Happy Birthday, Shirley Clarke! Born today in 1919 as Shirley Brimberg, this American editor and experimental and independent director was a filmmaker of many famous works.
Born in New York City, New York, Clarke's mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her sister was the American novelist, biographer, journalist, actress and playwright Elaine Dundy.
Clarke's interest in dance began at an early age, but met with the disapproval of her Polish-immigrant father. He had a fortune in manufacturing but was also a violent bully at home.
Years later, Clarke attended Stephens College, Johns Hopkins University, Bennington College, and University of North Carolina.
As a result of dance lessons at each of these schools, she trained under, most notably, the Martha Graham technique.
During this time, Clarke married American cinematographer Bert Clarke in 1944. This was to escape her father's control, so that she could study dance under the masters in New York City.
Clarke started her artistic career as a dancer in the New York avant-garde modern dance movement. She was an avid participant in dance lessons and performances at the Young Women's Hebrew Association.
Clarke later studied filmmaking with German painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer Hans Richter at the City College of New York.
In 1955, Clarke became a member of the Independent Filmmakers of America. She became part of a circle of independent filmmakers in Greenwich Village.
These included Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker Maya Deren ('Meshes of the Afternoon'), American non-narrative filmmaker Stan Brakhage ('Dog Star Man'), Lithuanian American filmmaker, poet and artist Jonas Mekas, and American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin.
In 1956, Clarke and Bert were divorced. Two years later, Clarke directed the four-minute 1958 American experimental short film 'Bridges Go-Round'.
Shot in color, the short is a major example of abstract expressionism in film, with two alternative soundtracks, one with electronic music by American electronic music pioneers Louis and Bebe Barron.
The other consisted of jazz created by American jazz saxophonist, composer and record producer Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero.
In the film, Clarke had used the camera to create a sense of motion while filming inanimate structures.
The following year, Clarke co-produced and directed the twenty-one-minute 1959 American black and white documentary short film 'Skyscraper'.
Mainly shot in 1958, the short film captures the construction of 666 Fifth Avenue which began in 1957. The short film also includes shots of the Roxy Theatre which was demolished the year that 'Skyscraper' was released.
Upon release, 'Skyscraper' also went on to win many other festival prizes. Clarke had said the film was a musical comedy regarding the skyscraper's construction.
One year later, Clarke received an Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects. This occurred at the 32nd Academy Awards in early April 1960.
However, Clarke was not particular pleased to be nominated for an Oscar by an institution of which she had little respect for.
Later, when French screenwriter, film director, producer, author, artist and occasional actor Roger Vadim tried to draw her into mainstream, she retorted with the following:
"What Roger wanted was for me to be twenty-two years old. I realized that he didn't have any idea who the f*** I was... He wanted me to shoot his script, each scene in wide, medium and close-up so that later on he could edit it.
For me to make a cheapy film I didn't respect with a script I didn't like, without the right to at least do it the way I want, for God's sakes, that's insane."
In the early 1960s, Clarke lectured frequently, speaking at theaters and museums. During this time, she co-produced and directed her first feature film.
This was the 1961 American black and white drama/independent film 'The Connection', featuring African-American actors Carl Lee and Roscoe Lee Browne.
While filming 'The Connection', Lee fell in love with its Clarke. Afterwards. their relationship lasted almost thirty years until Lee's death.
The Connection' was a landmark for the emergence of a New York independent feature film movement. It heralded a new style that employed greater cinematic realism and addressed relevant social issues in black-and-white low-budget films.
It was also important because Clarke deliberately made the film as a test case in a successful fight to abolish New York State's censorship rules.
The film served as a commentary on the failures of cinema verité. It is meant to appear to document the spontaneous interactions of a contemporary, specific lifestyle (Bohemian New York of the early 1960s).
However, it is in reality a carefully scripted film. Clarke had cast Lee to co-star because they were already in a long-term romantic relationship.
Unfortunately for Clarke, The Connection' was subsequently shut down and banned in New York State following complaints of indecency, based on a shot that included a pornographic magazine and a word deemed obscene.
At the time, New York State only permitted films to be publicly screened if they received a license from the State's board of censors.
Another attempt was made to publicly screen the film a year later, only for it to be shut down again by the police, as the filmmakers still did not have a licence from the State's board of censors.
Following these incidents, critical reviews of 'The Connection' became predominantly negative. The negative reviews and scandal made it difficult for Clarke to organize funding and distribution for her next film projects.
In 1962, Clarke co-founded The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York City. Also known as The New American Cinema Group, this was an artist-run, non-profit organization.
The firm was also co-founded by Brakhage, Mekas, Rogosin, American experimental filmmaker Gregory Markopoulos, American experimental filmmaker Lloyd Michael Williams and other filmmakers to distribute avant-garde films.
The following year, Clarke directed the forty-one-minute 1963 American black and white biography/documentary short film 'Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World'.
Starring American poet Robert Frost, the short later won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in at the 35th Academy Awards in April of that same year.
In September of that same year, Clarke edited, wrote and directed another feature film of which she is best known. This was the 1963 American black and white drama/crime film 'The Cool World'.
Based off of the eponymous 1959 novel by American writer Warren Miller, he and American screenwriter, film director and producer Robert Rossen ('The Hustler') turned it into a stage play in 1960.
'The Cool World' was the first film to be produced by American filmmaker, documentarian, and theater director Frederick Wiseman ('High School').
Set in Harlem, the film follows Duke Custus (Hampton Clanton), a fifteen-year-old member of the local gang The Royal Pythons. His naive inner monologue narrates that he needs a gun in order to survive on the streets, so he visits a local pimp named Priest (Carl Lee).
Utilizing first-time actors and true-life ghettos for scenery, Clarke's devastating semi-documentary dramatizes the life of young gang bangers in 1960s Harlem and transcends its narrative to deliver a vivid picture of inner-city life.
On shooting 'The Cool World', Clarke said: “When I got to Hollywood, all the movie moguls claimed to be astounded by the reality of my films. How did I do it? And I’d say, “Well, it wasn’t hard to make Harlem look like Harlem”.”
Four years later, Clarke edited, produced, directed and provided voiceover for her feature-length interview with a gay black hustler. This was in her landmark 1967 American black and white/experimental documentary film 'Portrait of Jason'.
The film had been edited from twelve hours of interview footage and shot in the living room of Clarke's Hotel Chelsea penthouse apartment.
'Portrait of Jason' eventually received wide press coverage in the United States, but "except for the smaller, esoteric publications", reviewers were generally negative.
Criticism tended to focus on Clarke's supposed "morbid viewpoint and the lack of production polish".
Nonetheless, Ingmar Bergman himself called 'Portrait of Jason' "the most extraordinary film I've seen in my life."
'Portrait of Jason' was later distributed by the Film-Makers Distribution Center. Co-founded by Clarke in 1966, this distributor closed in 1970 due to a lack of funds.
After 'Portrait of Jason', Clarke's reputation languished for many years, during a period when she was "marginalized, written out of histories and dismissed as a dilettante". However, there has been renewed interest in her filmmaking in the past several years.
Although Clarke did not explore feminist themes overtly in her films, feminist struggles can be interpreted through the subtext of her works.
In the film, African-American male prostitute and aspiring cabaret performer Jason L. Holiday recounts his disturbing but fascinating life story for Clarke. Upon release, 'Portrait of Jason' became a selection of the 5th New York Film Festival.
In 1994, 'The Cool World' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Today, the film is considered by some critics to be the first film within the Blaxploitation genre.
As of 2012, Clark's films are still being screened at the IFC Center in New York City, and are being released as a series of DVDs. Her features have recently been described as "films considered essential works of New American Cinema".
In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected 'Portrait of Jason' for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The American independent film distribution company Milestone Films undertook "Project Shirley", an in-depth, eight-year project to release restored versions of many of Clarke's films on DVD and Blu-ray, preceded by limited theatrical runs.
American film critic Manohla Dargis for The New York Times wrote of Clarke: "DANCER, bride, runaway wife, radical filmmaker and pioneer — Shirley Clarke is one of the great undertold stories of American independent cinema."
Clarke could make so many different kinds of moving images partly because of how she understood the self as a fluid entity.
She herself can be considered a marginal figure—a maker of form-bursting hybrid films whose feature-length landmarks have fallen out of circulation for decades pre-Milestone, and who even today lacks a single book-length study of her work.
For her, art threw life into relief as a game to be played, with its many different pieces given spark by a simple box.
Clarke had been active from 1951–1986.
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