BRAKHAGE’S ADJACENTS
Author:
Ryan Bremer ’22Co-Authors:
Faculty Mentor(s):
Ken Eisenstein, English – Film/Media StudiesFunding Source:
Dalal Family Fund for Creativity and InnovationAbstract
The goal of BRAKHAGE’S ADJACENTS is to better understand the working methods and aesthetic decision making of the avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage (1933-2003). By focusing upon his use of montage (the complex way in which he combined shots in his non-narrative––and almost entirely silent––16mm films), we learn more about Brakhage’s editing habits as well as the messaging behind his very challenging films. This is done by viewing splice-adjacent frames on an actual film strip, showing the literal cuts that were made when the films were produced. BRAKHAGE’S ADJACENTS draws from wider histories of narrative filmic editing [notably the advanced montage ideas of Sergei Eisenstein (1898-19480] while adapting these notions to the under-realized realm of avant-garde.