In conjunction with the exhibition The Renegades: American Avant-Garde Film, 1960–1973, the Walker presents a series of free monthly screenings curated by contemporary renegades and key figures who informed the film culture in the Twin Cities and shaped the Walker’s Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection.
The series kicks off in September with a program selected by Cannes Palme d’Or–winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, featuring nine short films (1960 –1973) from the Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection by filmmakers who have inspired him. Weerasethakul, whose otherworldly, multilayered narratives defy traditional cinematic storytelling, is a modern day renegade filmmaker who pushes the boundaries of cinema much like the artists featured in The Renegades. This fall, the Walker presents the premiere of his new film Mekong Hotel and a new work commissioned for the Walker Channel, Cactus River.
The series continues on October 18 with a program of films by Stan Brakhage, selected by Minneapolis-based artist Cameron Gainer, a former student of the filmmaker. November 29 features a program of works from the Walker’s Bentson Collection selected by Sally Dixon, former film curator at the Carnegie Museum of Art and former director of Film in the Cities. The series concludes on December 20 with a program from former Walker film curator Melinda Ward.
Program length 90 minutes.
TEN SECOND FILM by Bruce Conner
Commissioned by the 1965 New York Film Festival and intended to act as a television commercial and a prelude for the film programs in the theater, Bruce Conner’s TEN SECOND FILM is comprised of 10 film strips, each 24 frames long, of countdown leader. 1965, 16mm, 10 seconds.
Invocation of My Demon Brother* by Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger offers a terrifying vision of war and simmering male puissance that intermingles footage from Vietnam newsreels, the Haight-Ashbury scene, and a Satanic ritual performed by the filmmaker himself. Soundtrack composed by Mick Jagger on an electronic keyboard. 1969, 16mm, 12 minutes.
Thigh Line Lyre Triangular* by Stan Brakhage
In Thigh Line Lyre Triangular, Stan Brakhage films the birth of his third child. Using gestural painting and hand-scratching superimposed over images, this work is more abstract than Window Water Baby Moving (1959), which documented the birth of Brakhage’s first-born. 1961, new 16mm print, 5 minutes.
Sexual Meditation Motel #1* by Stan Brakhage
Part of the Sexual Meditation series, this film is a rhythmic and abstract exploration of light, hand-painted textures, and the possibilities of two nudes in a room. 1970, new 16mm print, 6 minutes.
Hold Me While I’m Naked by George Kuchar
One of George Kuchar’s best-known works, Hold Me While I’m Naked is about the trials of a low-budget filmmaker’s attempts to finish an epic melodrama with an actress who quits mid-movie because she is tired of being asked to perform nude in almost every scene. 1966, 16mm, 15 minutes.
T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G by Paul Sharits
A jarring fast-paced flicker film assembled of solid frames of color, a man’s face, a hand scratching the surface, the man’s face with his tongue extended, and scissors positioned to cut, repeated again and again in varying order, concluding only within the individual consciousness of each viewer. 1969, 16mm, 11 minutes.
Lapis by James Whitney
Executed over the course of three years and combining his handmade drawings with the newly invented motion control devices and computer applications of the time, James Whitney’s Lapis is a visually stunning, classic example of complex abstract art in motion. 1966, 16mm, 10 minutes.
Bleu Shut by Robert Nelson
Combining home movies, ads, and other artifacts of pop culture, Robert Nelson creates a game-show atmosphere to criticize the bourgeois quest for pleasure. 1971, 16mm, 33 minutes.
* Denotes titles donated to the Walker’s Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection by Sally Dixon.
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