Stan Brakhage Films, 1952-1959

INTERIM (1952)
16mm, bw, sound, 24m (24:10)
Brakhage’s first film.
Credits as they appear on screen:
j s brakhage: scenario & direction
s[tan] phillips: cinematography
r[ay] austin: tech assistance
j[ames] tenney: musical score
♂: w[alt] newcomb
♀: janice hubka
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Dupont and Eastman b/w reversal film.

THE BOY AND THE SEA (1953)
16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 2m
For some years, this title has been included in Brakhage’s filmography, typically positioned as his second film, and noted as being lost. I have always questioned the existence of this film for a few reasons.
The only record or mention of it I’ve ever seen is just as a title in Brakhage’s filmography, but only starting to appear in such lists much later in his career.
When I researched in Brakhage’s papers at CU Boulder, none of the early 1950s/1960s filmographies he produced listed this film. You would think that, ESPECIALLY in the 1950s, when Stan was very deliberately building up a resume of personal films to help get shows, distribution, film work, etc. (there are letters of the time making this effort clear), he would mention every film possible, to demonstrate how much work he’d done, etc. The film title just doesn’t show up in the filmography or any other documentation or correspondence I examined until much much later, though of course I certainly didn’t get through all his papers in my research.
Additionally, in a February 11, 1955 letter to Amos Vogel, Brakhage writes to object to his film Desistfilm being presented in a program of “first films”, stating that it is in fact his third film (following Interim and Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection), though he does also make reference to “a number of incompleted [sic] film projects previous to the creation of Desistfilm“.
However, in September 2024, John Powers got in touch with a great anecdotal find he made about this film in the course of his extensive research on Brakhage’s life, career, and films. Here I quote him with his permission:
“On January 28, 1953, Brakhage moved to San Francisco to attend the Art Institute, or the California School of Fine Arts, as it was known then. He only stayed one semester. Fairly quickly, in early February, he found a place to stay — he was a boarder in the home of a family, Charles and Kay Bogner. They had young kids that he sometimes babysat. I haven’t researched them in detail yet, but Charles owned a shirt factory that Brakhage later worked in. The Bogners found Stan to be a genius, and Charles thought it would be fun to make a movie with him. Brakhage was enrolled in a film class at school, but he was discouraged by it — he didn’t feel he was learning anything. But this gave him access to a camera, so he and Charles Bogner went out and shot a bit of stuff. I haven’t found anything that describes the content of it. Around early April, Bogner got busy at work and they took a break from filming. They were going to get back to it, but don’t think that they ever did. At this point, Brakhage knew that he was going to rendezvous with his high school friends in Central City and put on plays that summer (he also, of course, shot Unglassed Windows there), so he already had one foot out the door. So, I don’t think the film was ever finished or even edited. I think it was a title, possibly a sketch of an idea, and a few hundred feet of film that stayed with the Bogners.”

UNGLASSED WINDOWS CAST A TERRIBLE REFLECTION (1953)
16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 29m (28:59)
Opening onscreen credits:
Cast: Lawrence Jordan, Yvonne Fair, Taggart Deke, Walter Newcomb, Eva Neumann, Robert Benson
Music by James Tenney
Produced by Paul R. Ihrig of Pueblo College
Written, Photographed, & Directed by Stan Brakhage
This is one of two early Brakhage films (the other being The Extraordinary Child) that the filmmaker removed from distribution fairly early in his career, seemingly sometime in the early 1960s, as he deemed them to be too juvenile to continue to make them generally available.
This film was originally intended to have a fully scored soundtrack by James Tenney, but was never released in that form. Tenney wrote a score, and there was a recording made of it for the film, but the recording was deemed unsatisfactory by Tenney and not used. The one extant vintage print of the film I’ve examined has the Tenney credit physically removed from the print, and Brakhage apparently showed the film with a tape of Bartok music instead. When I spoke briefly to Tenney about this, he indicated that the score itself also had too much repetition written into it, due to him not having a lot of time to write it, and the lengthy running time he had to fill. A rehearsal tape of the score (which may have been the only recording made) does exist in the Brakhage papers collection housed at CU Boulder.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on b/w reversal film, but the original is lost. The most original surviving element is a duplicate negative on 1952 Eastman stock, probably struck from the original in 1953.

DESISTFILM (1954)
16mm, bw, sound, 6.5m (6:31)
Onscreen credits:
DESISTFILM
by Brakhage
with [Ray] Austin, [Robert] Benson, [Yvonne] Fair, [Lawrence] Jordan, [Walt] Newcomb, [James] Tenney
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Ansco b/w reversal film (“war surplus film” according to a letter Brakhage wrote to Amos Vogel on 2/11/1955).

THE EXTRAORDINARY CHILD (1954)
16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 13m (12:51)
Opening onscreen credits:
The Extraordinary Child
by Brakhage
with Walt Newcomb
and Larry Jordan, Yvonne Fair, Robert Benson, Stan Brakhage
This is one of two early Brakhage films (the other being Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection) that the filmmaker removed from distribution fairly early in his career, seemingly sometime in the early 1960s, as he deemed them to be too juvenile to continue to make them generally available.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Eastman b/w reversal film, with titles on Dupont stock.

THE WAY TO SHADOW GARDEN (1954)
16mm, bw, sound, 11m (10:54)
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Eastman b/w reversal film, with titles shot on Dupont stock. The negative polarity material in the film is b/w duplicate negative, struck from b/w reversal original. This is also the first film for which Brakhage cut his original as A/B rolls, versus as an A-roll only.

IN BETWEEN (1955)
16mm, color, sound, 9.5m (9:20)
Featuring Jess Collins.
This is Brakhage’s first color film.
The soundtrack for this film was taken (with permission from John Cage, according to Brakhage) from: Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano (John Cage) performed by Maro Ajemian (1951), specifically Sonatas V, VI, VII, VIII, and almost certainly from this particular record.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Kodachrome.

REFLECTIONS ON BLACK (1955)
16mm, bw, sound, 11m (11:08)
Film stock notes: This film was shot primarily on Dupont b/w reversal stock, with titles and a few shots in the last third of the film on Eastman b/w reversal stock.

UNTITLED FILM OF GEOFFREY HOLDER’S WEDDING (1955) (w/ Lawrence Jordan)
16mm, color, silent 24fps (TBC), 11.5m
Although referenced and/or appearing in filmographies of Brakhage’s work for decades, this film has never been distributed or released publicly, and arguably doesn’t completely belong in Brakhage’s primary filmography, though I’ve left it here due to its longstanding inclusion in other documents and references. This work was essentially legendary due to its complete unavailability, and its existence only really documented through anecdote. However, in 2006, Leo Holder, Geoffrey Holder’s son, got in touch with me and sent the original Kodachrome picture roll to the archive for safekeeping. He confirmed that the wedding – between his parents Geoffrey Holder and Carmen De Lavallade – occurred on June 26, 1955.
Not long after this, I spoke to Lawrence Jordan about the film. He told me that Maya Deren had given them some Kodachrome to shoot the wedding with, which they did, but Jordan gave the film he shot to Brakhage, who was then fully responsible for the completion of the film. Jordan himself never saw the footage. The film itself really seems to be four camera rolls spliced together, with little or no other editing.
(A note on preservation that will change if/when I can finalize this as an archival project – prior to its arrival at the archive in 2006, the film had been transferred to video about a decade before that, and unfortunately the home movie transfer house had taken it upon themselves to remove most of the flash frames in the film, although they actually kept all of the 3-frame extracts from this process. I will be attempting to reconstruct the roll as it original was, if possible.)
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Kodachrome.

THE WONDER RING (1955)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 5.5m (5:34)
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Kodachrome. This appears to be the earliest instance of Brakhage hand-scratching the film’s title and ‘by Brakhage’ credit in what came to be his characteristic style (although this film also features a ‘The End’ at its finish as well). Although the original for the film is B-wind, Brakhage scratched the titles in A-wind configuration (which makes them very slightly soft in prints). He soon after trained himself to hand-scratch his cursive titles backwards, to achieve the proper B-wind emulsion position for his titles.

GNIR REDNOW (aka REDNOW GNIR; aka CORNELL’S RING) (1955/1958/ca.1973) (w/ Joseph Cornell)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 5m (4:51)
Despite erroneous interpretations of the nature of this film that have circulated for decades, this film comprises entirely unique footage from The Wonder Ring. It was edited by Cornell using the OUTTAKES of The Wonder Ring. Some shots seem to be identical in both films, but they are just different pieces of an original longer camera take.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Kodachrome. The main and end titles added by Cornell are on 1958 Kodachrome print stock.

CENTURIES OF JUNE (1955-56) (w/ Joseph Cornell)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 10m (10:08)
This film should be considered as a collaboration between Cornell and Brakhage, although unlike The Wonder Ring, this film resulted from shooting sessions in which Cornell to a fair extent directed Brakhage as cinematographer. However, the authorship of the film is typically ascribed to both artists.
No title appears on screen in the film, and over the years, it has been referred to variously as “Centuries of June“, “June“, “Bolts of Melody“, “Portrait of June“, and “Tower House“. Brakhage’s own Ansco color master for the film is labeled by him as “Joseph Cornell’s ‘Portrait of June'”, and this is the title his lab, Western Cine, used on a 1975 lab work order. However, “Centuries of June” has over time become the most common and essentially the accepted title for the piece, in part due to Brakhage’s ultimate adoption of it in his own filmographies.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Kodachrome.

FLESH OF MORNING (1956 VERSION) (1956)
16mm, bw, sound, 21m (20:53)
Brakhage made this film while living in Los Angeles and working for Raymond Rohauer at the Coronet Theatre. Although it was distributed by Brakhage for many years, he later came to consider it an imperfect and perhaps juvenile work. However, in 1986, following the accidental printing of the film by Brakhage’s lab with the soundtrack flipped, he rediscovered an appreciation for it, and re-released the film with its soundtrack running backwards (and which is the only difference between the 1956 and 1986 versions). The 1986 version has since then been the only version intended for regular distribution, although the 1956 version exists and can theoretically be shown as well.
The soundtrack for this film was taken from: Carlos Chavez – Toccata for Percussion performed by the Concert Arts Orchestra (conducted by Felix Slatkin), almost certainly from this particular record. Brakhage does seem to have edited the track to include a few sequence repetitions throughout.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Dupont b/w reversal film, with titles on Dupont b/w negative, and some Dupont b/w dupe negative and Eastman b/w print present as well.

NIGHTCATS (1956)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 8.5m (8:33)
Brakhage made this film while living in Los Angeles and working for Raymond Rohauer at the Coronet Theatre. Although the title has most commonly been presented in print over the years as one word, Nightcats, it is actually given as two words – Night Cats – on screen. I have retained the one-word version of the title here since that nearly exclusively dominates in all print references to the film.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on 5264 Kodachrome A.

ZONE MOMENT (1956)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 3m (3:12)
Although made and released in 1956 (and even distributed at that time along with Flesh of Morning, Nightcats, and possibly others by Howard K. Smith Films in Los Angeles), Brakhage lost track of this film and it was unseen and unavailable for decades, until the original turned up in 1995, and, according to Brakhage, found and given to him by someone who wished to remain anonymous. Brakhage struck an internegative at that time and placed the film in regular distribution at that point.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Kodachrome.

DAYBREAK AND WHITE EYE (1957)
16mm, bw, sound, 9.5m (9:19)
Daybreak only = 5:13
White Eye only = 3:55
Titles on screen are technically DAY BREAK and WHITE EYE, although the first title could be interpreted as the single word DAYBREAK split into two lines of text. In print over the years, the film has been typically referred to as “DAYBREAK AND WHITEYE“, even though the title’s form is clearly “WHITE EYE” on screen.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Eastman b/w negative. This is one of only two films that Brakhage shot and cut on negative (as opposed to reversal) film (the other being Max, from 2002).

LOVING (1957)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 4m (3:51)
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Anscochrome 231.

ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT (1958)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 40m (39:53)
Film stock notes: This film was shot primarily on Anscochrome, with a few shots on Kodachrome.

CAT’S CRADLE (1959)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 6.5m (6:16)
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Gevaert color reversal film. The color in this stock apparently faded pretty quickly, and Brakhage needed to use a borrowed early reversal print of the film to strike a new ECO 7252 printing master. All prints after 1971-73 or so seem to have been made either from this master, or from an internegative made from the master.

SIRIUS REMEMBERED (1959)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 10.5m (10:34)
The title on screen is technically “Sirius Re-membered“, which is possibly a concession to limited horizontal space for scratching the title, but more likely intended as a deliberate double meaning by Brakhage. In most print references, the title appears simply as Sirius Remembered.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Anscochrome (with a few brief imageless Gevaert color reversal segments present, used as black/clear/etc.). This is the earliest film for which Brakhage started to experiment with slightly more elaborate lab printing, in the form of A/B printer dissolves. The original Anscochrome camera footage was edited and assembled into six printing rolls – three sets of A/B rolls corresponding to the three sections of the film. The first part was printed entirely with 36-frame dissolves, the second part with 24-frame dissolves, and the third part with 12-frame dissolves. Each of these parts were printed accordingly onto Anscochrome 244 color reversal stock, and then assembled into the final structure of the film. Almost all copies of this film derive from this assembled master, which was produced by Brakhage in June 1960, according to extant lab paperwork. VERY few prints seem to have ever been struck directly from the original sets of A/B rolls, and they would all date before the creation of this printing master. I’ve personally only encountered one print (on 1960 7387 Kodachrome print stock) that was struck directly from the original 3-part A/B rolls. The two reasons Brakhage likely made this printing master so early are that striking individual prints would’ve been costly (requiring A/B printing in three different sections, i.e. 6 printer passes, just to make one print – labs charge extra for this kind of stuff), and that from quite an early period Brakhage clearly had a sense of the importance of long-term preservation of his films, and it was not uncommon (especially in the ensuing years) for him to make intermediate printing masters for his films, to avoid overprinting his originals.

WEDLOCK HOUSE: AN INTERCOURSE (1959)
16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 11m (10:47)
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Eastman b/w reversal and negative stocks.

WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING (1959)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 12m (12:12)
The baby born in this film is Myrrena Brakhage.
This film was also distributed for sale in 8mm by Brakhage, apparently beginning ca.1968, based on dating of reduction internegative.
Film stock notes: This film was shot on Anscochrome 226, with a few bits of imageless Anscochrome 232 in the beginning, used as black.