The photograph collection of the Hamilton Family fonds details Dr. T.G. (Thomas Glendenning) and Lillian Hamilton’s investigations of psychic phenomena in their home in Winnipeg, Manitoba between 1918 and 1945. The images detail numerous aspects of spiritualism including telekinesis, teleplasm, trance states and various other psychic phenomena.
Peyote Queen
Storm De Hirsch, USA, 1965, 9 min
A classic of the psychedelic tendency, Peyote Queen directed by the film-maker Storm De Hirsch
An attempt to visually render the wealth of kaleidoscope visions of peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus ritually used by the Indians of New Mexico. According to the film-maker, Peyote Queen is an exploration in the colour of ritual, in the colour of thought, a journey in the depths of sensorial disorder, of the inner vision, where mysteries are represented in the theatre of the soul.
Storm De Hirsch : Like many experimental filmmakers at the time, she did not begin her artistic career as a filmmaker. She had been a poet and published a number of works in the early 60s. She wanted to find a new mode of expression for her thoughts that went beyond words on the page, which is when she turned to filmmaking. Despite lack of recognition, she was very present in the underground film movement and socialized with every big name on the scene, filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke and others. She mentions Jack Smith, Ingmar Bergman, Gregory Markopoulos, Michaelangelo Antoniono, Vittorio De Seta, Ken Jacobs, Federico Fellini and Jonas and Adolphus Mekas as her favorite film-makers.
Puisqu’on fait dans le off-road :
Ceci est un message enregistré
Jean-Thomas Bédard, Canada, 1973, 10 min 10 s
Animation réalisée à partir de journaux et de magazines. Les coupures, groupées et soumises à un mouvement fragmenté, font ressortir la réalité qui se cache sous l’image fallacieuse, dont la publicité incarne le pire des abus.
CONFESSION : Un post un peu hors-sujet, une histoire un peu trop longue à raconter. En gros c’est ma faute si il n’y a plus de films de Lipsett disponibles sur Ubuweb (‘Removed by request of the copyright holder’) … Tout ce qu’il en reste c’est ce vidéo qu’on avait ‘posté’ sur un autre blog – ‘reposté’ ici (par miracle toujours fonctionnel). Je demande pardon.
Free Fall
Arthur Lipsett, Canada, 1964, 9 min 15 s
An experimental film from Arthur Lipsett, Free Fall is an assortment of film trimmings assembled to make a wry comment on humankind in today’s world. It evokes a surrealist dream of our fall from grace into banality.
***
Arthur Lipsett (May 13, 1936 – May 1, 1986) was a Canadian avant-garde director of short experimental films.
In the 1960s he was employed as an animator by the National Film Board of Canada. Lipsett’s particular passion was sound. He would collect pieces of sound and fit them together to create an interesting auditory sensation. After playing one of these creations to friends, they suggested that Lipsett put images to it. He did what his friends suggested, and the result became the 7 minute long film Very Nice, Very Nice which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects in 1962. Despite not winning the Oscar, this film brought Lipsett considerable praise from critics and directors. Stanley Kubrick was one of Lipsett’s fans, and asked him to create a trailer for his upcoming movie Dr. Strangelove. Lipsett declined Kubrick’s offer. Kubrick went on to direct the trailer himself; however, Lipsett’s influence on Kubrick is clearly visible when watching the trailer.
Lipsett’s film 21-87 was a profound influence on director George Lucas who included elements from 21-87 in THX 1138, his Star Wars films and also American Graffiti. The film 21-87 has been credited by Lucas as the source of the « The Force » in Star Wars. Lucas never met the filmmaker but tributes to 21-87 appear throughout Star Wars. For example, the holding cell of Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope on the Death Star is cell No. 2187.
Lipsett’s success allowed him some freedom, but as his films became more bizarre, this freedom quickly disappeared. He suffered from psychological problems. Later in his life he is said to have done strange things like taking a taxi from Toronto to Montreal (costing several hundred dollars). Lipsett committed suicide in 1986, two weeks before his 50th birthday.
Plus de détails sur Lipsett ici.
Aussi de Lipsett :
Very Nice, Very Nice (1961) ici.
21-87 (1964) ici.
A Trip Down Memory Lane (1965) ici.
Re-post du 1er avril 2009
Le cerveau mystique
Isabelle Raynauld, Canada, 2006, 52 min 15 s
Documentaire qui explore les états de grâce vécus par les mystiques et les personnes en état de méditation. Une occasion d’accéder au cœur du chapitre le plus récent de la recherche scientifique portant sur ce phénomène. Des carmélites et des moines bouddhistes ont accepté de se prêter à l’expérience : le film présente les travaux exploratoires d’une équipe de l’Université de Montréal.
