Re: [Frameworks] FUTURE OF FILM (was Letter to other Filmmaker Artists)

From: Steve Polta (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Jul 20 2010 - 23:35:10 PDT


Perhaps not in Brakhage's case.

Brakhage was clearly obsessed with and committed to creating work at a level I dare say no one involved in the present conversation likely is. The narrative/heroic myth of Brakhage (which is somewhat enacted in DOG STAR MAN and other of his films from that period) is that of a man who chose to dedicate a large portion of his time and financial resources toward personal filmmaking to a degree few involved in this discussion have, of putting himself and his family (five children—from his first marriage—if I'm not mistaken) through notable privation and sacrifice for his art. The Brakhage narrative is rife with stories of him working delivering pizza, of him choosing to buy filmmaking equipment with money allotted for groceries for his family , etc. How many adult men and women with children on this list (for example) are making similar choices?  I also dare say that DOG STAR MAN—to continue Sam's example—is an achievement the likes of which few
 involved in the present discussion have yet to attain. Yes, I know it was made at a certain time in history when cultural conditions were different, that personal/avant-garde filmmaking had different meanings, blah blah blah.

In any case, my comment about leisure time was specifically addressed to the conversation at hand and was meant to refer to the conditions of many (not all) contemporary filmmakers. It is clear that historical conditions were different, in many ways.

Steve Polta

--- On Tue, 7/20/10, Matt Helme <email suppressed> wrote:

From: Matt Helme <email suppressed>
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] FUTURE OF FILM (was Letter to other Filmmaker Artists)
To: "Experimental Film Discussion List" <email suppressed>
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 7:03 PM

yes.
Matt

From: Sam Wells <email suppressed>
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <email suppressed>
Sent: Tue, July 20, 2010 8:42:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] FUTURE OF FILM (was Letter to other Filmmaker Artists)

"I mean, what are most of us talking about other than the free use of our leisure time? "   WTF ?????????????   DOG STAR MAN was free use of leisure time ?????   -Sam

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