[Frameworks] meditative films?

[Dave Tetzlaff]

Hello Kate:

If the prescription is: moving image work, short, meditative, poetic/experimental, viewable online, aesthetically accessible to high school kids, you’ve filtered the results down to little-or-nothing before you get to queer and/or POC.

Most of the ‘meditative' works I can think of off the top of my head have never been transferred to video or released in any video format, legitimately or otherwise.

While some things have been issued on DVDs, those typically go out of print quickly. I see on your website you’re in LA, so maybe you might be able to find something in a public or academic library, or interlibrary loan, if you have enough lead time. Actually, Ken Paul Rosenthal’s Crooked Beauty does indeed more or less fit the prescription, and a lot of colleges have purchased copies through their psych-ish Depts and might have them in their libraries. It probably doesn’t qualify as “short”, but unlike many works, an excerpt is a pretty fair representation for your purpose...

I have to wonder about many of the other suggestions so far. Ken Jacobs? What: Tom Tom or Blonde Cobra? Are you out of your fricken mind? Brakhage as self-care? Anticipation? Dog Star Man? Act of Seeing? Hell, why not show MacLaine’s “The End”? (I’m joking).  (nostalgia)? Great film, and it’s on DVD… and it’s 45 minutes long. Whitney and Belson? Uh, “inspirational” in this context means something the kids can relate to as something like something they might be able to do themselves in that video project they’re going to make.

With that in mind, I suggest widening the domain by dropping the filter that the examples you show be themselves related to self-care or in some way meditative. Rather, I’d say look for stylistic elements that might in some way be adaptable to the themes of the course, even if they’re put to a different purpose in the exemplar.

So, I’s start by looking at experimental uses of the kinds of footage your students will be able to acquire. You refer to “collage”. Does that mean/include found footage? If so, my first thought would (of course) be Bruce Conner, especially "Take The 5:10 To Dreamland”. But I doubt you’ll find that online. It was on the now out-of-print 2002 BC DVD, but that may or may not be available for borrowing. My second thought would be Joseph Cornell – “Rose Hobart” excerpted, or better yet perhaps “Jack’s Dream”.

It so happens that both of those are available online at Ubuweb. I haven’t checked the quality… (some of the transfers or files on Ubu are awful). There’s also a Cornell DVD that came with a book about him, which might be in a library.

If the students are going be shooting their own footage, I’d think about the kinds of things it’s practical for them to shoot. The artist and work limited means first to my mind is Sadie Benning’s Rubyfruit program, the component parts of which are also on Ubuweb. I’d say they’re relevant to “self-care” if not exactly everyone’s pick as exemplars of that, and they’re definitely queer, fwiw.

I will ask any other Frameworkers seeking to be helpful here to check online resources – Ubuweb, YT, Vimeo etc. – for works or artists that might fit the bill. Just tossing out titles isn’t going to be helpful since the vast majority will be totally unavailable, or too much work to obtain.


Fianlly, Kate, I’d advise against giving the students links to anything you want them to watch. What we’re talking about here (be it video or film in acquisition format) is CINEMA. It’s not for smart phones. It needs to be on a big(ish) screen in a darkened room with a context or seriousness, attention, concentration and contemplation. In short, you need to be the presenter/discussion leader in person.


best wishes,

djt