The Orphic Vision of Brakhage's Cinema

A discussion of the relationship of cinema to memory, imagination, closed eye vision, and poetry, through the work of the prolific experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage (1933-2003). His best-known works include The Wonder Ring (1955), The Dead (1960), Blue Moses (1962), Mothlight (1963), 23rd Psalm Branch (1966-67), the Scenes from Under Childhood cycle (1967-70), and the Arabic Numeral Series (1981-82). The lecture will discuss Brakhage’s hand-painted The Dante Quartet(1987, 7 min.).

P. Adams Sitney is currently a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. He is the author ofVisionary Film (Oxford University Press, 1974, 2nd edn. 1979, 3rd edn. 2002); Vital Crises in Italian Cinema: Iconography, Stylistics, Politics (University of Texas Press, 1995); Modernist Montage: The Obscurity of Vision in Cinema and Literature (Columbia University Press, 1992), and Eyes Upside Down: Visionary Filmmakers and the Heritage of Emerson (Oxford University Press, 2009). He is a Professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.