settima

bolex

Lights (Marie Menken, 1966)

Dec

1

National Christmas Lights Day

Lights (1966)

A display of what appear to be red, yellow, green and blue bell-shaped Christmas lights among silhouetted tree branches. DP: Marie Menken.

It took experimental filmmaker Marie Menken three years to shoot Lights. From midnight until 1 AM, she filmed New York's window displays during the holiday season, using her camera, motion, colour, and available light sources as her paintbrush.

“There is no why for my making films. I just liked the twitters of the machine, and since it was an extension of painting for me, I tried it and loved it. In painting I never liked the staid and static, always looked for what would change the source of light and stance, using glitters, glass beads, luminous paint, so the camera was a natural for me to try—but how expensive!”

– Marie Menken, c. 1966

Filming at night helped to avoid unwanted interruptions of people and cars, but turned out to be problematic for her hand-cranked #Bolex, which kept stalling in NYC's icy winter nights.

Multiple SIDosis (Sid Laverents, 1970)

Mar

27

National Acoustic Soul Day

Multiple SIDosis (1970)

Clockwise: Sid playing a ukulele, Sid whistling, Sid playing improvised chimes (metal pipes and one cymbal hanging from an overhead microphone stand), Sid blowing a tune on champagne bottles, one metronome. DP: Sid Laverents.

There's a handful of notable amateur films in the National Film Registry. One of them is the Zapruder film, another Sid Laverents' Multiple SIDosis.

“In terms of sheer entertainment value, I think that it demonstrated that one eccentric genius alone in his garage can rival the best of the Hollywood studios””

– Ross Lipman, UCLA Film & Television Archive restorationist

 

Catch it here.