Avant-Garde Masters Grants
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Samuel Beckett’s FILM (1965, preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive), directed by Alan Schneider and starring Buster Keaton. CLICK HERE for more images.
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While art lovers throng to museum exhibitions of paintings by Jackson Pollock and Keith Haring, few know of the experimental works made by artists who brought a similar cutting edge to film. Even at the time, the films were difficult to see. Made on a shoestring, the works were rarely protected by back-up copies. Few prints were made. Over the past decades, as video has replaced 16mm projection, many avant-garde classics have dropped from view.
In 2003 The Film Foundation joined forces with the National Film Preservation Foundation to create the Avant-Garde Masters Grants, the first grant program targeting the preservation of masterworks of American experimental cinema. The awards have made it possible for filmmakers to partner with archives to preserve their works as they were intended to be seen. Each grant not only protects the film with a new preservation master but also provides for new copies for study and exhibition. Funding is provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
In 20 years of grantmaking, the Avant-Garde Masters have saved 234 films by 91 filmmakers. Thirty-four organizations have participated, making the newly preserved prints available for study and sharing them with hundreds of exhibition venues. “There's no other program of its kind,” writes Martin Scorsese, who began the initiative through seed money from The Film Foundation. “The work of such artists as George Kuchar, Shirley Clark, and Kenneth Anger has been preserved and—equally important—made available so audiences can actually see these extraordinary films.”
Let’s salute the filmmakers celebrated through grants:
Peggy Ahwesh
- Nocturne (1998, Anthology Film Archives)
Kenneth Anger
- Rabbit's Moon (1950–70, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Tatsu Aoki
- 3725 (1981, Chicago Film Society)
- Dream Works (1983, Chicago Film Society)
- Harmony (1991, Chicago Film Society)
- Rapturous (1984, Chicago Film Society)
Scott Bartlett and Freude
- Stand Up and Be Counted (1969, Pacific Film Archive)
Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider
- Film (1965, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Jordan Belson
- Phenomena (1965, Center for Visual Music)
- Re-entry (1964, Center for Visual Music)
Ricardo Bloch and Sally Dixon
- Phototropism (1985, Walker Art Center)
David Brooks
- Nightspring Daystar (1964, Anthology Film Archives)
- Winter ’64–’66 (1966, Anthology Film Archives)
James Broughton and Sidney Peterson
- The Potted Psalm (1946, Anthology Film Archives)
Rudy Burckhardt
- The Climate of New York (1948, Anthology Film Archives)
- One Flight Up (1969, Anthology Film Archives)
Fred Camper
- A Sense of the Past (1967, Northwest Chicago Film Society)
- Welcome to Come (1968, Northwest Chicago Film Society)
Robert Chatterton
- Passion in a Seaside Slum (1961, Los Angeles Filmforum)
Abigail Child
- Mutiny (1982–83, Harvard Film Archive)
- Pacific Far East Line (1979, Harvard Film Archive)
- Peripeteia I (1977, Harvard Film Archive)
- Peripeteia II (1978, Harvard Film Archive)
- Prefaces (1981, Harvard Film Archive)
Tom Chomont
- Abda (1974, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Aria (1970, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- The Cat Lady (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Earth (1978, UCLA Film &
- Epilogue (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Gloria in the Glass (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- The Heavens (1977, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Jabbock (1967, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Joe's Maison (1984, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Lijn II (1972, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Love Objects (1971, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- The Mirror Garden (1967, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Oblivion (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Ophelia (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- A Persian Rug (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Phases of the Moon: The Parapsychology of Everyday Life (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Portret (1970, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Rebirth (1974, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Siam (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Space Time Studies (1977, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
- Untitled (1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Shirley Clarke
- 24 Frames Per Second (1977, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research)
Shirley Clarke and Wendy Clarke
- Butterfly (1967, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research)
Shirley Clarke and Robert Hughes
- A Scary Time (1960, Museum of Modern Art)
Bruce Conner
- America is Waiting (1981, Anthology Film Archives)
- Cosmic Ray (1961, Anthology Film Archives)
- Mea Culpa (1981, Anthology Film Archives)
- Report (1963–67, Anthology Film Archives)
- Ten Second Film (1965, Anthology Film Archives)
Cathy Cook
- The Match That Started My Fire (1992, Film-Makers’ Cooperative)
Joseph Cornell
- Collage Fragments (1940s?, Museum of Modern Art)
Donna Deitch
- Portrait (1971, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Nathaniel Dorsky
- Alaya (1976–87, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive)
- Ariel (1983, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive)
- Pneuma (1977–83, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive)
Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler
- Fool’s Spring: Two Personal Gifts (1966–67, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive)
Allen Downs
- The Color of the Day (1955, Walker Art Center)
- Love Shots (1971, Walker Art Center)
JoAnn Elam
- 7/4/77 (1977, Chicago Film Archives)
- Blizzard of '79 (1979, Chicago Film Archives)
- A Country Mile (ca. 1973, Chicago Film Archives)
- Garden and Joe (ca. 1980, Chicago Film Archives)
- Joe Cutting Tree (ca. 1980, Chicago Film Archives)
- Memphremagog (ca. 1973, Chicago Film Archives)
Ed Emshwiller
- Interupted Solitude/Soledad Interrumpida (1975, California Institute of the Arts)
Oskar Fischinger
- Raumlichtkunst (1926–29, Center for Visual Music)
Hollis Frampton
- (nostalgia) (1971, Museum of Modern Art)
Freude
- Promise Her Anything But Give Her the Kitchen Sink (1969, Pacific Film Archive)
- Shooting Star (1970, Pacific Film Archive)
- Sweet Dreams (1971, Pacific Film Archive)
Freude and Gunvor Nelson
- One & the Same (1973, Pacific Film Archive)
Ernie Gehr
- Side/Walk/Shuttle (1991, Museum of Modern Art)
Larry Gottheim
- Barn Rushes (1971, New York Public Library)
- Blues (1969, New York Public Library)
- Doorway (1970, New York Public Library)
- Horizons (1971–73, New York Public Library)
- Your Television Traveler (1991, Binghamton University)
Barbara Hammer
- Audience (1983, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Double Strength (1978, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Dream Age (1979, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Jane Brakhage (1974, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Menses (1974, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Multiple Orgasm (1977, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Psychosynthesis (1975, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Superdyke (1975, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Truth is the Daughter of Time (1975, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Women I Love (1976, Electronic Arts Intermix)
Tessa Hughes-Freeland and Tommy Turner
- Rat Trap (1985, New York University)
Ian Hugo
- Ai-Ye (1950, Library of Congress)
- Bells of Atlantis (1953, Library of Congress)
- Jazz of Lights (1954, Library of Congress)
- Melodic Inversions (1958, Library of Congress)
Ken Jacobs
- Binghamton, My India (1969, SUNY Binghamton)
- The Doctor's Dream (1978, SUNY Binghamton)
- Globe (1971, Anthology Film Archives)
Roger Jacoby
- Dream Sphinx Opera (1973, Pacific Film Archive)
- How to Be a Homosexual Part I (1980, Pacific Film Archive)
- How to Be a Homosexual Part II (1982, Pacific Film Archive)
- L’Amico Fried’s Glamorous Friends (1976, Pacific Film Archive)
Karen Johnson
- Orange (1970, Pacific Film Archive)
Joan Jonas
- Songdelay (1973, Anthology Film Archives)
- Wind (1968, Anthology Film Archives)
Marjorie Keller
- Daughters of Chaos (1980, Anthology Film Archives)
- Part IV: Green Hill (ca. 1986, Anthology Film Archives)
- She/Va (1973, Anthology Film Archives)
George Kuchar
- Anita Needs Me (1963, Anthology Film Archives)
- Asphalt Ribbon (1977, Harvard Film Archive)
- Motel Capri (1986, Harvard Film Archive)
- One Night a Week (1978, Harvard Film Archive)
- Power of the Press (1977, Harvard Film Archive)
- Sylvia's Promise (1962, Anthology Film Archives)
- The Thief and the Stripper (1959, Anthology Film Archives)
- A Town Called Tempest (1963, Anthology Film Archives)
Mike Kuchar
- Born of the Wind (1961, Anthology Film Archives)
- The Confessions of Babette (1963, Anthology Film Archives)
- Green Desire (1965, Anthology Film Archives)
Kuchar Brothers
- I Was a Teenage Rumpot (1960, Anthology Film Archives)
- Night of the Bomb (1962, Anthology Film Archives)
- The Slasher (1958, Anthology Film Archives)
- A Woman Distressed (1962, Anthology Film Archives)
Owen Land/George Landow
- Film in Which There Appear Sprocket Holes, Edge Lettering, Dirt Particles, Etc. (1966, Anthology Film Archives)
- A Film of Their 1973 Spring Tour Commissioned by Christian World Liberation Front of Berkeley, CA (1974, Anthology Film Archives)
- Institutional Quality (1967, Anthology Film Archives)
Kathleen Laughlin
- Opening/Closing (1972, Walker Art Center)
Richard Leacock and Ed Pincus
- Centerbeam (1977, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Jesse Lerner
- Ruins (1999, XFR Collective)
Saul Levine
- Notes of an Early Fall (1976, The Flaherty)
Norman Mailer
- Untitled (1947, University of Texas at Austin)
George Manupelli
- Dr. Chicago (1970, Anthology Film Archives)
Gregory Markopoulos
- Eniaios: Cycle V (1948–90, Temenos)
- Eniaios: Cycle VII (1948–90, Temenos)
- Twice a Man (1963, Temenos)
Heather McAdams
- Meet...Bradley Harrison Picklesimer (1988, Chicago Film Society)
Barbara McCullough
- Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (1979, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Jonas Mekas
- Lost Lost Lost (1976, Anthology Film Archives)
Flora Mock
- Paper Moon (1949, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Montage Productions (Richard Grove, Richard J. Meyer, Wayne Sourbeer)
- Montage I: Paint and Painter (ca. 1959, George Eastman House)
- Montage II: Ephemeral Blue (ca. 1960, George Eastman House)
- Montage IV: The Garden of Eden (1962, George Eastman House)
- Montage V: How to Play Pinball (1963, George Eastman House)
Julie Murray
- FF (1986, Bard College)
- Tr'cheot'my P'sy (1988, Bard College)
- A Legend of Parts (1988, Bard College)
- Conscious (1993, Bard College)
Gunvor Nelson
- My Name is Oona (1969, Pacific Film Archive)
Edward Owens
- Autre fois, j’ai aimé une femme (Once I Loved a Woman) (1966, Chicago Film Society)
- Private Imaginings and Narrative Facts (1968, Chicago Film Society)
- Remembrance: A Portrait Study (1967, Chicago Film Society)
- Tomorrow’s Promise (1967, Chicago Film Society)
Tom Palazzolo
- America's in Real Trouble (1967, Chicago Filmmakers)
- Bride Stripped Bare (1967, Chicago Filmmakers)
- Caligari's Cure (1982, Chicago Film Archives)
- He (1967, Chicago Filmmakers)
- O (1967, Chicago Filmmakers)
- Tattoed Lady (1968–69, Chicago Filmmakers)
Marguerite Paris
- 1970 Gay Pride Parade (1991, Mix NYC)
- Burma Road (1977, Mix NYC)
Alice Anne Parker
- I Change I Am the Same (1969, Pacific Film Archive)
Sidney Peterson
- The Cage (1948, Anthology Film Archives)
- The Petrified Dog (1948, Anthology Film Archives)
Jorge Prelorán
- Claudia (1972–73, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution)
Luther Price
- Green (1988, Bard College)
Mark Rappaport
- Local Color (1977, George Eastman House)
- Mozart in Love (1975, George Eastman House)
Ron Rice
- Senseless (1962, Anthology Film Archives)
Larry Rivers
- Tits (1969, Larry Rivers Foundation)
José Rodriguez Saltero
- Dialogue with Ché (1968, Film-Makers’ Cooperative)
Ed Ruscha
- The Books of Ed Ruscha (ca. 1969, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Carolee Schneemann
- Body Collage (1967, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Illinois Central Transposed (1968, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Meat Joy (1964, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Snows (1967, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Plumb Line (1968–71, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Red News (1966, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Viet-Flakes (1965, Electronic Arts Intermix)
- Water Light/Water Needle (1966, Electronic Arts Intermix)
Lillian Schwartz
- Enigma (1972, Ohio State University)
- Mutations (1972, Ohio State University)
- Olympiad (1971, Ohio State University)
- Papillons (1976, Ohio State University)
- Pixillation (1970, Ohio State University)
Paul Sharits
- Analytical Studies III: Color Frame Passages (1973–74, Anthology Film Archives)
- Analytical Studies IV: Blank Color Frames (1975–76, Anthology Film Archives)
Beryl Sokoloff
- Gaudi (1962, SilverBow Art)
Frank Stauffacher
- Notes on the Port of St. Francis (1951, Pacific Film Archive)
Aldo Tambellini
- BLACK IS (1965, Harvard Film Archive)
- BLACK TRIP #1 (1965, Harvard Film Archive)
- BLACK PLUS X (1966, Harvard Film Archive)
- BLACKOUT (1966, Harvard Film Archive)
- BLACK 67 (1967, Harvard Film Archive)
- SUNBLACK (1968, Harvard Film Archive)
- BLACK TV (1968, Harvard Film Archive)
- BLACK TRIP #2 (1969, Harvard Film Archive)
- MOONBLACK (1969, Harvard Film Archive)
- BLACK SPIRAL (1969, Harvard Film Archive)
Tommy Turner
- Simonland (1984, New York University)
USCO Collective
- Y (1963, Intermedia Foundation)
Stan VanDerBeek
- BreathDeath (1963, Film-Makers' Cooperative)
- A Dam Rib Bed (1964, Film-Makers' Cooperative)
- Home and Dome (1965, Museum of Modern Art)
- See Saw Seems (1965, Film-Makers' Cooperative)
- Skullduggery Part 2 (1960, Film-Makers' Cooperative)
- What Who How (1957, Film-Makers' Cooperative)
- Wheeeels No. 1 (1958, Film-Makers' Cooperative)
- Wheeeels No. 2 (1958, Film-Makers' Cooperative)
Natalka Voslakov
- Time Capsule with True Bird Flight (1982, Pittsburgh Sound + Image)
Slavko Vorkapich
- Moods of the Sea (1942, UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Michael Wallin
- Black Sheep Boy (1995, Canyon Cinema Foundation)
- Decodings (1988, Canyon Cinema Foundation)
Judith Wardwell
- Plastic Blag (1968, Pacific Film Archive)
Andy Warhol
- Face (1965, Andy Warhol Museum)
- Jill and Freddy Dancing (1963, Andy Warhol Museum)
- Jill Johnston Dancing (1964, Andy Warhol Museum)
- Six Short Films (1963, Andy Warhol Museum)
- Tiger Morse (1966, Andy Warhol Museum)
- The Velvet Underground in Boston (1967, Andy Warhol Museum)
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)
- Animation Mona Lisa (ca. 1955–59, Anthology Film Archives)
- Assorted Scenes and Kaleidoscope (ca. 1955–59, Anthology Film Archives)
- BOAC and Assorted Scenes (ca. 1955–59, Anthology Film Archives)
- Cocktail Party (ca. 1946–50, Anthology Film Archives)
- The Idiot Box (ca. 1966, Anthology Film Archives)
Lawrence Weiner
- Altered to Suit (1979, Electronic Arts Intermix)
Josie Winship
- Bird Lady vs. the Galloping Gonads (1976, Pacific Film Archive)
Jud Yalkut
- Ghost Rev (1963, Intermedia Foundation)
- Planes (1968, Trisha Brown Dance Company)