Two by Stan Brakhage: Eyes and Unconscious London Strata

Free Admission and Open to the Public

Eyes (35 mins) - "After wishing for years to be given- the -opportunity of filming some of the more mystical occupations of our Times–some of the more obscure Public Figures which the average imagination turns into bogeyman ... viz.: Policemen, Doctors, Soldiers, Politicians, etc.:– I was at last permitted opportunity largely due to the efforts of a Pittsburgh newspaper Photographer, Mike Chikaris... who was sympathetic to my film show at the Carnegie Institute, and responded to my wish as stated on my thanks to him, to Sally Dixon of the Carnegie Institute, and to the Policemen who created the situation that made this film possible. As to the film itself: 'Polis is eyes,' said Charles Olson, having found the archeological root of the word-end (thus beginning) of, say, metropolis, etc. Police is a clear etymological derivative of polis. The more currently popular fix on these terms comes form, say, Dashiel Hammett's 'private eye,' & the sense of response-ability which Raymond Chanler and even Ross MacDonald give to their detective heroes under that term. The Police, then, are the public eyes; and they are, thus, expected to be Specialists of that ability-to respond which most of the rest of the society has lost all Metro sense-of. The experience of making this film prompted that clarity of terms: 'Polis is eyes' was my constant prayer, to make that experience clear, the last entire day of photographing. The film mostly assembled, rather than edited, is thus the surest track I could make of what it was given to me to see. It is 'framed' by clouds and the ocean for the simplest reasons of 'perspective.'" - Stan Brakhage

Unconscious London Strata (22 mins) - "While visiting London, England (dream of my youth) and wishing to be simply camera-tourist (taking pics. of exotic architectural arrangements imagined since earliest Dickens, etc.) I found myself forced, yes forced!, to photograph, rather, the nearest equivalent to the NON-pictorial workings of my mind which these London scenes, before my eyes and camera lens, would afford – each scenic possibility distorted from any easily identifiable picture to some laborious reconstruction of the mind's eye at the borders of the unconscious. It was two years before I could even begin to edit; and then some visual-song of all of England's history began to move thru this material, fashioning it in some way akin to that music of Pierre Boulez which is at one with the poetry of Rene Char – this plus the English "round," song and dance ... only (as is true to my thought process then, in England, and now in memory) the rounds are within rounds, round and around, all (as many as seven interspersed thoughts continuing the orders of shots) interwoven." - Stan Brakhage

Program:
Eyes (1970, 16mm, 35m, colour, silent)
Unconscious London Strata (1981, 16mm, 22m, colour, silent)

TRT: ~57 minutes

AD HOC aims to rethink what an experience of cinema can be. We seek to reposition historical landmarks and buried treasures within the on-going tradition of experimental and other non-commercial modes of filmmaking, drawing on work from Toronto, throughout Canada, and internationally. Within these parameters, we aspire to diversity in programming, as well as to multimedia and interdisciplinary screening events that bring together varied communities.

AD HOC = Stephen Broomer, Madi Piller, Jim Shedden, Bart Testa.

AD HOC would like to thank Alberto Zambenedetti, Denise Ing, Charlie Keil, Eyan Logan, Sean Rogers, Thom Chan, Jarret Sorger, and the staff of Innis College and the Cinema Studies Institute.