Underground Film Yearbook: 1976
This is the sixth entry in my series of the underground film scene of the ’70s. You can follow the series here.
For the series, so far I’ve basically just been collecting data and not doing too much analysis. However, one somewhat sad fact has leapt out at me: There were quite a few books published in the ’70s on underground film history and analysis, although very few of them have been kept in print and are difficult to find reference to online.
’76 saw the publication of two books (that I found info about). First was A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema, which was edited by children’s book author Marilyn Singer. This was published by the American Federation of Arts in conjunction with a traveling exhibition that started at the Museum of Modern Art in May. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find out exactly what films made up the exhibition.
The other book I found published in ’76 was the Structural Film Anthology, You can read Peter Gidal’s introductory essay online and this book was printed in conjunction with a screening series as well, the Structural Film Retrospective at the National Film Theatre, which coincidentally also began in May.
On the birth and death front: future underground filmmaking star James Fotopoulos was born in Norridge, IL (specific date unknown); while pioneering avant-garde artist, photographer and sometime filmmaker Man Ray died on Nov. 18. He was 86.
Some of the more notable underground films of ’76 were Jonas Mekas‘ 178 min. diary compilation Lost, Lost, Lost, which cover the years of his life 1949-63 and includes his arrival in NYC and the beginning of the burgeoning New American Cinema movement. Also, Derek Jarman co-directed his first feature film, Sebastiane, with Paul Humfress; and original member of the New American Cinema Group Emile de Antonio co-directed Underground with Mary Lampson and Haskell Wexler, which was the first documentary investigation into the infamous Weather Underground.
Below is the list of films that I compiled with an official release date of 1976, organized alphabetically by director’s last name. This isn’t meant to be a complete list, but just what I could find so far mostly on the Canyon Cinema and the Film-makers’ Cooperative‘s online catalogs, plus other random info I’ve found on the web. If anyone has a film to add, along with proof of year of completion, please leave a comment below.
Rebecca Abbott: Chicago Boogie
Dominic Angerame: El Train Film
Emile De Antonio, Mary Lampson, Haskell Wexler: Underground
Scott Bartlett: Sound of One
James Benning: 11 x 14
Chicago Loop
Alan Berliner: Line
Perimeter
Wallace Berman: Aleph
Les Blank: Chulas Fronteras
Beth Block: Film Achers
Tony Bond: Novitiate
Stan Brakhage: Airs
Absence
Desert
The Dream, NYC, The Return, The Flower
Gadflies
Highs
Rembrandt, Etc., and Jane
Sketches
Trio
Window
Tragoedia
Robert Breer: Rubber Cement
Tom Brener: Pilotone Study No. 1
James Broughton: Erogeny
James Broughton & Joel Singer: Together
Jacob Burckhardt: Martens Bar
They Lie But They Don’t Mean It
Rudolph Burckhardt: Sodom and Gomorrah, New York 10036
Times Square Films
Gail Camhi: Coffee Break
Doris Chase: Dance 5
Rocker
Roy Colmer: 278
Robert Cowan: The Shadow Glass
Robert Crawford: Ten Haiku
Gary Doberman: Sandwoman’s Moon
Arnold Eagle: Luminescence
R. Bruce Elder: Permutations and Combinations
Jules Engel: Shapes & Gestures
Victor Faccinto: Sweet and Sour
Holly Fisher: Glass Shadows
Bob Fleischner: Curtain Call
A Tire Film
Hollis Frampton: For Georgia O’Keeffe
The Red Gate (Magellan at the Gates of Death Part I)
The Green Gate (Magellan at the Gates of Death Part II)
Not the First Time
Otherwise Unexplained Fires
Procession
Quaternion
Roberta Friedman: Bertha’s Children
Larry Gottheim: Mouches Volantes (Elective Affinities, Part II)
Dave Gearey: Footage
Ernie Gehr: Table
Paul Glabicki: Scanning
Seventy-Six at Home
Bette Gordon: Noyes
Amy Greenfield: Fragments: Mat/Glass
Vincent Grenier: X
While Revolved
World in Focus
George Griffin: Viewmaster
Step Print
Red Grooms: Ruckus Manhattan
Walter Gutman: The March on Paris 1914 of General Von Kluck and His Memory of Jessie Holladay
Howard Guttenplan: Western Diary ’75
Barbara Hammer: Moon Goddess
Women I Love
Roger Jacoby: L’Amico Fried’s Glamorous Friends
Derek Jarman: Sebastiane
Lawrence Jordan: The Apparition
Jon Jost: Angel City
Chester Kessler: Go
Rondo
Marjorie Keller: By 2’s and 3’s: Women
Lynn Marie Kirby: It Gets Bumpy
John Knecht: Bilm-Fuilding Part Five (This is Not Video)
Alexis Krasilovsky: Commiseration Moon
James Krell: 30 Days: Speed Or Gravity
Action Past Compassion
Alpine Lookout #1
Finally a Lamb
Four Rolls (Rarely Pre-Dated) (Tribute to Marcel Duchamp)
Fur (But Less Fun)
Kurt Kren: 32/76: An W + B
Lee Krugman: Ferry
Waterfront
George Kuchar: Back to Nature
A Reason to Live
Owen Land: New Improved Institutional Quality: In the Environment of Liquids and Nasals a Parasitic Vowel Sometimes Develops
David Lebrun: Tanka
Dave Lee: Eel
Remembering: Clearing Space (Part 1 of Balinese Trilogy)
Malcolm LeGrice: Time & Motion Study
Charles I. Levine: Steps
Richard Levine: Girl Playing With a Balloon
Selective Attentions #3
Saul Levine: Notes of an Early Fal
Janis Crystal Lipzin: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Periodic Vibrations in an Elastic Medium
Babette Mangolte: (Now)
Ross McLaren: Weather Building
Jonas Mekas: Lost, Lost, Lost
Toney Merritt: Fine French Phrases and Other Fables
Werner Nekes: Amalgram
Gunvor Nelson: Trollstenen
Pat O’Neill: Sidewinder’s Delta
James Otis: Ein Baum für die Engelmänner
Tom Palazzolo: Marquette Park
Sneakin’ and Peakin’ (Read the review)
Tom Patrick: Wednesday
Philip Perkins: Bright
Dan Perz: Cue
Amos Poe: The Blank Generation
Unmade Beds
Yvonne Rainer: Kristina Talking Pictures
Anthony Reveaux: Peace March
Jeffrey Noyes Scher: NYC
Rosalind Schneider: The Butterfly
Paul Sharits: Analytical Studies I: The Film Frame
Analytical Studies II: Un-Frame-Lines
Analytical Studies IV: Blank Color Frames
Epileptic Seizure Comparison
Tails
Steve Siegel: Ellis Island
John Smith: The Girl Chewing Gum
Michael Snow: Breakfast
Warren Sonbert: Rude Awakening
Alan Sondheim: Hudson+2
Barry Spinello: Three Lives: Counselling the Terminally Ill
Ernie Steck: Christmas 1972
Chick Strand: Cosas de Mi Vida
Elasticity
Guacamole
Mujer de Milfuegos (Woman of a Thousand Fires)
Leslie Thornton: All Right You Guys
Tyler Turkle: Cut
Walter Ungerer: The Animal
Chris Welsby: Stream Line
Doug Wendt: Evel and the Snake
Andrej Zdravic: Breath
Carbon Arc
Sunhopsoon
Peter Von Ziegesar: None Saved
Art Zipperer: Breath
Software
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Dear Mike,
Your “Underground series” is perfect ! Just one insignificant word. The first documentary investigation of the “Weather Underground” was the “Fall” by Peter Whitehead which is a 1969 production, this means 7 years before Emile De Antonio. The members of this group were still students while “The Fall” was shot. They became terrorists some years later.