(December 3, 1931 – July 11, 2009)
ERIC AND THE MONSTERS (1964)
16mm, bw, sound, 5.5m
Strand’s first film, she made it when she still lived in Berkeley, and it features her son Eric. Although it was screened, it doesn’t seem to have been put into distribution at any point.
ANGEL BLUE SWEET WINGS (1966)
8mm/16mm, color, sound, 3.5m
This film was originally made in 8mm and seems to have been blown up to 16mm around 1974, based on extant elements.
SILLY MOVIE (1967)
16mm, bw & color, silent 24fps, 7m
This is more of a light show reel than a movie, but Chick Strand thought enough of it as a discrete work to label it with this title. When I found it in her closet and asked her about it, she said, “it’s just a silly movie.”
ANSELMO (1967)
16mm, color, sound, 4m
This is the first of three films Strand made featuring her friend Anselmo Aguascalientes.
Anselmo seems to have been Strand’s “Project II” film at UCLA, made for the Winter 1968 quarter, based on the labeling of the non-final original mag mix. This was indeed most likely shot and finished or nearly finished in 1967, but it’s possible that the absolute completion of the film (including its revised mix that would become the final soundtrack) may date to 1968.
KULU SE MAMA (1968)
16mm, color, sound, 1m
This film seems to have been made at least partly in the context of a design class taught by Robert Heinecken at UCLA. Strand had learned about solarization techniques through Heinecken and possibly Pat O’Neill, and employed them in connection with the contact printer to produce this short piece – a precursor to her much more elaborate Waterfall. Although it’s a little-known film of Strand’s, various incorrect dates proliferate (given usually as 1966 or 1967), but 1968 is definitive, based on the dating of the actual film stock comprising the original for the film.
WATERFALL (1968)
16mm, color, sound, 3m
Despite the widespread reference to this film being from 1966 or 1967, 1968 is definitive, based on the dating of the actual film stock comprising the original for the film.
MOSORI MONIKA (1971)
16mm, color, sound, 21m
This film was shot in Venezuela as part of Strand’s studies in the then-new Ethnographic Film Program at UCLA, started in 1966 by Colin Young.
COSAS DE MI VIDA (1975)
16mm, color, sound, 24.5m
This is the second of three films Strand made featuring her friend Anselmo Aguascalientes.
ELASTICITY (1975)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 22m
MUJER DE MILFUEGOS (WOMAN OF A THOUSAND FIRES) (1976)
16mm, color, sound, 14.5m
GUACAMOLE (1976)
16mm, color, sound, 10.5m
FEVER DREAM (1979)
16mm, bw, sound, 7.5m
KRISTALLNACHT (1979)
16mm, bw, sound, 8m
LOOSE ENDS (1979)
16mm, bw, sound, 23.5m
CARTOON LE MOUSSE (1979)
16mm, bw, sound, 11.5m
SOFT FICTION (1979)
16mm, bw, sound, 55m
TIERRA INCOGNITA (1982)
16mm, color, sound, 5.5m
This is a film completed by Chick Strand, but not printed or released due apparently to some technical problems in the cutting. She did not wish this film to be released.
EL JARDINERO (1982)
16mm, color, sound, 7m
This is a film completed by Chick Strand, but not printed or released due apparently to some technical problems in the cutting. She did not wish this film to be released.
ANSELMO AND THE WOMEN (1986)
16mm, color, sound, 35.5m
This is the third of three films Strand made featuring her friend Anselmo Aguascalientes.
COMING UP FOR AIR (1986)
16mm, color, sound, 27m
ARTIFICIAL PARADISE (1986)
16mm, color, sound, 12.5m
BY THE LAKE (1986)
16mm, color, sound, 9.5m
FAKE FRUIT FACTORY (1986)
16mm, color, sound, 21.5m
SEÑORA CON FLORES / WOMAN WITH FLOWERS (1995)
16mm, color, sound, 15m
*
UNCOMPLETED FILMS
Chick Strand left several film projects uncompleted at the time of her death. She tended to work in batches of films, and these would have been the batch of films to have followed her 1986 releases, if she had ever finished them. One of them that actually did get finished was Señora con Flores / Woman with Flowers (1995), though she had never gotten the negative cut or printed, sound mixed, subtitles shot, etc. However, exact notes on all of these details were completed by her, which enabled the film to get finalized and printed by me at the Academy Film Archive in 2010. Another that was roughly half finished was tentatively called While the City Sleeps. Other batches of material were organized by her under the titles La Calle, Fiesta (this one is all Super 8), and Pueblito.
*
COMMERCIAL WORK
GENESIS I (OPENING & CONCLUSION SEQUENCES) (1968) (w/ Martin Muller, Burton Gershfield, Bruce Lane, and Pat O’Neill)
16mm, color, sound, 5m
Genesis Films was a distributor of a series of packaged short (usually experimental student) films that toured, founded and organized by Reg Childs. Genesis I, the first package, was released in January 1969 and contained 18 films, including 7362 by Pat O’Neill and Now That the Buffalo’s Gone by Burton Gershfield. Pat, Martin Muller, and Chick Strand created an opening and closing sequence for the package using images from films included in the program, edited and processed in a variety of ways. These “opening” and “conclusion” sequences seem to have at least been used for the first and second touring programs from Genesis Films, but I haven’t confirmed if they were used for any of the subsequent programs.
SEARS SOX (1968) (w/ Martin Muller and Pat O’Neill)
16mm, color, sound, 4m
CHILDREN ARE OUR FIRST PRIORITY: TITLE 1 (1972)
16mm, bw, sound, 12.5m
DIPPY DUCK IN STAY OUT STAY ALIVE (1973) (w/ Martin Muller, Bob Olodort, Jane Simpson, and Eric Strand)
16mm, color, sound, 7m
LIGHTSTRUCK 