ACT WITHOUT WORDS (1964)
16mm, bw, sound, 5m
Filmed by Thom Andersen, David Dryer, Jack McLean, David Dobson, Gilbert Minot, Michael Rogers
Thom Andersen’s first film, this is a Samuel Beckett adaptation made in Fall 1964 while he was an undergraduate at U.S.C.
AVALON (1964)
16mm, bw, sound, 9.5m
Photography by David Dryer
Sound by Jack McLean
Production Management by Jack McLean, Michael Rogers, David Dobson, Gilbert Minot
Editing by David Dobson, Michael Rogers, Gilbert Minot, David Dryer
This film was made in Andersen’s Fall 1964 undergraduate term at U.S.C., as part of a “Student Senior Workshop” in which students had to make a film modeled on the conventional crew approach, working with other students in various crew positions to realize a finished work. The production was troubled in part due to the other students’ dissatisfaction with Andersen’s conception and direction, and one of the results was that two editing teams worked on the project, producing two very different edits. One team produced this film, Avalon, which is a more sympthetic attempt to help realize Andersen’s initial vision, whereas the other team produced a snarky edit of the material under the title The Film I Wanted To Make. This second version attempts to be a meta-documentary of the failed film production, but really just comes across as mean-spirited and petty, and is not surprisingly unsigned by its creators.
THE FILM I WANTED TO MAKE (1964)
16mm, bw, sound, 6m
The “mean” edit of Avalon. See notes for Avalon for more information.
MELTING (1965)
16mm, color, sound, 6m
THE GROUP THING (1966) (w/ William Doherty, Judith Henderson, Robert Heinecken)
16mm, color, sound, 3m
“The Group Thing was a [UCLA] class project for Robert Heinecken’s experimental film workshop, something Heinecken dreamed up after no one in the class except me produced a film. Each of us cut out some pictures, and we filmed them on the animation stand. As I recall, it’s not of much interest.” (Thom Andersen)
PARALLAXIS (1966)
16mm, color, sound, 17m
This film also carries the subtitle “for Eadweard Muybridge”.
OLIVIA’S PLACE (1966/74)
16mm, color, sound, 5m
Originally filmed at the titular Santa Monica diner in 1966, the film wasn’t fully finalized, printed, and released until 1974, at which time its opening titlecard was also added.
─── ────── (1967) (w/ Malcolm Brodwick)
16mm, color, sound, 11m
The preferred spoken title of this piece is typically given as “the rock n’ roll movie” (as opposed to “short line long line” or other such variations).
EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, ZOOPRAXOGRAPHER (1974)
16mm, color, sound, 59m
RED HOLLYWOOD (1996) (w/ Noël Burch)
video, bw & color, sound, 118m (original release); 114m (remastered version)
This movie was remastered in HD in 2013, and very slightly recut in the process. The remastering essentially involved the complete recreation of the film from newly sourced, higher quality excerpts, re-digitized video material, and recreated title artwork, among other things.
LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF (2003)
video, bw & color, sound, 169m (original release); 170m (remastered version)
This movie was remastered in HD in 2013, and very slightly recut, resulting in a final running time of 170 minutes. The remastering process essentially involved the complete recreation of the film from newly sourced, higher quality excerpts, re-digitized 16mm film, and recreated title artwork, among other things.
GET OUT OF THE CAR (2010)
16mm, color, sound, 35m
RECONVERSÃO (2012)
digital, color, sound, 68m
“HEY, ASSHOLE!” (2014)
digital, color, sound, 5m
This piece, originally shown and released on its own in 2014, was later absorbed into The Tony Longo Trilogy later in 2014.
This piece comprises “all the scenes in The Takeover (1995) with Waldo, the doorman, played by Tony Longo”. It is structured in four parts: “Hat Night”, “No Cards, No Problem”, “Last Words”, and “Last Rites”.
THE TONY LONGO TRILOGY (2014)
digital, color, sound, 14m
Comprises three segments: “Hey, Asshole!”, “Adam Kesher?”, and “You Fucking Dickhead!”. “Hey, Asshole!” was originally shown on its own as a 5-minute short (earlier in 2014) before the full trilogy was completed and released.
“Hey, Asshole!” comprises “all the scenes in The Takeover (1995) with Waldo, the doorman, played by Tony Longo”. It is structured in four parts: “Hat Night”, “No Cards, No Problem”, “Last Words”, and “Last Rites”.
“Adam Kesher?” comprises “the one scene from Mulholland Dr. (2001) in which Tony Longo appears. His character is named Kenny in the end credits.”
“You Fucking Dickhead!” comprises “the two scenes from Living in Peril (1997) in which Tony Longo appears, plus three phone calls.” It is structured in three parts: “Bad Driving”, “Three Phone Calls”, and “Wrong Place, Wrong Time”.
CALIFORNIA SUN (2015) (w/ Andrew Kim)
digital, bw & color, sound, 4m
Music video for The Farmingdale Sound Machine.
THE THOUGHTS THAT ONCE WE HAD (2015)
digital, bw & color, sound, 105m
JUKE – PASSAGES FROM THE FILMS OF SPENCER WILLIAMS (2015)
digital, bw, sound, 29.5m
A TRAIN ARRIVES AT THE STATION (2016)
digital, bw & color, sound, 15m
This film is jointly credited to Thom Andersen, Christine Chang, Andrew Kim, and Lucas Quigley.
LIGHTSTRUCK 