[Frameworks] Owen Land (aka George Landow) (1944-2011)

[Mark Webber]

dear all

just to elaborate on this subject with the details i know, or can  
remember from all my owen land research of yesteryear ...

the austrian filmmuseum has the largest collection of original prints,  
negatives and materials as a result of a longterm friendship between  
owen/george and peter kubelka. at some point (80s or 90s, i don't  
remember), peter persuaded him to send all his surviving film  
materials to vienna. these materials were uneven and incomplete & i  
think many internegs were made from surviving prints.

for the "reverence" touring retrospective, lux and i raised funds to  
create two new sets of prints of all titles (except the 8mm reels) -  
one for the touring programme and the other to go into individual  
distribution at lux. at that time, owen paid for prints of several  
titles to go to canyon & the new york coop.

during the course of the project, we discovered that vienna held a  
different version of FILM THAT RISES TO THE SURFACE OF CLARIFIED  
BUTTER - one which i still maintain was just a rough assembly reel -  
so we made a new interneg from the best available print of the most  
widely circulating version.

we also found that the vienna copy of WIDE ANGLE SAXON was an early  
version, one which was soon revised by owen before making most  
distribution copies. therefore, we used the anthology film archives  
preservation materials for this film to make the new prints.

i don't know about PFA, but anthology and the austrian filmmuseum had  
already preserved the films in their collection as part of the ongoing  
conservation of their collections.

no other lost or unknown titles were found. anthology has the sole  
copy of the 8mm films on 16mm reel, presumably generated from 8mm  
prints that owen gave to jonas at some point.

the rough, 12 minute edit of UNDESIRABLES (WORK-IN-PROGRESS) was done  
only on video (despite being shot on 16mm). a VHS copy is the best  
known source for this film. i don't know where the 16mm footage was  
stored.

the original materials for owen's two video works are with the kitchen  
in new york.

mark webber

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Mark Toscano <fiddybop at yahoo.com>
>
> I can't speak for all cases of the preservation work, but in at  
> least some, I know that the archives initiated and funded the work.   
> I'd love to know more actually - I've always been curious how the  
> Austrian Filmmuseum got involved (though I suppose it'd make more  
> sense to ask them directly).
>
> Mark
>
>
> --- On Wed, 7/13/11, Fred Camper <f at fredcamper.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Fred Camper <f at fredcamper.com>
>>
>>> And i should say that, although Mark Webber did an amazing job?
>>> unearthing, working with, writing on, and curating Owen's work, the?
>>> preservation of the films was done separately by the Austrian?
>>> Filmmuseum, Anthology Film Archives, and Pacific Film Archive.
>>
>> Did those archives initiate the preservation work? Did they
>> pay for it?