[Frameworks] RIP Anne Robertson, super 8 artist

[Liz Coffey]

Greetings all,
It's come to my attention that the recent death of Anne Charlotte
Robertson is not widely known.  I'm sorry to report Ms. Robertson died
in hospice in September; she had cancer.

Anne Charlotte Robertson was a Super 8 filmmaker and diarist who lived
in Framingham, MA.  She began making films in the mid-1970s as an
undergrad at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and earned her
MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art.  Her main work is the 38-hour
opus, FIVE YEAR DIARY, which she began in 1981 and kept far longer
than five years.  Each episode of the diary, spanning varying numbers
of days, is 27 minutes (approximately 8 camera rolls) and the diary is
84 reels long.  In addition to the FIVE YEAR DIARY, Anne made over 30
other (mostly diaristic) short films, including APOLOGIES (1990),
TALKING TO MYSELF (1985), MAGAZINE MOUTH (1983), and MELON PATCHES, OR
REASONS TO GO ON LIVING (1994).

Ms. Robertson used a sound super 8 camera, and the films have many
layers of soundtrack.  The original screenings were performances if
Anne was in attendance.  There is the original sound on film, recorded
at the same time as the picture, there are often also audio cassettes
she would play with the film, and she spoke over the film as well.

Anne took the written diary form and extended it to include
documentary, experimental and animated film-making techniques. She did
not shy away from exposing any parts of her physical situation or
emotional life.  She became a pioneer of personal documentary and
bravely shared experiences and observations on being a vegetarian, her
cats, organic gardening, food, and her struggles with weight, her
smoking and alcohol addictions, and depression (she was diagnosed with
bipolar disorder).   Romance (or lack thereof) and obsession are
long-running themes in the DIARY films, as is the cycle of life.  In
the films, Anne sows seeds, reaps vegetables, cooks and pickles them,
composts the scraps.  She buries family members and beloved cats,
notes the changing seasons, contemplates suicide, has nervous
breakdowns, creates films, pines for her celebrity crush (Tom Baker of
Doctor Who), finds religion, and obsessively documents her own life in
film, paper, and audio tape.

Anne didn’t shy away from documenting her own weaknesses.  Weight and
diets are addressed throughout the work.  Her struggle with mental
illness is investigated again and again.  She made a film while
undergoing a nervous breakdown.  She talks about being hospitalized,
taking prescription drugs, and fearing the next breakdown.  In the
layered audio of the DIARY film, she explains what was going through
her head when she shot certain things – here she is looking for signs
in the everyday; here she is obsessively visually cataloging her
garbage; here she is worrying she is causing pain to the root
vegetables she means to eat – a problem solved by re-planting them.

Ms. Robertson’s films were shown all over the world, often at super 8
– specific festivals.  Her work touched many people, and inspired a
number of women filmmakers.  In 2001, she was awarded the Guggenheim
Fellowship in Filmmaking.

She has left her extensive work to the Harvard Film Archive.  The
material given to the Harvard Film Archive includes the original
films, film prints, video copies of the films, as well as the
intellectual and distribution rights.  The collection also includes
scores of hours of audio tape, papers (including diaries and letters),
and photographs.

The HFA is working with the award–winning small gauge film lab Brodsky
and Treadway to preserve these unique films by creating new digital
masters, incorporating the disparate soundtracks, and will make them
available for rental.  Anne had recorded her usually performed audio
for some of the DIARY films, and masters have been created using both
sound elements (the recordings and the sound-on-film).  She left
scripts with some of her DIARY films, and requested that someone
record the performed audio for future preservation work.

The following titles, as a condition of the will, remain unavailable until 2023:

SUICIDE (1979)

HOMEBIRTH (1980)

FRUIT (1985)

THE NUDE (1987)

WITH CLOTHES (1987)

TALKING TO MYSELF #2 (1988)

WEIGHT (1988)

DIET (1988)

Some of the DIARY films will also be unavailable for ten years (titles
forthcoming).

The HFA is presently working to determine what material is available
for screenings, and to make new digital video copies of the work.

For information regarding showing Anne Robertson’s films, please
contact the Harvard Film Archive’s print trafficker, Mark Johnson at:
mhjohns at fas.harvard.edu

For more information about the collection, please contact the HFA’s
film conservator, Liz Coffey.

obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/metrowestdailynews/obituary.aspx?n=anne-robertson&pid=159975330&fhid=11304#fbLoggedOut

The HFA will be presenting a weekend of the works of Anne Robertson in
September 2013 on the anniversary of her death.

-- 
~Liz Coffey
Film Conservator for Harvard Film Archive, Weissman Preservation Center
625 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-496-8647
hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
preserve.harvard.edu

collections blog!
blogs.law.harvard.edu/hfacollections2