[Frameworks] Avant-Garde cinema and war

[Alan Sondheim]

Hi Esther,

Thank you for this. I have about a yard of films on a shelf at the Coop - 
they're basically deadwood. I'm trying to get them to NYU - if they'll 
take them (they were made in the 70s for the most part and they have 
archives of my other work), and that seems stalled at the moment. They're 
all originals - i.e. I never made prints (never had the money for that and 
didn't receive grants for my filmwork, but for other things); the 
originals were shown. They were originally handled in San Francisco, but 
changed policy re: originals. Anyway, they'll probably disappear at this 
point; I have no money for dupes or transfers. Someone might be able to 
see them on a flatbed if they also had splicing tape. I'm not happy about 
this, but it's the situation. I was teaching media etc. at UCLA for two 
years and for the first, made a film (silent or sound, mostly 16mm) a 
week, following on my interest in the silent film studios. Ranged from 3 
min. to an hour. An interesting project, but the films might well be a 
wreck now and I have no money to revive them. I'll follow through on the 
urls you have below, really curious, and thank you!

Best, Alan

On Mon, 14 Nov 2022, Esther wrote:

> Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2022 20:18:34 +0000
> From: Esther <esther at blanchepictures.com>
> Reply-To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at film-gallery.org>
> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at film-gallery.org>
> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Avant-Garde cinema and war
> 
> Alan, I?d be fascinated to see the films you made in relation to the war in
> Vietnam.I premiered my new feature ?Dust & Metal? www.dustandmetal.com earlier
> this year at Sheffield DocFest which is a poetic/experimental doc
> incorporating much rare material from the Vietnam Film Institute. Although
> not directly about the war in Vietnam, the film touches on the fundamental
> importance of particularly bicycles to the Vietnamese during war. We?re hoping
> to tour the film in Vietnam and the UK next year, in addition to film fests.
> I also collaborated on this short work focusing on US Military deserters
> from the war in Vietnam: https://blanchepictures.com/liberation-radio/
> An earlier work of mine ?Asunder? focuses on WW1: http://asunder1916.uk
> 
> Warmest,
> Esther
> 
> ?  
> Esther Johnson   artist ? filmmaker
> https://linktr.ee/BlanchePictures
> ?
> DUST & METAL ? C?T B?I & KIM LO?I 
> ?
>
>       On 14 Nov 2022, at 20:06, Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com>
>       wrote:
> 
> 
>
>       Fwiw, Back around the time of the Vietnam War, I made a series
>       of in-camera 16mm sound films w/ Jerry Lewis' old auricons,
>       about North Korean, Kim Il Sung, etc. I was teaching at UCLA.
>       The films are probably sitting at the Coop. Later though I found
>       a 16mm double-sprocketed reel, about 20 minutes, which was a
>       reprint of a North Vietnamese film about the effects of Agent
>       Orange. It was horrifying. The sprocket holes ran through the
>       soundtrack. I had the film copies to single-sprocket mag stripe
>       and added a new soundtrack (the old was destroyed) about the
>       war, Nixon etc. That was also shown, I'm sure at Millennium (as
>       were the others re: above) and is either sitting at the Coop or
>       in my archives at NYU.
>
>       - Alan
>
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>       Frameworks at film-gallery.org
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> 
> 
>