Film at Wit's End: Eight Avant-Garde Filmmakers

by Stan Brakhage

In these eight sparkling biographies, Stan Brakhage brings us into intimate acquaintance with some of America's most influential independent filmmakers. With insight and sharp detail, Brakhage puts the lives and works of these filmic visionaries into personal focus. We meet Jerome Hill, born to inherit railroads and banks but destined to forge his artistic vision into a lasting film statement. And Marie Menken who, against the odds of a miserable and brutal marriage, developed a film aesthetic that revolutionized the very essence of independent filmmaking. Then James Broughton, the inveterate San Franciscan, whose irrepressible sense of whimsy and profound grasp of classical symbols combined to create some of the most vital filmworks of the last four decades; Christopher MacLaine, the "Artaud of North Beach"; Maya Deren, known to independent filmmakers as "the mother of us all"; Sidney Peterson, sophisticated, erudite, shy, the gentleman of the avant-garde film world; and two of Brakhage's most prominent contemporaries, Bruce Conner and Ken Jacobs. These filmmakers are members of one of the most radical of 20th-century art movements; and yet as radical and individual as they are, their films and their lives are a continuous source of inspiration, not only to young, developing film-artists, but to the makers of commercial movies and videos as well. Brakhage presents them and their work in portraits that are at once critical and anecdotal. One comes away from Film at Wit's End as one leaves an enjoyable, lively evening among friends.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

James Stanley Brakhage, better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film.

Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a large and diverse body of work, exploring a variety of formats, approaches and techniques that included handheld camerawork, painting directly onto celluloid, fast cutting, in-camera editing, scratching on film, collage film and the use of multiple exposures. Interested in mythology and inspired by music, poetry, and visual phenomena, Brakhage sought to reveal the universal in the particular, exploring themes of birth, mortality, sexuality and innocence.

Brakhage's films are often noted for their expressiveness and lyricism.

Reviews

[Drew Gebhardt]

One of if not the most engaging text I’ve ever read. Any old person with Wikipedia could tell you about the movies, or the facts of the artists’ lives, but it is so unbelievably special to hear testimonies from a friend (who also happens to be one of the greatest and most important people to ever make a film).

Heartwarming, enchanting, magical.

Picking out names of other avant-garde heroes like it’s ‘Where’s Waldo?’, I was kicking my feet in the air when Ken Jacobs met Hollis Frampton and Michael Snow.

[Alex V.]

I read this book ages ago, but happened upon it at the library the other day. Even if you are not all that into the vague, hermetic world of experimental film, this book eschews the dry scholarly tone with which most people come at art and offers a very personal take by a very personal artist on filmamker's he loves.

He decalres Maya Deren as the sexiest woman he's ever met, a handshake with her had more charge than intercourse and describes a scene in her apartment where, in a Voodoo trance, she throws a refridegrator across the room.

My other favorite schene is when he invites speed-addled Christopher MacLaine to stay at his house onlyt to be woken by the deafening sound of bagpipes and the sight of Maclaine leading Brakahage's own children out an open window like the Pied Piper.

The tone of the book, culled from lectures Brakhage delivered, is over-blown, anecdotal, self-agrandising and overwhelmingly given to perpetuating the mythology of those he considered his contemporaries in filmmaking, and will likely cause an academic to toss this out the window for its frivolities, but after reading this slim volume, you feel you not only know the film-makers, but understand where their art is coming from and are ready to champion them as well.

And, unlike almost all other books about film besides John Waters' Shock Value, Film at Wit's End is a compelling read.

[Michael]

Disappointed with this one a bit. I greatly admire the films and writings of Brakhage, but this book, comprised of eight portraits of other American avant-garde filmmakers, feels somewhat half-assed. The portraits are based on SB's personal experiences with the filmmakers, and there are great stories about Maya Deren throwing a full-sized refrigerator across a room, Christopher MacLaine waking up the neighborhood by playing the bagpipes at dawn, Bruce Conner storming a plane by telling West German authorities "Heil Hitler!" But the writing is flat -- Brakhage usually wrote in a jazzy, flowery, pun-heavy poetic style, but this book is based on a series of lectures and the strained, ill-fitting "down to earth" prose just doesn't seem like Brakhage's true voice. There's some insight into these filmmakers' films, but not enough of it. The studies are haphazard and hasty, and one comes away wanting much more of substance.

[Mark]

Since Stan Brakhage shared in a significant portion of the history of the American avant-garde, underground, independent (old definition), non-commercial, experimental, personal, art film movement with the subjects of this book, and had history with all of them, he was uniquely qualified to present us the stories of these eight filmmakers (from his own idiosyncratic point of view, of course). The book is full of interesting firsthand accounts -- though I still have difficulty believing Maya Deren threw a “standard-sized” refrigerator across a kitchen, no matter how “possessed” she was. But maybe that’s just me. As far as I’ve been able to find, Bruce Conner is the only filmmaker presented in the book whom none of his films can be currently bought on DVD/Bluray. Ken Jacobs is the only one who is still alive.

[Tom Newth]

intimately insightful, with invaluable first-hand reflections.

[Tax]

The single most important work for anyone who is in the introductory phases of dissecting film as an art form. Brakhage's selection of artists is remarkable, the stories he shares brings them back down to Earth. As we near the 1 year anniversary of Ken Jacobs leaving this mortal coil, solidifying each artist here as having fully passed on, I have been rereading these lectures and rewatching each filmmaker, still astonished even though I've seen all of these time and time again.

https://youtu.be/X5eCJ_vBEoo?si=jEu3l...

Heaven can be found within Marie Menken's "Lights"

https://vimeo.com/1131875533

Christ can be found within Jerome Hill's "The Magic Umbrella"

[Caroline]

He is Stan Brakhage after all.

[Nick]

Holy shit, you guys. I mean, can you imagine? Brakhage flies in once a week and among a hundred other students delivers a lecture, some jokes, little anecdotes about love, process and friendship all while holding himself and every one else in this terrific collection of biographies absolutely accountable?