Brakhage (1998)

Director:

Jim Shedden

Writer:

Jim Shedden (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot Keywords:

Archive Footage | Interview | Film Clip | Director | Filmmaker

Cast

Jerry Aronson	...	Himself
Jane Brakhage	...	Herself
Marilyn Brakhage	...	Herself
Stan Brakhage	...	Himself
Philip S. Solomon	...	Himself
James Tenney	...	Himself

Directed by
Jim Shedden

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jim Shedden		writer

Produced by
Ron Mann	....	executive producer
Alexa-Frances Shaw	....	producer

Original Music by
James Tenney

Cinematography by
R. Bruce Elder
Richard Kerr
Kathryn MacKay
Gerald Packer
Robert Pytlyk
Alexa-Frances Shaw

Film Editing by
Alexa-Frances Shaw

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Luke Sneyd	....	assistant director

Art Department
Dale Smith	....	graphic designer

Sound Department
Ray Cook	....	optical soundtrack
Keith Elliott	....	sound re-recording mixer
Eric Fitz	....	sound

Other crew
Victor Peters	....	film angel

Production Companies

• 1235513 Ontario Inc.
• Bravo!
• Sphinx Productions

Distributors

• Microcinema International (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Zeitgeist Films (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• National Film Network (????) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

80 min | USA:73 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Company:

1235513 Ontario Inc.

Adequate, unduly rushed documentary

The movie does a serviceable job of setting out the broad trajectory of Brakhage's career and the development of his interests (although relies too much on archival PBS and such footage in which Brakhage is apparently dumbing-down his theories for mass consumption), but seems unduly rushed; when it's asserted at the end that Brakhage stands as one of the two or three most important filmmakers of all time, it's impossible to agree on the basis of the evidence that's been presented. This gets especially difficult in respect of the later work, which looks here like a resort to primitivism and abstraction based on sheer exhaustion as much as on anything more cerebral. On a more straightforwardly curious level, one wonders about such missing elements as Brakhage's early life, or how he managed to finance what looks like a reasonably comfortable life out of such commercially marginal endeavours. Brakhage looks now like an avuncular figure, lumbering around with his (grandkids?), open about his bladder problems, at one point singing Old Man River - it's all pleasant enough but seems distinctly incidental, and the movie shows too little of the younger and allegedly edgier, more difficult Brakhage. The film whets the appetite reasonably well, but ultimately one can't help but think it would be a more appropriate metaphorical tribute to his work if it wasn't itself so conventional and straightforward.