Gregory J. Markopoulos LLGFF

GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
28 & 30 March 2009

The London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival presents two programmes of rarely screened films by Gregory J. Markopoulos. Curated by Mark Webber, with thanks to Temenos Verein.

Twice A Man (Gregory J. Markopoulos, 1963)

Saturday 28 March 2009, at 4:30pm, NFT3
MARKOPOULOS 1: TWICE A MAN

TWICE A MAN
Gregory J. Markopoulos, USA, 1963, 49 mins
Twice A Man is a fragmented re-imagining of the Greek myth of Hippolytus, who was killed after rejecting the advances of his stepmother. Markopoulos’ vision transposes the legend to 1960s New York and has its main character abandon his mother for an elder man. Employing sensuous use of colour, the film radicalised narrative construction with its mosaic of ‘thought images’ that shift tenses and compress time. One of the touchstones of independent filmmaking, Twice A Man was made in the same remarkable milieu as Scorpio Rising and Flaming Creatures by a filmmaker named ‘the American avant-garde cinema’s supreme erotic poet’ by its key critic P. Adams Sitney.
Dedicated to Clara Hoover. Based on the story of Hippolytos. Music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky: excerpt from Manfred Symphony, op. 58. Assistant director: Charles Levine. Cast: Paul Kilb (Paul), Olympia Dukakis (the young mother), Violet Roditi (the aged mother), Albert Torgessen (the artist-physician). Voice: Olympia Dukakis. Filmed in New York City, Staten Island and Bear Mountain Park.
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MING GREEN
Gregory J. Markopoulos, USA, 1966, 7 mins
Ming Green is an extraordinary self-portrait conveyed through the multiple layered superimpositions of the filmmaker’s sparsely furnished room.
Dedicated to Stan Brakhage. Music by Richard Wagner: Traumen from Wesendonck Lieder (Wesendonck Song Cycle). Filmed in New York City.

Eros, O Basileus (Gregory J. Markopoulos, 1967)

Monday 30 March 2009, at 8:45pm, NFT3
MARKOPOULOS 2: EROS, O BASILEUS

EROS, O BASILEUS
Gregory J. Markopoulos, USA, 1967, 45 mins
Markopoulos’ invocation of Eros merges classical and contemporary imagery by placing the male god of love in an artists’ loft. The sole protagonist, predominantly naked, appears in a series of tableaux surrounded by icons of creativity, including paintings, books and filmmaking equipment. This sculptural study of the human form is energised by flash frames, stylised fades, and Strauss’ tone-poem ‘Ein Heldenleben’. Eros is portrayed by the young filmmaker Robert Beavers, who had recently moved to New York after seeing films by Markopoulos and other New American Cinema pioneers. Both soon left America for Europe, where they remained together until Markopoulos’ death in 1992.
Dedicated to Ben Weber. Music by Richard Strauss: excerpts from Ein Heldenleben. Cast: Robert Beavers (Eros). Filmed in New York City.
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THROUGH A LENS BRIGHTLY: MARK TURBYFILL
Gregory J. Markopoulos, USA, 1967, 15 mins
The life of painter, dancer and poet Mark Turbyfill, seen here in his 70th year, is evoked through traditional portraiture and personal objects.
Dedicated to Tom Chomont. Cast: Mark Turbyfill. Filmed in Chicago.


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at

BFI Southbank
Belvedere Road, South Bank, London, SE1 8XT
Nearest Tube: Waterloo / Embankment
MAP OF AREA

Tickets: £8.60 / £6.25 concessions
BFI members pay £1 less

Box Office: 020 7928 3232

www.llgff.org.uk

Temenos 2008

TEMENOS 2008
Lyssaraia, Arcadia, Greece
27-29 June 2008

The premiere of Orders III, IV and V of Gregory J. Markopoulos' final and culminating film, ENIAIOS, will take place at the Temenos site, near Lyssaraia in Arcadia on 27-29 June 2008.

Temenos 2004

Orders I and II of ENIAIOS were unveiled at the same site in 2004 to an awed and enthusiastic audience who traveled from Europe and North America especially for the event. Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928–1992) was one of the few filmmakers to form every aspect of his films from production through to presentation. His concept of the Temenos grew out of a need to create a viewing space uniquely in harmony with the film image as a philosophical and psychological revelation. It also grew out of the wish to create a deeply personal and rewarding cinematic experience for the spectators of ENIAIOS, his final 80 hour film.

Markopoulos was convinced that his choice of the remote location near Lyssaraia is an essential element in preparing for the viewing of ENIAIOS. The spectators’ journey, whether from Athens or from abroad, to Loutra and the Temenos site, focuses his or her anticipation of the more extraordinary journey that takes place in front of the projected image over the three evenings. The serene pace of ENIAIOS allows for a gradual development to carry the viewer to a distinct perception of his or her own emotions in dialogue with the filmmaker’s concentrated, fleeting images. The projection event creates what Markopoulos called "the intuition space."

Temenos site in the 1980s

In addition to the journey, the natural beauty of the actual site is integral to the experience. Beginning with the setting of the sun, each screening is seen for three hours, from circa 10pm till 1am under the movements of the heavens. It is an offering. Therefore, the Temenos screenings are presented without charging admission. Each of the Orders is an autonomous part of ENIAIOS: it is not necessary to have seen Orders I and II in 2004 to appreciate the power of III, IV and V this year.

A small buffet will be served in the main square of Lyssaraia on June 26th, the evening before the first screening.

Lodgings must be confirmed in advance (by May 10th) either for the limited number of hotel rooms in the area or for the campsite near the screening area. Requests for reservations should be made by email to mail@the-temenos.org. You will be answered with a definitive offer for lodgings and other details.

The premiere of ENIAIOS III-V is dedicated to Markopoulos' vision. The three evenings at the Temenos site provide a unique opportunity to view his work in a pristine atmosphere and with a freedom of seeing.

Markopoulos and Beavers, 1980s

Follow these links to reports on the Temenos 2004 screenings :-
Artforum
Film Comment
Athens News

For further information visit the Temenos website. To receive email updates on Temenos 2008, subscribe to the Temenos Google Group.

Gregory J. Markopoulos

GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS
London Tate Modern
7 & 8 March 2008

Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928–1992) was a key figure in the evolution of the New American Cinema of the 1960s, an archetypal personal filmmaker who counted Jack Smith, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage and Maya Deren amongst his contemporaries. His ravishing films are a complex combination of masterful camerawork and editing with a strong vision rooted in myth and poetry.

After relocating from New York to Europe in 1967, he planned the construction of an archive and projection space in Greece – The Temenos – a setting that would be in harmony with his extraordinary films. This pair of Tate Modern screenings anticipates the Temenos 2008 open air premieres of Markopoulos’ ENIAIOS III-V to be held in Lyssaraia on 27-29 June 2008, presented by the filmmaker Robert Beavers.

Gregory J. Markopoulos directs Jack Smith

Friday 7 March 2008, at 7pm
MARKOPOULOS: PORTRAITS OF ARTISTS

Markopoulos made many extraordinary film portraits, which often incorporate an activity or object that has personal significance to the subject. This programme presents a selection of poetic and sensuous portraits of cultural and art world luminaries such as Gilbert & George, Alberto Moravia, Giorgio de Chirico and Rudolph Nureyev.

“The films preserve the myriad flights of isolated, spectrally splintered and itinerant spirit, lost in yearning, in search of intuitive wholeness while negotiating mazes of desire, seeking sanctuary in the reflection of countless identities. The works hold a shimmering mirror up to the contradictory compulsions of an era, set to register, for a few instants, shocks of recognition.” (Kirk Winslow, Millennium Film Journal)

Gregory Markopoulos, Through a Lens Brightly: Mark Turbyfill, 1967, 12 min (Mark Turbyfill)
Gregory Markopoulos, ENIAIOS (Order III, Reel 1) (Gibraltar), undated, 15 min
(Gilbert & George)
Gregory Markopoulos, ENIAIOS (Order IV, Reel 6) (The Olympian), 1969, 23 min (Alberto Moravia)
Gregory Markopoulos, Political Portraits, 1969, 15 min excerpt
(Ulrich Herzog, Marcia Haydee, Rudolph Nureyev, Giorgio di Chirico, Hulda Zumsteg)
Gregory Markopoulos, ENIAIOS (Order II, Reel 2), undated, 23 min
(Hans-Jakob Siber, Franco Quadri, Giorgio Frapoli, Klaus Schönherr and family)

The Illiac Passion (Gregory J. Markopoulos, 1967)

Saturday 8 March 2008, at 7pm
MARKOPOULOS: THE ILLIAC PASSION

Throughout his life, Markopoulos remained closely connected to his heritage and ultimately saw the Greek landscape as the ideal setting for viewing his films. The Illiac Passion, one of his most highly acclaimed films, is a visionary interpretation of ‘Prometheus Bound’ starring mythical beings from the 1960s underground. The soundtrack of this contemporary re-imagining of the classical realm features a reading of Thoreau’s translation of the Aeschylus text and excerpts from Bartok.

Gregory Markopoulos, The Illiac Passion, 1967, 92 min

“The Illiac Passion, which features chiaroscuro passages reminiscent of Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome of 1954, and incorporates 25 characters, is loosely based on Aeschylus' ‘Prometheus Bound’. For a viewer seeing this extravagant ode to creation some thirty years after its making, the film's most plangent moments involve Markopoulos' affectionate casting of friends as mythical figures – Andy Warhol's Poseidon pumping on an Exercycle above a sea of plastic, Taylor Mead's Demon leaping, grimacing, and streaming vermilion fringes, and Jack Smith's bohemian Orpheus, spending a quiet afternoon at home with Eurydice.” (Kristin M. Jones, Artforum)


at

Starr Auditorium
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
Nearest Tube: Southwark / London Bridge / Blackfriars
MAP OF AREA

Tickets: £5 / £4 concessions, booking recommended
Box Office: 020 7887 8888
www.tate.org.uk