Stan Brakhage

David E. James is Professor in the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California. He is the editor of The Sons and Daughters of Los: Culture and Community in Los Angeles (Temple) and author of The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. Contributors: Paul Arthur, Montclair State University; Bruce Baillie; Abigail Child; Edward Dorn; Craig Dworkin; R. Bruce Elder; Nicky Hamlyn, Kent Institute of Art and Design; Jonas Mekas; Tyrus Miller, University of California, Santa Cruz; Carolee Schneemann; P. Adams Sitney, Princeton University; Phil Solomon, University of Colorado, Boulder; Chick Strand; James Tenney, California Institute of the Arts; Willie Varela, University of Texas at El Paso; and the editor.

"The scant attention given Stan Brakhage's one-man reinvention of motion pictures is a scandal of academic cinema studies. This generous collection of essays and appreciations, contributed by a wide variety of poets, critics, scholars, and fellow filmmakers, is most illuminating-it beams a welcome light on the terra incognita of Brakhage's accomplishment."-J. Hoberman, Village Voice film critic "Stan Brakhage: Filmmaker contains arguments and perspectives on Brakhage's work I've not seen before. The combination of academic perspectives and those of filmmakers is an especially original and appropriate way to treat Brakhage, who always hoped his films would inspire new ways of seeing and making, and is a major strength of this fine book, which offers a variety of new and interesting ways of thinking about Brakhage's films."-Fred Camper, independent film scholar "To sing in praise of Stan Brakhage is to sing in praise of cinema-daring us to see as we have never seen before. These wonderfully diverse essays take the measure of one of cinema's great visionaries."-Bill Nichols, author of Introduction to Documentary and editor, Maya Deren and the American Avant Garde

• Acknowledgements1. Introduction: Stan Brakhage: The Activity of His Nature - David E. James2. Stan Brakhage - Parker Tyler3. Brakhage. Breer. Menken. The Pure Poets of Cinema - Jonas Mekas4. Brakhage and Rilke - Jerome Hill5. On The Art of Vision - Robert Kelly6. The First Time I Heard the Word "Brakhage" - Edward Dorn7. Camera Lucida/Camera Obscura - Annette Michelson8. Brakhage Memoir - James Tenney9. Amateurs in the Industry Town: Stan Brakhage and Andy Warhol in Los Angeles - David E. James10. It Is Painting - Carolee Schneemann11. Brakhage: Poesis - R. Bruce Elder12. Recollections of Stan Brakhage - Jonas Mekas13. The Roman Numeral Series - Nicky Hamlyn14. Letter re: Stan - Bruce Baillie15. Stan Brakhage, Agrimoniac - Craig Dworkin16. Brakhage Package - Chick Strand17. Brakhage's Faustian Psychodrama - P. Adams Sitney18. Stan Brakhage: American Visionary - Willie Varela19. Brakhage's Occasions: Figure, Subjectivity, and Avant-Garde Politics - Tyrus Miller20. Notes on Sincerity and Irony - Abigail Child21. Becoming Dark With Excess of Light: The Vancouver Island Films - Paul Arthur22. As I Am Writing This Today - Phil SolomonContributorsIndex