Underground Film Yearbook: 1978
This is the eighth entry in my series of the underground film scene of the ’70s. You can follow the series here.
Underground filmmaking exploded out of NYC’s Lower East Side in 1978 with what’s generally called the “No Wave” movement, although some also use the term “New Cinema.” Actually, all of the arts — e.g. painting, music, filmmaking — collided and many artists worked in a multidisciplinary fashion. One example in particular is James Nares, who painted, drummed for the Del-Byzanteens with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and directed the influential Rome ’78.
Nares was also one of the founding members of Collaborative Projects, more commonly known as Colab, a collective of around forty artists that organized different performances, art shows and film screenings. Another Colab filmmaker was Eric Mitchell, a French filmmaker who directed Kidnapped in ’78. Another major No Wave figure, Amos Poe directed his second fictional feature, The Foreigner.
’78 also saw several films from the then-married team of Beth B. & Scott B., who made G-Man, Black Box and Letters to Dad, which were early precursors to the Cinema of Transgression movement that was proclaimed by Nick Zedd in the early ’80s.
The No Wave was also big on TV via two popular public access programs. One was All Color News, which was produced by Colab members and featured a combination of documentary and fictional presentations. Also, entertainment journalist Glenn O’Brien launched TV Party on Dec. 18. The show was structured like a typical late-night program, but done in the popular, chaotic, no-budget No Wave style with O’Brien acting as host, interviewing various Lower East Side art personalities, answering calls from New Yorkers and introducing punk musical acts. Most episodes of TV Party were directed by Amos Poe and several filmmakers appeared as guests and showed clips from their films. BrinkDVD is currently putting out a selection of episodes on disc. I reviewed an early episode here.
Lastly, in NYC, the Millenium Film Workshop, which hosted underground film screenings and provided services to filmmakers since the late ’60s, published the first issue of the Millenium Film Journal, which is still published annually today. The first issue included the article “Autobiography in Avant-Garde Film” by popular underground film historian P. Adams Sitney; plus an interview with filmmaker Ken Jacobs conducted by David Shapiro.
Outside of New York, Craig Baldwin directed his first 16mm film, Wild Gunman. Baldwin would eventually become a major figure in the avant-garde film world for his collage narrative filmmaking techniques, but also for founding the Other Cinema screening series in San Francisco.
Below is the list of films that I compiled with an official release date of 1978, 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: The Big Waltz
Gary Adlestein: Cat’s Eyes
Kosher
Sara Kathryn Arledge: Interior Garden
Tender Images
Beth B. & Scott B.: G-Man
Black Box
Letters to Dad
Bruce Baillie: Roslyn Romance (Is It Really True): Intro 1 & 2
Craig Baldwin: Wild Gunman
Gordon Ball: Father Movie
Prothalamion
Daniel Barnett: The Chinese Typewriter
Stephanie Beroes: Recital
Les Blank: Always For Pleasure
Beth Block: The Lovers
Stan Brakhage: Bird
Burial Path
Centre
Duplicity
Duplicity II
Nightmare Series
Purity, and After
Sincerity III
Sluice
Thot-Fal’N
23rd Psalm Branch: Part I
23rd Psalm Branch: Part II
Bill Brand: Works in the Field
Robert Breer: LMNO
Betzy Bromberg: Ciao Bella
Rudolph Burckhardt: Alex Katz Painting
Niccolo Caldararo: The Payment of Teresa Videla
Gail Camhi: Bellevue Film
Doris Chase: Dance Frame
Abigail Child: Daylight Test Section
Peripeteia 2
Tom Chomont: The Heavens/Earth
Michael Connor: Dirt
Sandra Davis: Soma
Herbert Jean deGrasse: Salivation of Professor Bizarrov
Vivienne Dick: Guerillere Talks
She Had Her Gun All Ready
Gary Doberman: The Moieties
The Moth-Eyed Man
Nimbus
Victor Faccinto: Book of Dead
Corwin Fergus: November Sketches
Mary Filippo: I’m in Heaven
Janice Findley: Tripletime
Holly Fisher: Chickenstew
From the Ladies
This Is Montage
Bob Fleischner: Paradise
Dave Gearey: Chet’s Garage
Joe Gibbons: Spying
Peter Gidal: 4th Wall
Paul Glabicki: Diagram Film
Joseph Glin: Endymion
Larry Gottheim: Four Shadows
Victor Grauer: Composition 1
Portrait 5
Amy Greenfield: Videotape for a Woman and a Man
Vincent Grenier: Interieur Interiors (to A.K.)
George Griffin: Block Print
Red Grooms: Little Red Riding Hood
Pat Gruben: The Central Character
Walter Gutman: The Erotic Signal
Howard Guttenplan: European Diary
Amy Halpern: Cigarette Burn
Barbara Hammer: Double Strength
Eggs
Home
Sappho
Isa Hesse-Rabinovich: Julie From Ohio
Henry Hills: North Beach
Solrun Hoaas: At Edge
Effacement
J. Hoberman: Broken Honeymoon #3
Mission to Mongo
Nancy Holt: Sun Tunnels
Chuck Hudina: Howie
Robert Huot: Fades and Close-Ups
Takahiko Iimura: Ma: A Japanese Concept
Sync Sound
Ken Jacobs: The Doctor’s Dream
Nora Jacobson: Inside Out
Derek Jarman: Jubilee
Jim Jennings: Chambers
Chinatown
Flip Johnson: Wild Animals in the Zoo
Lawrence Jordan: Visions of a City
Ancestors
Cornell, 1965
Lisa Kaplan: Healing Process
Marjorie Keller: On the Verge of an Image of Christmas
Lynn Marie Kirby: C.C. Beam Goes for a Walk
John Knecht: The Primary Concerns of Roy G. Biv
Bill Knowland: Implosions
Ken Kobland: Vestibule (in 3 Episodes)
Picking up the Pieces/3 Mis-Takes
Karen Kramer: The Jolo Serpent Handlers
Alexis Krasilovsky: Mr. Boogie Woogie
James Krell: All Area
Alpine Lookout #3
Kay Serra Serra/The Mirrors (New Paltz Diary, 1975)
Kurt Kren: 36/78: Rischart
37/78: Tree Again
Lee Krugman: 3 Views
P. M.
George Kuchar: Forever and Always
The Mongreloid
Saul Levine: Not Even a Note
Time to Go to Work
Janis Crystal Lipzin: The Bladderwort Document
Visible Inventory Six: Motel Dissolve
Rose Lowder: Roulement, rouerie, aubage
Babette Mangolte: Water Motor
Katrina Martin: Silkscreen
Tyrone, PA.
Deborah Meehan: Former Prairie
Jonas Mekas: In Between: 1964-68
Notes for Jerome
Toney Merritt: Fall Works
Green Mountain
Just a Thought
Eric Mitchell: Kidnapped
Andy Moore: Room List
Sound and Vision, Station to Station
Deanna Morse: Starcycle
Richard Myers: Floorshow
James Nares: Rome ’78
Pat O’Neill: Foregrounds
Sleeping Dogs (Never Lie)
Fred Padula: El Capitan
Philip Perkins: Time Passes
Works on Paper
Suzan Pitt: Asparagus
Amos Poe: The Foreigner
Robert Rayher: A Man in the Box
Still Life #1: Cherries
D.J. Romino: Hollow Vale
Jeffrey Noyes Scher: Aria Striata
Rick Schmidt: 1988 – The Remake
Steve Schuler: Uncle Bill’s
Paul Sharits: Episodic Generation
Esther Shatavsky: After Dinner Science
Fishs Eddy
Daniel Singelenberg: Lover
Single Spark Films: Mao Tse-Tung, the Greatest Revolutionary of Our Time
John Smith: Hackney Marshes
7P
Warren Sonbert: Divided Loyalties
Anita Thacher: Sea Travels
Tyler Turkle: Lincoln Logs for Jesus
Willie Varela: Albuquerque Diary
Two Rolls
Victor Vondracek: Mr. Guest Meets Dr. Fake
Mrs. Wong
Revenge of Mr. Guest
Grahame Weinbren: Murray & Max Talk About Money
Kim Worden: Marie
Greg Yaskot: Parker Mill
Andrej Zdravic: Via Sound
Peter Von Ziegesar: Who Shall Remain Nameless