Leslie Thornton
Leslie Thornton is an American experimental filmmaker, photographer and a pioneer in multi-media projection through her embrace of including video in her early work.
Born in 1951 in Knoxville, Tennessee, she received her BFA in 1973 at SUNY Buffalo and her MFA in 1976 at the Hartford Art School. She has been teaching media making since 1984 at Brown University.
Thornton has had an exceptionally unique career in that she has been associated with the early "structuralist" experimental filmmakers, such as Hollis Frampton and Paul Sharits; but she also studied documentary filmmaking with Richard Leacock and Ed Pincus; and has been aligned with modern experimental filmmakers like Craig Baldwin and Peggy Ahwesh.
Although Thornton has been making films since the early 1970s, she particularly came to prominence in the mid-1980s for her Peggy and Fred series, beginning with Peggy and Fred in Hell: The Prologue in 1985. This first entry in the series was shot on 16mm and included both original and found footage. Later entries would incorporate video, which initially Thornton would play on television monitors at synchronous moments with film projected on a main screen. The series would also become a multiscreen "environment" installation.
Thornton has received numerous awards for her work, including The Maya Deren Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1996, and the first Alpert Award in the Arts for media in 1995.
Watch Streaming Films By Leslie Thornton:
Filmography
SONGS One Two Three (2014)
Binocular Menagerie (2014)
The Fold (2013)
Philosophers Walk on the Sublime (2013)
Migrating Forms Festival Trailer (2010)
((((( ))))) (2009)
Novel City (2008)
Sahara Mojave (version two) (2007)
The Expiration (2007)
As The World Turns (2007)
Sahara Mojave (version one) (2006)
Let Me Count the Ways: Minus 6 (2006)
Photography is Easy (2005)
End in New World (2005)
Peggy And Fred In Hell Beginning, Middle and End (2004)
Let Me Count the Ways: Minus 10, 9, 8, and 7… (2004)
Origin (2003)
Paradise Crushed (2003)
Temporary Modern (2003)
Have A Nice Day Alone (2002)
Document of an Installation (2002)
The Splendor (2002)
Bedtime (2000)
Chimp for Normal Short (1999)
Another Worldy (1999)
…or lost (1997)
Old Worldy (1996)
The Problem So Far (1996)
Whirling (1995)
The Last Time I Saw Ron (1994)
Strange Space (1993)
Introduction to the So-Called Duck-Factory (1992)
[Dung Smoke Enters the Palace] (1989)
There Was an Unseen Cloud Moving (1988)
Peggy and Fred and Pete (1988)
Peggy and Fred in Kansas (1987)
She Had He So He Do He To Her (1987)
Peggy and Fred in Hell: The Prologue (1985)
Oh China Oh (1983)
Adynata (1983)
noexitkiddo (1981)
Jennifer, Where Are You? (1981)
Minutiae (1979)
Howard (1977)
Fiddlers in May (1977)
All Right You Guys (1976)
X-TRACTS (1975)
Face (1974)
Articles:
The Last Time I Saw Ron — Leslie Thornton
March 10, 2018
The Last Time I Saw Ron by Leslie Thornton (1994). The “Ron” of The Last Time I Saw Ron is late actor Ron Vawter who passed away in 1994.
Experimental Film Coalition: Publications
January 14, 2018
In addition to screening films in their hometown of Chicago, Illinois, the Experimental Film Coalition published two different periodicals in support of experimental filmmaking and filmmakers.
2012 Migrating Forms: Official Lineup
April 26, 2012
The fourth annual Migrating Forms media festival includes new work by Naomi Uman, Jesse McLean and Laida Lerxtundi; a special program curated by Ed Halter; a celebration of Chuck Jones and a ton more.
2012 Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival: Official Lineup
February 13, 2012
The 8th annual Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, aka FLEX Fest, is a curated event featuring the work of Su Friedrich, Steve Reinke and Sam Green.
2010 Migrating Forms: Official Lineup
May 6, 2010
The 2nd annual Migrating Forms experimental video festival features work by Kevin Jerome Everson, Kent Lambert, Peggy Ahwesh and more.
2010 Migrating Forms: The Trailer
April 22, 2010
The 2nd annual Migrating Forms experimental media festival has commissioned this year’s trailer from video artist Leslie Thornton.
Underground Film History: AFI’s Maya Deren Award
January 22, 2010
From 1986 to 1996, the American Film Institute gave out the Maya Deren award to underground film artists like Kenneth Anger and Shirley Clarke.
2009 Migrating Forms: Official Lineup
March 26, 2009
The first Migrating Forms film festival includes underground films by Owen Land, Barbara Hammer, Bradley Eros, Jim Finn, Shana Moulton and Stephanie Barber.
Underground Film Yearbook: 1976
December 16, 2008
Notable underground film events of 1976 were the publication of A History of American Avant-Garde Cinema and the production of Jonas Mekas’ Lost, Lost, Lost.
Underground Film Yearbook: 1975
December 6, 2008
Notable underground film events of 1975 were the formation of Berks Filmmakers, the debut of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Amos Poe making Night Lunch.