Robert Nelson: RAN with the Movie Camera 3

Date: 6 May 2006 | Season: Robert Nelson

ROBERT NELSON: RAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA 3
Saturday 6 May 2006, at 7pm
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Robert Nelson, Deep Westurn, USA, 1974, 16mm, 6 min
Preserved by the Academy Film Archive
A ‘film wake’ for a friend who gave free dental care in exchange for artwork. (MW)
“Though celebratory in mood, it has a mournful subtext … death and dying. We dedicated it to Dr. Sam West, departed friend and patron of the arts, trusting that his ghost would approve our hijinx and seeming irreverence.” (RAN)

Robert Nelson, Special Warning, USA, 1974/1999, 16mm, 8 min
“Special Warning is like a poem more than a narrative or story. It suggests states of isolation, barrenness, sexual guilt and sin, but even these punishing afflictions can have a humorous aspect when accompanied by horns.” (RAN)

Robert Nelson, More, USA, 1971/2000, 16mm, 20 min
Two complete sections from the 70-minute film No-More which Nelson produced with students at a summer school in Ithaca, NY. Shot in a verité style, they show a baseball game between hippies and straights, and the stoned and drunken party that follows as the kids hit the streets that evening. (MW)

Robert Nelson, Hauling Toto Big, USA, 1997, 16mm, 43 min
“Hauling Toto Big operates on so many levels and points to so many different traditions of the avant-garde that it could serve as a compendium of style and theme, while also bearing Nelson’s particular stamp and trickster persona. It’s too bad his work is so rarely seen – it’s some of the most irreverent, unpretentious, and loving work I’ve ever laid eyes on.” (Michael Joshua Rowin)
“This is my best film. This one cuts the deepest. Upon this one I stand or fall. Better yet the larger one comprised of all.” (RAN)

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