Tone Glow Presents Stan Brakhage’s Pittsburgh Trilogy

June 19th, 7:00pm-9:00pm

Tickets:

$15 GA Presale

$10 Student Presale (Use code STUDENT at checkout)

$10 IMSS Member Presale (Use code IMSSMEMBER at checkout)

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$20 at Door

$15 Student at Door

$15 IMSS Member at Door

Tone Glow is excited to announce a special screening of Stan Brakhage’s Pittsburgh Trilogy, a collection of films by the American avant-garde filmmaker that is centered around civic institutions and spaces, including policing (Eyes), a hospital (Deus Ex), and a morgue (The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes). Created in the early 1970s, these works are removed from the abstract, symbolic, and interior worlds that define much of the filmmaker’s practice and are instead documentaries that depict what he called “outerscapes.” Incisive and unsparing, these films provide a look into different professions that were, at the time in America, rarely filmed at such length and in close proximity, especially by an experimental filmmaker.

Brakhage has noted that Eyes was screened by the Black Panthers in Chicago as a way “to show what pigs the police are” but also by cops themselves, as they thought it revealed them to be “kind and gentle.” Deus Ex was inspired by the many experiences Brakhage had while ill at hospitals, including one incident where he, in an emergency room, held himself together by reading Charles Olson’s “Cole’s Island” from a 1965 issue of Chicago’s Poetry magazine. The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes was filmed at the Allegheny Coroner’s Office in downtown Pittsburgh, and utilizes an aesthetic structure meant to help viewers “accept what they’re shown, so they can continue to watch.” While it was a difficult film for Brakhage to make, he stated that it also shows that “there are wondrous landscapes inside body, and it’s a terrain that, yes, we need to see.”

The films in the program will be screened on 16mm prints courtesy of Canyon Cinema. These works feature graphic images of blood, viscera, death, open-heart surgery, and autopsy. Viewer discretion is advised. Thank you to Ben Creech for projecting the films.

Program:

1. Eyes (1970, color, silent, 33 mins)

2. Deus Ex (1971, color, silent, 35 mins)

3. The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (1971, color, silent, 32 mins)

Total Runtime = 100 mins

Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) is one of the most important and influential figures in the history of avant-garde film. With hundreds of films to his name, Brakhage utilized a variety of techniques—from contact printing to painting directly on to celluloid—that would explore “birth, sex, death, and the search for God.” His films eschewed traditional narrative and rarely contained soundtracks, opting instead for visceral viewing experiences that highlighted the richness and infinitude of the foundational elements of cinema. Brakhage taught film history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1969-1976.

Tone Glow is a publication dedicated to avant-garde music and film founded by Joshua Minsoo Kim. Alongside interviews and criticism, Tone Glow hosts film screenings around Chicago.