Happy Birthday, Alexandr Hackenschmied! Born today in 1907 as Alexander Siegfried George Hackenschmied, this Czech-American editor, photographer, cinematographer and film director immigrated to the United States in 1938 and became involved in American avant-garde cinema.
Born in Linz, Austria-Hungary, Hackenschmied was the son of a school-teacher. Years later, in 1930, Hackenschmied created his first film.
This was the nine-minute 1930 Czech black and white documentary/short film 'Bezúčelná procházka' ('Aimless Walk'). The short eventually inaugurated the movement of avant-garde film in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic).
The same year, Hackenschmied also organized the Exhibition of New Czech Photography in the Aventinska Mansarda—a showcase for artists of the Aventinum publishing house in Prague—and the first show of European avant-garde films in the Kotva Cinema, also in Prague.
He also published a number of articles on photography and film, in which he formulated the new aesthetics of both fields.
Before emigrating from Czechoslovakia, Hackenschmied worked for the Baťa Film Studio in Zlín, founded by Czech shoe manufacturer Jan Antonín Baťa in the 1930s. The studio hired young filmmakers and artists to develop modern films, primarily for advertising.
While employed there, Hackenschmied made numerous advertising and documentary films. One of the most famous was directed by Czechoslovak film director Elmar Klos ('The Shop on Main Street') in the late 1930s.
After this, Hackenschmied moved to the United States. This was where he met and married Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker Eleanora Derenkowska in 1942.
Derenkivsky would eventually go on to be an important promoter of the avant-garde during the 1940s and 1950s. Hackenschmied later named her "Maya".
Sometime after Hackenschmied changed his name to Alexander Hammid when he became an American citizen the same year that he married Daren.
The following year, on budget of $275 ($4,180 today), the wife-and-husband team co-directed and starred in the film of which they are best known.
This was the eighteen-minute 1943 American black and white experimental fantasy/short film 'Meshes of the Afternoon'.
Shot by Hammid, this quietly strange home movie, although made by he and Deren, up until that point, had no prior experience in filmmaking.
Two years later, Hammid directed the twenty-minute 1945 American black and white documentary short film 'Library of Congress'.
The following year, it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Documentary. However, it didn't win. This occurred at the 18th Academy Awards in early March.
One year later, Hammid and Deren were divorced. Despite this, Hammid continued in making documentaries through the 1950s and 1960s.
The original print of 'Meshes of the Afternoon' had no musical accompaniment. However, a score influenced by classical Japanese music was added in 1959. This was by Deren's third and final husband, Japanese composer and performer Teiji Ito.
In the early 1960s, Hammid co-directed his final film, along with influential American film director, producer, and writer Francis Thompson.
This was the eighteen-minute 1964 American independent documentary short film 'To Be Alive!'.
Shot in color over an eighteen-month period, the film follows children transitioning into adulthood in various parts of the world. 'To Be Alive!' was made for a screening at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
The following year, the film won an Oscar for Best Documentary (Short Subject). This occurred at the 37th Academy Awards in early April.
Hammid afterwards continued working in partnership with Thompson for over twenty-five years, producing numerous “in-house” documentaries as well as several films for general viewership.
In 1990, 'Meshes of the Afternoon' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going into the registry in the second year of voting.
Seven years later, Austrian film director Martina Kudláček directed the forty-eight-minute 1997 Austrian/Czech documentary short film 'Aimless Walk - Alexander Hammid'. Featuring Hammid himself, the film was based on his own life and work.
In the early 2000s, Hammid passed in New York, New York on July 26, 2004. He was 96.
Two years later, MoMA organized a tribute film exhibition titled, "Alexander Hammid: A Memorial Salute" based on its film archives in 2006.
The Academy Film Archive has also preserved Hammid's 'Arturo Toscanini: Conducting Music of Giuseppe Verdi' (1944) and "Library of Congress' (1945), citing them as by Alexandr Hackenschmied.
In 2015, the BBC named 'Meshes of the Afternoon' the 40th greatest American movie ever made.
Hackenschmied's photographic work, though less well known here, is equally worthy of praise.
In it we see his dynamic conception of space--honed with years of experience as a cameraman and editor--and the combination of formal perfection with deep emotional resonance, the meeting of the artist's mind with the mind of the audience.
Hackenschmied had been active from 1930–1967.
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