Underground Film Yearbook: 1977
This is the seventh entry in my series of the underground film scene of the ’70s. You can follow the series here.
’77 was one of the decade’s quieter years of the underground film scene despite the raucous punk scene being on the verge of exploding into the film world of ’78. Amos Poe already directed the influential punk documentary The Blank Generation in ’76, but ’77 saw another smaller punk doc break into the scene: Ric Shore, Maggi Carson and Juliusz Kossakowski’s Punking Out, a film that chronicles a typical night at CBGB’s by catching bands in performance and fans in different states of inebriation. Alas, the short film has been little seen thanks to music rights issues holding up proper distribution.
The base of where one could go see experimental films in a theater devoted to them expanded into Canada at the Funnel Experimental Film Theatre, which operated from ’77 to ’89. Also, over in England, Perspectives on British Avant-Garde Film ran in March and April at the Hayward Gallery, London. The retrospective covered the underground scene from ’67 to ’77 and had sections devoted to expanded cinema performances and explored issues of narrative and the avant-garde. Plus, English underground filmmaker Malcolm Le Grice wrote the book Abstract Film and Beyond, which presented a history of experimental cinema.
On the midnight movie front, John Waters finished up his so-called “Trash Trilogy” with Desperate Living, his first feature film that he would make that didn’t star Divine. Waters also wouldn’t make another film until ’81’s Polyester. ’77 would also see the release of one of the most well-recognized midnight movies of all time: David Lynch’s Eraserhead.
Below is the list of films that I compiled with an official release date of 1977, 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.
Russell R. Adams: Objects for the Sleight of Hand
Signs and Wonders
Dominic Angerame: Neptunian Space Angel
Gordon Ball: About My House
Sitting
Daniel Barnett: Tenent
Scott Bartlett: Greenfield
Alan Baxter: Dakota
Alan Berliner: Color Wheel
Beth Block: Twelve
Stan Brakhage: The Domain of the Moment
The Governor
Soldiers and Other Cosmic Objects
Robert Breer: 77
Betzy Bromberg: Petit Mal
James Broughton & Joel Singer: Windowmobile
Song of the Godbody
Rudolph Burckhardt: Good Evening Everybody
Doris Chase: Dance 3
Dance 10
How Do You Feel?
Improvisation
Abigail Child: Some Exterior Presence
Peripeteia 1
Tom Chomont: Space Time Studies
Jim Clark: Scream King
Michael Connor: Zit Life
Robert Crawford: H20
Maya Deren: Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti
Gary Doberman: Trilog: Fisheries, The Rhyme, The Old
Domicile
John Dunkley-Smith: Train Fixation
Stephen Dwoskin: The Silent Cry
Jules Engel: Rumble
William Farley: The Bell Rang to an Empty Sky
Corwin Fergus: Dark Clouds Over the Lake, Lone Bird Flies North, Through the Rain
Hollis Frampton: Matrix
Dave Gearey: Monkey Dream
Ernie Gehr: Untitled
Peter Gidal: Silent Partner
Paul Glabicki: Dream 733
Victor Grauer: Portrait 2
George Griffin: Thumbnail Sketches
Block Print
Walter Gutman: Kay Rosaire & Her Lions
Barbara Hammer: The Great Goddess
Multiple Orgasm
Henry Hills: Porter Springs 3
Takahiko Iimura: Ma (Intervals)
One Frame Duration
Jim Jennings: Clothesline
Flip Johnson: Frankenstein Cries Out!
Lawrence Jordan: Cut-Out Animation: Larry Jordan
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Marjorie Keller: Misconception
The Web
Film Notebook: Part 2, Some of Us in the Mechanical Age
Tim Kennedy: Bus by the River, The / Revision / Hush
Vanishing Ends
Joanna Kiernan: Trilogy: Interval/Open & Shut/Narrative Moves
Ken Kobland: Frame
James Krell: Alpine Lookout #2
Ram’s Photo’s
Shame, Shame: Dallas Diary, 1964
Thank You/Your Receipt
Kurt Kren: 33/77: Keine Donau
34/77: Tschibo
Peter Kubelka: Pause!
George Kuchar: I, An Actress
KY Kapers
Wild Night in El Reno
Malcolm LeGrice: Academic Still Life (Cezanne)
Blackbird Descending (Tense Alignment)
Howard Lester: Slide Show
Saul Levine: Charlatan
Rambling Notes
David Lynch: Eraserhead
Babette Mangolte: The Camera: Je or La Camera I
Katrina Martin: A Family Passion
Ross McLaren: Crash ‘n’ Burn
Jeff McLaughlin: Exposure
Andy Moore: Day Then Night
J.J. Murphy: Movie Stills
Sheila Paige: A Film on Street Harassment
Tom Palazzolo: I Was a Contestant at Mother’s Wet T-Shirt Contest
Mike Quinn: El Kinko
The Residents: Third Reich and Roll
Peter Rose: Analogies
Ken Ross: Black Harmony, Hi-Fi
Rosalind Schneider: The Jeff Film
Steve Schuler: Five
Greg Sharits: Untitled No. 9
Paul Sharits: Declarative Mode
Guy Sherwin: Musical Stairs
Railings
Michael Siporin: Joking: No Laughing Matter
John Smith: Summer Diary
Hackney Marshes – November 4th 1977
Gardner
Ernie Steck: Japon
Tyler Turkle: A Quiet Afternoon With Strangers
John R. Tyndall, Jr.: Lamb of God
Willie Varela: Southwestern Diaries
John Waters: Desperate Living
Steven Weisberg: An Open Letter to the New York Times
Doug Wendt: Ron Amok (Dog Party)
Jacalyn L. White: Cetology
Footsteps
Radiation
Dorothy Wiley: The Birth of Seth Andrew Kinmont
Greg Yaskot: Perry Street Scenes
Snowstorm
A Year in Connecticut