From the San Rafael Daily Independent Journal, November 25, 1965
Film Review
by John F. Kearney
Nearly every seat was taken five minutes before the start of the movie.
By the time the wall lights in the Gate Theater, Sausalito, were dimmed, a middle-aged couple had squeezed into the last remaining space, a few feet from the screen set up on the stage.
Whatever their motives, members of the audience were in high spirits to witness the arrival in Marin of an American phenomenon known as the Underground Cinema.
There were those curious to see movies made in cellars and back yards on a shoestring by arty people who, until a couple of years ago, expressed themselves only in the relatively introvert world of canvas and paint.
Then there was the fun crowd, anxious not to miss a thing considered “in,” even if it meant having its collective leg pulled from time to time.
Film Review
by John F. Kearney
Nearly every seat was taken five minutes before the start of the movie.
By the time the wall lights in the Gate Theater, Sausalito, were dimmed, a middle-aged couple had squeezed into the last remaining space, a few feet from the screen set up on the stage.
Whatever their motives, members of the audience were in high spirits to witness the arrival in Marin of an American phenomenon known as the Underground Cinema.
There were those curious to see movies made in cellars and back yards on a shoestring by arty people who, until a couple of years ago, expressed themselves only in the relatively introvert world of canvas and paint.
Then there was the fun crowd, anxious not to miss a thing considered “in,” even if it meant having its collective leg pulled from time to time.
- 11/11/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
From the Austin Daily Texan, September 22, 1966
Film-Makers’ Co-Op Shows ‘The Wild One’
The Gulf Coast Film-Makers’ Co-Op, an off campus student organization, will inaugurate its Film Factory at 8 p.m., Friday.
Founded to encourage student film-making, Film-Makers’ Co-Op is a result of interest among university students for a place to show and make films. Spokesmen cite the fact that at present there isn’t any University course for the beginning student who wants to make creative films, and of the two courses devoted to film on campus, both are oriented for radio and TV majors.
The Group has received support from the New American Cinema groups on both east and west coasts. Independent film-makers like Bruce Baillie and Robert Nelson from California have provided films for the first program. In New York, Pop Artist Andy Warhol will provide his newest film, “Camp” with Baby Jane Holzer and Jack Smith, for...
Film-Makers’ Co-Op Shows ‘The Wild One’
The Gulf Coast Film-Makers’ Co-Op, an off campus student organization, will inaugurate its Film Factory at 8 p.m., Friday.
Founded to encourage student film-making, Film-Makers’ Co-Op is a result of interest among university students for a place to show and make films. Spokesmen cite the fact that at present there isn’t any University course for the beginning student who wants to make creative films, and of the two courses devoted to film on campus, both are oriented for radio and TV majors.
The Group has received support from the New American Cinema groups on both east and west coasts. Independent film-makers like Bruce Baillie and Robert Nelson from California have provided films for the first program. In New York, Pop Artist Andy Warhol will provide his newest film, “Camp” with Baby Jane Holzer and Jack Smith, for...
- 7/8/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In a festival whose dedication to celluloid is readily apparent, why not declare it directly? And so one of the Vienna International Film Festival's Special Programs this year is a bastion of that most wonderful format, 16mm film. Programmed by Katja Wiederspahn and Haden Guest with an admirably variegated range, the programs were gathered around collective films, war films, sex films, expanded cinema, and more. Key to the section's expanse, which begins in the 1920s and touches every decade between here and there, is also in highlighting new work done in this increasingly outmoded, "out of date," and unprojectionable format. Included amongst these are films every bit as exciting as the history and canon "Revolution in 16mm" touches on: Jodie Mack's Razzle Dazzle (written about here), Richard Touhy's masterpiece of color Ginza Strip, and, most excitingly, a quartet of new films by Nathaniel Dorsky, the film poet who makes...
- 11/3/2014
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
West coast based underground filmmaker Robert Nelson, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer within the past year, passed away this week. He was 81 years old.
Nelson began making films in the early 1960s and his work stood out from his peers at the time thanks to their prankish energy and humor. His most notorious film was 1965′s Oh Dem Watermelons, a parody of racist attitudes towards blacks that divided audiences with its shocking antics. The film was originally commissioned and planned to be shown just as intermission entertainment during live shows performed by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, but its popularity turned it into a regularly programmed hit.
Other films of note include his longest work The Great Blondino (1967), a 42-minute romp that features a curious young man exploring the beguiling world around him, and The Off-Handed Jape (1967), a film in which Nelson and his filmmaking partner William T. Wiley...
Nelson began making films in the early 1960s and his work stood out from his peers at the time thanks to their prankish energy and humor. His most notorious film was 1965′s Oh Dem Watermelons, a parody of racist attitudes towards blacks that divided audiences with its shocking antics. The film was originally commissioned and planned to be shown just as intermission entertainment during live shows performed by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, but its popularity turned it into a regularly programmed hit.
Other films of note include his longest work The Great Blondino (1967), a 42-minute romp that features a curious young man exploring the beguiling world around him, and The Off-Handed Jape (1967), a film in which Nelson and his filmmaking partner William T. Wiley...
- 1/13/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Back in 2008, when Robert Nelson had just made some of his early films available again, most of them distributed by Canyon Cinema, Redcat staged a mini-retrospective in Los Angeles: "Known for prankster experimentalism and on-the-spot invention, the films of San Francisco native Robert Nelson are among the defining landmarks of the post-Beat American underground of the 1960s and 70s. His free-spirited approach, sharp wit, and artistic rigor marked inspired collaborations with William T Wiley, William Allan, Steve Reich, and the Grateful Dead, and helped shape a language and style for the burgeoning psychedelic culture."
Yesterday, Mark Toscano of the Academy Film Archive posted the news that Nelson had passed away at the age of 81: "So many filmmakers are filmmakers in some way or other because of Bob (among them Peter Hutton, Fred Worden, Chris Langdon, Curt McDowell, Mike Henderson, numerous others). Peter once told me that when he saw...
Yesterday, Mark Toscano of the Academy Film Archive posted the news that Nelson had passed away at the age of 81: "So many filmmakers are filmmakers in some way or other because of Bob (among them Peter Hutton, Fred Worden, Chris Langdon, Curt McDowell, Mike Henderson, numerous others). Peter once told me that when he saw...
- 1/11/2012
- MUBI
First the history, then the list:
In 1969, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas decided to open the world’s first museum devoted to film. Of course, a typical museum hangs its collections of artwork on the wall for visitors to walk up to and study. However, a film museum needs special considerations on how — and what, of course — to present its collection to the public.
Thus, for this film museum, first a film selection committee was formed that included James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, plus, for a time, Stan Brakhage. This committee met over the course of several months to decide exactly what films would be collected and how they would be shown. The final selection of films would come to be called the The Essential Cinema Repertory.
The Essential Cinema Collection that the committee came up with consisted of about 330 films.
In 1969, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas decided to open the world’s first museum devoted to film. Of course, a typical museum hangs its collections of artwork on the wall for visitors to walk up to and study. However, a film museum needs special considerations on how — and what, of course — to present its collection to the public.
Thus, for this film museum, first a film selection committee was formed that included James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, plus, for a time, Stan Brakhage. This committee met over the course of several months to decide exactly what films would be collected and how they would be shown. The final selection of films would come to be called the The Essential Cinema Repertory.
The Essential Cinema Collection that the committee came up with consisted of about 330 films.
- 5/3/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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