Date: 5 May 2006 | Season: Robert Nelson
ROBERT NELSON: RAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA
5—9 May 2006
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Born in San Francisco, 1930. Graduated from San Francisco State College and studied at California School of Fine Arts and Mills College. Taught at San Francisco Art Institute (1965-69), CalArts (1971-73) and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1978-94). Trained as a painter affiliated to the San Francisco funk art movement and began making films in 1961. An intensely productively period from 1965-67 resulted in 16 films including Oh Dem Watermelons (1965) and The Great Blondino (1967, with William T. Wiley). Nelson’s films have won prizes at Chicago (1965), Oberhausen (1966), Knokke-Le-Zoute (1967) and Ann Arbor (1998), and are in collections worldwide including the Smithsonian Institute, MoMA, National Library of Australia and Centre Pompidou. Withdrew all titles from distribution in the 1990s and began to re-edit several early films. In 2002, Robert Nelson was awarded the Phelan Art Award in Film for his works, many of which are being preserved by the Academy Film Archive. This is his first ever retrospective in Europe.
PROGRAMME NOTES
ROBERT NELSON: RAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA
5—9 May 2006
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Oberhausen 2006: For this special occasion only I have borrowed (appropriated), and personalized with my own initials, the title of an 80 year old silent film masterpiece by Dziga Vertov. When I first saw Man With The Movie Camera, I hadn’t yet dreamed of becoming a filmmaker. It was just a movie that treated my eyes and made me want more. Eye-candy with nourishment. Almost like being able to see music. It made a deep impression. Inspiration not named as such at the time; inspiration in retrospect.
No Method
It shows what can’t be seen
It sounds what can’t be heard
No art
No beauty s
No language of literature
No language of theater
No documentation
No narrative
No story
No message
No script
Step aside
the movie makes itself
“no method” can’t be taught
only discovered
if you’re lucky
and if you’ve paid the price
like ol’ D.V.
Blindfolded in the dark
He hits the nail on the head
Easy*
no problem.
Improv start to finish
not a note missed
—RAN
(the “A” stands for Andrew)
Oberhausen 2006
*“The Creative is always strong, decided, real, hence it meets with no difficulties. It always remains true to itself; hence its effortlessness. [It] shows to men the easy.”
I Ching Wilhelm/Baynes edition
Robert Nelson filmography
1961 Building Muir Beach House (with Gunvor Nelson)
1962 Last Week at Oona’s Bath (with Gunvor Nelson)
The Mystery of Amelia Air-Heart Solved!
1963 Plastic Haircut (with Ron Davis, Robert Hudson, William T. Wiley & Steve Reich, re-edit 1999 & 2003)
King Ubu (lost)
1965 Oh Dem Watermelons
Sixty Lazy Dogs (re-edit 1999, destroyed 2001)
Confessions of a Black Mother-Succuba
The Population Explosion Motorcycle Horse (audiotape)
Thick Pucker (re-edit 1999, destroyed 2002)
1966 Oily Peloso the Pumph Man (re-edit 1999)
1967 Grateful Dead (alternate version 1975)
Hot Leatherette
The Great Blondino (with William T. Wiley)
The Great Blondino Preview (with William T. Wiley)
The Off-Handed Jape (with William T. Wiley)
Penny Bright and Jimmy Witherspoon (re-edit 1999)
Half-Open and Lumpy (re-edit 1999)
Superspread (re-edit 1999, destroyed 2000)
The Awful Backlash (with William Allan)
Portrait of Gourley (re-edit 1999)
1968 The Beard
War is Hell (with William Allan)
1969 What Do You Talk About ? (videotape, two versions)
1970 Bleu Shut
R.I.P. (re-edit as Rest in Pieces, 1974 & 2003)
King David (with Mike Henderson, re-edit 2003)
1971 No-More (re-edit as More, 2000)
1973 Worldly Woman (with Mike Henderson, new soundtrack 2003)
1974 Deep Westurn (with William Geis, Mike Henderson & William T. Wiley)
1976 Special Warning (re-edit 1999)
Suite California Stops and Passes: Part 1 (re-edit 2003)
1978 Suite California Stops and Passes: Part 2
Castiac Junction (aka Interesting Cities and Towns)
1979 How To Get Out of a Burning House
1982 Hamlet Act
1986 He Sees Blind Horses and Bad Poetry (destroyed 1999)
1985 Tiger Stymie (re-edit as Curious Native Customs, 1999)
1988 Limitations
1989 199 L. la (videotape)
1997 Hauling Toto Big
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