Jacoby, D.A. Pennebaker and Shirley’s friend John Sylvester White (later known as the principal in Welcome Back, Kotter). Butterfly was a film created by Shirley Clarke and Wendy Clarke for a 1967 New York screening protesting the Vietnam War. It was only shown the one time and never seen again until it was rediscovered while working on Project Shirley. Tongues and Savage/Love are two brilliant video collaborations from the playwright Sam Shepard, actor/playwright Joseph Chaikin and director Clarke. They feature visual effects that were astonishing for the time. Finally, 24 Frames Per Second was created for a Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition on Persian art and is one of her boldest experimentations in fast-cut editing. Following it are some video variations that may never have been screened.
DANCE – DISC 2
1. Shirley Dancing – A Photo Gallery (1:11)
2. Fear Flight (10:57)
3. Jelly Roll Morton (1:48)
4. Home Movies #20: Dance Tests. (5:53)
5. Dance in the Sun (Approx. 7:03)
6. In Paris Parks (Approx. 12:37)
7. In Paris Parks outtakes (9:08)
8. This Is Not In Paris Parks (14:20)
9. Decroux (15:30)
10. Bullfight (9:18)
11. Bullfight Outtakes (1:35)
12. Rose and the Players – Part 1 (13:19)
13. Rose and the Players – Part 2 (6:45)
14. A Moment in Love (9:06)
15. Four Journeys into Mystic Time: Initiation (28:13)
16. Four Journeys into Mystic Time: Trans (7:38)
17. Four Journeys into Mystic Time: One-Two-Three (8:20)
18. Four Journeys into Mystic Time: Mysterium (13:52)
A late bloomer because of what can now be diagnosed as dyslexia, Clarke found her identity as a dancer while in high school — perhaps a little late to become really accomplished at it. Shirley Dancing, made up mostly of photos that have not been seen since the late 1930s, does show a dancer of passion and charisma. Her transition from dancer/choreographer to filmmaker now seems like a natural progression, but her archives reveal how much work, dedication, intelligence and courage were needed to become an accomplished artist, especially in a medium dominated by men. Documenting that transition are newly discovered collaborations with the great dancer Beatrice Seckler (Fear Flight, Clarke’s first attempt at filmmaking) and an astonishing Holy Grail-like glimpse of choreographer/dancer Anna Sokolow’s famed A Short Lecture and Demonstration on the Evolution of Ragtime by Jelly Roll Morton (1952). Home Movies #20 Dance Tests dates from 1953 and shows Clarke working on her film technique before she shot her first “official” film later that year — Dance in the Sun starring the dancer Daniel Nagrin.
In 1954 Clarke and her family traveled to Paris to make a film with the famed French mime, Étienne Decroux. However, when she got there and found her star was elsewhere on tour, Clarke spent her time there taking her daughter Wendy out to play. She later said this inspired her to make In Paris Parks (1954), a giant leap forward in filmmaking technique and one of her best shorts. Wendy is the young girl playing with the hoop and stick in the film. Thanks to the cooperation of John Klacsmann and the Anthology Film Archives, this most recent restoration — off of Clarke’s original A/B rolls — reveal missing shots (and much better color) that have not been seen in many, many years. In Paris Parks Outtakes reveals a little more of the filmmaking process. However, discovered in her archives for the first time, was another can labeled “outtakes,” that shows that Clarke was also making a second film in Paris! Though not fully edited or finished, it presents a loving view of the city in the early 1950s. Because of the confusion that occurred when we first looked at this reel, we have called the second film This is Not In Paris Parks. We commissioned Donald Sosin to compose a new score for it.
In 1955, Clarke did get a chance to make a film with Decroux. Unfinished, it is not certain what this film was meant to portray but remains a fascinating portrait of his art. Bullfight is another collaboration with Anna Sokolow and it is the only record of the great dancer in performance. In the piece, Sokolow plays the matador, an audience member and the doomed animal. The Bullfight Outtakes , most of it shot by photographer Peter Buckley, exposes the beauty of the footage before it was manipulated for the final product.
Clarke and Sokolow envisioned their next collaboration as a much more ambitious film of extended length. Entitled The Rose and the Players and based on a painting by Pablo Picasso, it was to be a multi-layered film of humor and great beauty. The first part is the complete choreography for one of the dances and it’s a joy to see Sokolow in front instructing the dancers. The second part is color test footage shot on location in New Jersey of the scenes that were to follow — sadly, this film was never completed. However the project did evolve into Clarke and Sokolow’s masterpiece, A Moment in Love (1957). The disc finishes with four remarkable films Clarke did in the 1970s with choreographer Marion Scott, Four Journeys into Mystic Times. The last film, Mysterium is courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art. Sadly, the original negatives are missing, showing there is still future work to be done for Project Shirley!
ROBERT FROST AND THE HOME MOVIES – DISC 3
1. Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel With The World (52:05)
2. Christopher and Me (16:00)
3. Shirley Brimberg Home Movies (when she was young) (5:46)
4. Home Movies #10 Wedding and Pregnancy (7:43)
5. Home Movies #18 Florida (4:59)
6. Home Movies #14 With Helen Tamiris, Amala Shankar, Shirley (4:13)
7. Home movies #15 Shirley with camera (8:12)
8. Home Movie #16 Summer Camp and Edith Stein (11:06)
9. Television interview Shirley Clarke in Minneapolis (3:19)
10. Lion’s Love Outtakes (13:10)
11. The Brimberg and Clarke Photo Albums (5:46)
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 132:19
Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel with the World won an Academy Award® for Best Documentary in 1964 — but not without controversy. Producer Robert Hughes took over the film during editing after Shirley Clarke was let go by WGBH. How much each did remains a question but Clarke is credited as the director and attended the Oscars®. This is the long-unseen complete version, restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Academy Film Archive.
Next is a “lost” children’s film, Christopher and Me, produced by Edward Foote and utilizing the incredible talents of Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Shirley Clarke. It was rediscovered at the request of Mr. Pennebaker who had written a song for the film and used to sing it to his children when they were young. Christopher and Me is courtesy of George Foote, Jr.
The seven Clarke home movies, courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research, open a window into the personal life of Shirley (Brimberg) Clarke. Here you can see her early childhood in New York City and at their New Jersey summer home, Shirley with her beloved Felix the Cat doll, her wedding to Bert Clarke, their honeymoon, the first image of her holding the Bolex 16mm camera the couple received as a wedding present that she later used to start her career, the childhood of their daughter Wendy, some of their close friends (including Edith Stein and dancers Helen Tamiris and Uday Shankar), and even a shot of her dancing on the beach.
There is the very early in her career Television Interview (1956) of Clarke giving an indication of the trials she faced as a woman filmmaker. There’s also an on-the-set home movie shot in 1969 during Agnes Varda’s Lion’s Love that shows Clarke at ease and having fun as an actress. The parting treat of Project Shirley: The Magic Box is a photo gallery created from the photo albums of the Brimberg and Clarke families courtesy of Wendy Clarke.
