From: Scott MacDonald (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Aug 25 2005 - 09:12:29 PDT
Thanks, Fred. Can you remember the names of some of your
collaborators? Did any of them continue to be film (or art) people?
At 08:40 PM 8/24/2005, you wrote:
>Scott MacDonald wrote:
>
>>And I've wondered for some time who ran the MIT screenings in the
>>1960s (I'm working on a book on Canyon Cinema, and the MIT
>>schedules were published in Canyon's Cinemanews). Were you working
>>with others, Fred?
>
>Well, I cofounded the MIT Film Society with three friends in 1965;
>our first show, in the fall of 1965, which included "Scorpio
>Rising," not only sold out but was so mobbed we had to schedule a
>second show. This may have been the Boston-area premiere of a film
>that had a big "underground" reputation then. Some bikers came from
>New Hampshire, I believe. The projection was horrible -- we had no
>idea what we were doing. It soon got better.
>
>I and various friends ran it for six years, until 1971. We also
>showed "feature" films, everything from Godard to Douglas Sirk.
>Sometimes I was involved with that programming, and some years not,
>but the six years of "experimental" shows were mine. I don't recall
>anyone else making any of those decisions, but I also had one eye on
>the box office, so there were more "hodge podge" group shows than I
>might have liked ideally.
>
>There was a feeling of excitement at many shows then.
>Avant-garde/experimental film fit into the "counterculture," "change
>the world," ethos of the era. But not everyone "got it." One of my
>fondest memories is of a scene seen more than once: a viewer strains
>to look at the rapidly moving images on screen, then squints down at
>the program notes trying to read them, then looks back up even more
>puzzled at the screen. A common occurrence after a long experimental
>film began was that someone would come up to one of us and whisper,
>"Is the rest of it going to be like this?" Yes.
>
>In my earlier post to Gregg, I should have mentioned that he in fact
>did do what we did, co-founding X-Film in Chicago, an informal group
>that showed films for a number of years. My "advice" was really of
>the generic sort for anyone dissatisfied: do something, do something
>else, do more. Even if you "fail," some people will have been
>touched by some films, which is hardly a failure. If a-g film means
>anything, particularly in the wake of the failed utopian dreams of
>an earlier era, is that if a film can deeply move one person it has
>proven its value.
>
>Fred Camper
>Chicago
>
>
>__________________________________________________________________
>For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.