Stan Brakhage Movies

  • 1996
    Blue Value

    Blue Value

    Blue Value

    01996HD

    This is a hand-painted step-printed film which begins with slow dissolves of what appear to be decaying leaves, crumpled browns and golds and oranges...

    Blue Value
  • 1995
    Prelude 2

    Prelude 2

    Prelude 2

    5.51995HD

    Interplay of toned rectangular shapes, vertical and horizontal and diagonal lines in juxtaposition with hardened darker shapes which gradually shift...

    Prelude 2
  • 1967
    Song 25

    Song 25

    Song 25

    8.51967HD

    SONGS 24 & 25: A naked boy and flute song; a being about nature (the Songs are a cycle of silent color 8mm films by the American experimental...

    Song 25
  • 1976
    Absence

    Absence

    Absence

    81976HD

    "This film is about 'nothing.' Hints of dramatic 'loss' are imaged throughout, but the primary effect of the film is to give, through fleeting and...

    Absence
  • 1974
    Aquarien

    Aquarien

    Aquarien

    91974HD

    'EN'? -- as dictionary has it: 'made of, of or belonging to' (as I have it) Aquarius/an(d) so forth: Latin water carrier in the sky, etc. This is my...

    Aquarien
  • 1976
    Sketches

    Sketches

    Sketches

    01976HD

    Super-8 film by Stan Brakhage. “Brief songs of light and line.”

    Sketches
  • 1987
    Loud Visual Noises

    Loud Visual Noises

    Loud Visual Noises

    5.71987HD

    Hand-painted — closed-eye — film envisioning optic feedback in response to sound. Collaborative soundtrack compiled by Joel Haertling...

    Loud Visual Noises
  • 1997
    Divertimento

    Divertimento

    Divertimento

    101997HD

    This, painted in the hospital while recovering from cancer surgery in 1996, is - it seems to me - very related to De Kooning's Alzheimer's paintings....

    Divertimento
  • 2001
    Night Mulch

    Night Mulch

    Night Mulch

    82001HD

    This film is hand-painted and is essentially about the interplay between hypnagogic vision and words, the effect of the one upon the other, the...

    Night Mulch
  • 2001
    Lovesong 3

    Lovesong 3

    Lovesong 3

    02001HD

    Three qualities of hand- painted imagery inter-weave throughout this film: (1) a mash of thick lines delineating colored shapes, (2) thin black...

    Lovesong 3
  • 1978
    Nightmare Series

    Nightmare Series

    Nightmare Series

    81978HD

    A decade and a half ago, poet Robert Kelly told me that the "crucial work" of our time might be what he calls "the dream work": I hope, with this...

    Nightmare Series
  • 2001
    Lovesong 4

    Lovesong 4

    Lovesong 4

    02001HD

    A natural companion piece to Lovesong 3, this (also hand-painted) work counterbalances the rhythmic irregularities and, one might say, temporal...

    Lovesong 4
  • 1981
    Made Manifest

    Made Manifest

    Made Manifest

    91981HD

    "Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work...

    Made Manifest
  • 1994
    Cannot Exist

    Cannot Exist

    Cannot Exist

    71994HD

    The hand-painting of this film is interrupted by, and interspersed with, a geometrically structured Mask of Death (one of those frightening human...

    Cannot Exist
  • 1969
    Song 28

    Song 28

    Song 28

    91969HD

    Song 28: Scenes as texture (the Songs are a cycle of silent color 8mm films by the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced from 1964...

    Song 28
  • 1978
    Bird

    Bird

    Bird

    91978HD

    This portrait of a guinea fowl is the first clear vision I've had of the hot-blooded dinosaurs still living among us. (SB)

    Bird
  • 1990
    Babylon Series #2

    Babylon Series #2

    Babylon Series #2

    71990HD

    Out of the vagueries of sometime beseeming repetitive light patterns, and the delicately variable rhythms of thought process, the imagination of The...

    Babylon Series #2
  • 1995
    As Is Was

    As Is Was

    As Is Was

    01995HD

    This film was shot the same weekend as Z (Zee Not Zed), when Stan Brakhage was visiting University of Rhode Island, where Marjorie Keller was...

    As Is Was
  • 1989
    Watunna

    Watunna

    Watunna

    01989HD

    The creation myths of the Yekuana Indians of the Orinoco region of Venezuela provide a transparent look at the poetic process by which human beings...

    Watunna
  • 2025
    Derealization

    Derealization

    Derealization

    02025HD

    A schizophrenic high school student makes his way through a psychotic episode

    Derealization