Welcome to the Mark Webber Archive

Date: 1 January 2018 | Season: System

This website is an archive of almost all of the screenings and events that I have contributed to. Each screening is listed as an individual post, and these posts are grouped together in categories that correspond to the film season or festival that they were part of. These seasons and themed programmes can be accessed from the links in the right-hand column or from the complete listing on this page.

The site can also be searched using the box on the right. You may search for filmmakers’ names, film titles, seasons, years, or any other text that appears in the archive. If the maximium number of posts per page is exceeded then links to MORE or PREVIOUS POSTS should appear at the bottom of the page.

The archive is a work in progress and will be updated regularly. A section of writings will be uploaded soon. Please also refer to the Rights & Permissions and Acknowledgments pages, or contact Mark Webber with any questions or comments. 


The Purpose of This Concert is Not Entertainment

Date: 31 October 1997 | Season: La Monte Young | Tags:

THE PURPOSE OF THIS CONCERT IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT
Friday 31 October 1997
London Barbican Centre

Alex Poots and the Barbican Centre present the La Monte Young/Marian Zazeela Benefit Concert
THE PURPOSE OF THIS CONCERT IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT
An evening of sound and light in tribute to La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela

Live Performances
Pulp
Spiritualized
Nick Cave
Gavin Bryars Ensemble
English Chamber Orchestra

Plus Contributions
Terry Riley
Yoko Ono
Spring Heel Jack
Paul Catlin

On Video
La Monte Young
The Forever Bad Blues Band

Light environment designed by Marian Zazeela

Introduced by Anthony H Wilson

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
PROGRAMME NOTES


Little Stabs at Happiness

Date: 13 December 1997 | Season: Little Stabs at Happiness

LITTLE STABS AT HAPPINESS
December 1997 – November 2000
London ICA

Music and film club presented by Mark Webber, Gregory Kurcewicz, Zoë Miller and BR Wallers.

Saturday 13 December 1997
The Beast (Walerian Borowcyk, 1975)
Plus three short films (no record of titles survives)

Saturday 10 January 1998
Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowsky, 1970)
Plus: St Therese (Piero Heliczer, 1970); Fuzz Against Junk (Rubington, 1960s); Straight and Narrow (Tony & Beverly Conrad, 1970)

Friday 6 February 1998
Vampyres (Jose Ramon Larraz, 1974)
Plus: Legend at Big Sur (Walter Chappell, 1974); That’s All (Simon Hartog, 1965); The Trag-Comedy of Marriage (Robert Pike, 1957)

Saturday 21 March 1998
Putney Swope (Robert Downey, 1969)
Plus: Winter (David Brooks, 1964-66); T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G, (Paul Sharits, 1968); Science Fiction (Stan Vanderbeek, 1959)

Saturday 18 April 1998
Two Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1972)
Plus: Peaches and Cream (Charles Levine, 1969); Circles of Confusion (Bill Brand, 1974); Duo Concertantes (Larry Jordan, 1962-64)

Saturday 9 May 1998
Andy Warhol’s Bad (Jed Johnston, 1976)
Plus: Ai (Love) (Taka Iimura, 1962); Synchromy (Norman McLaren, 1979); Grey Butterfat Rainbow (Bill Cote, 1967)
*** Bad replaced the advertised film Twisted Nerve (Roy Boulting, 1969), which was unavailable

Saturday 6 June 1998
Blue Sunshine (Jeff Lieberman, 1978)
Plus: — —- (Thom Anderson & Malcom Brodwick, 1966); Plumb Line (Carolee Schneeman, 1970’s); A Lion’s Tale (Walter Ungerer, 1968)

Saturday 11 July 1998
The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 1976)
Plus: Little Stabs at Happiness (Ken Jacobs, 1959-63); Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (Jonas Mekas, 1964); An Experiment in Meditation (Storm De Hirsch, 1971)

Saturday 5 September 1998
Myra Breckinridge (Michael Sarne, 1974)
Plus: Now (Dennis Irving, 1969); Unsere Afrikareise (Peter Kubelka, 1966); The Girl Chewing Gum (John Smith, 1976)

Saturday 14 November 1998
Greetings (Brian De Palma, 1968)
Plus: Perfect Film (Ken Jacobs, 1986); Uptight … LA Is Burning … Shit (Ben Van Meter, 1969); New Improved Institutional Quality (Owen Land, 1976)

Saturday 23 January 1999
Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio, 1973)
Plus: Meatdaze (Jeff Keen, 1968); The Itch-Scratch-Itch-Cycle (Manuel De Landa, 1977); Incontinence (Manuel De Landa, 1978); A Report (Bruce Connor, 1963-67)

Saturday 27 February 1999
Secrets of Sex (Anthony Balch, 1970))
Plus: The Serpent (Scott Bartlett, 1971); The Petrified Dog (Sidney Peterson, 1948); Desistfilm (Stan Brakhage, 1954)

Saturday 13 March 1999
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
Plus: Fog Line (Larry Gottheim, 1970); Rubber Cement (Robert Breer, 1975); On the Marriage Broker Joke (Owen Land, 1980)

Saturday 17 April 1999
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Plus: Defense D’Afficher (Hy Hirsch, 1955); Raw Nerves (Manuel De Landa, 1979); Lapis (James Whitney, 1963-66)
*** This event took place at The Scala ***

Saturday 15 May 1999
The Hardcore Life (Paul Schrader, 1978)
Plus: Versailles (Chris Garratt, 1976); Standard Time (Michael Snow, 1967); The Candidates (Richard Preston, 1964)

Saturday 19 June 1999
The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973)
Plus: Ciao Bella (Betzy Bromberg, 1978); A History of Motion In Motion (Stan Vanderbeek, 1966); 24 Frames per Second (Taka Iimura, 1975-78)

Saturday 24 July 1999
Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
Plus: Film No. 7 (Harry Smith, 1951); Nitsch (Irm & Ed Sommer, 1969); Valse Triste (Bruce Conner, 1977)

Saturday 14 August 1999
Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980)
Plus: San Francisco (Anthony Stern, 1968); Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1963); Oblivion (Tom Chomont, 1969-70)

Saturday 18 September 1999
Fahrenheit 451 (Francois Truffaut, 1966)
Plus: Speak (John Latham, 1968-69); The Autumn Feast (Piero Heliczer, 1967); Remedial Reading Comprehension (George Landow, 1970)

Saturday 16 October 1999
The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
Plus: Threshold (Malcolm Le Grice, 1972); Film Form 1 (Stan Vanderbeek, 1970); We Shall March Again, (Lenny Lipton, 1965)

Saturday 20 November 1999
Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)
Plus: Surfacing the Thames (David Rimmer, 1970); In Quest of Meat Joy (Carolee Schneeman, 1968-69); Visions of a City (Larry Jordan, 1957)

Saturday 18 December 1999
Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
Plus short films and videos by Webber, Wallers and Kurcewicz.

Saturday 18 January 2000
Silent Running (USA, 1968)
 *** screened as part of an ICA event, not a regular Little Stabs At Happiness event

Saturday 19 February 2000
The Parallax View (Alan J Pakula, 1974)
Plus: Shower Proof (Fred Drummond, 1968); Serious Remembered (Stan Brakhage, 1959); The Film that Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter (Owen Land, 1968)

Saturday 18 March 2000
Star 80 (Bob Fosse, 1983)
Plus: La Premiere Nuit (Georges Franju, 1957); Gyromorphosis (Hy Hirsch, 1955); I, an Actress (George Kuchar, 1977)

Saturday 22 April 2000
Kid Blue (James Frawley, 1973)
Plus: River of Stars (Bruce Wood, 1975,) Little Dog for Roger (Malcolm Le Grice, 1968); Valentin De Las Sierras (Bruce Baillie, 1967)

Saturday 20 May 2000
Taking Off (Milos Foreman, 1971)
Plus: Globe (Ken Jacobs, 1973); Tantra 1 (Gordon Payne, 1969); High Stepping (Roger Hammond, 1974)

Saturday 10 June 2000
Mickey One (Arthur Penn, USA, 1965)
Plus: A & B in Ontario (Joyce Wieland, 1984); What’s Wrong with this Picture? (Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), 1972); Pièce Touchée (Martin Arnold, 1989)

Saturday 15 July 2000
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
Plus: Migration (David Rimmer, 1969); Barn Rushes (Larry Gottheim, 1971); 3/60: Baum in Herbst (Kurt Kren, 1960)

Saturday 12 August 2000
Theorem (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969)
Plus: Shutter (Taka Iimura, 1971); X (Vincent Grenier, 1976); Tung (Bruce Baillie, 1966)

Saturday 9 September 2000
Christiane F. (Ulrich Edel, 1981)
Plus: Kino Da! (Henry Hills, 1981); Epileptic Seizure Comparison (Paul Sharits, 1976); An Aesthetic Quality (Vaughn Obern, 1967)

Saturday 21 October 2000
Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 1968)
Plus: Le Sexe Enrage (Roland Lethem, 1970); The Visible Compendium (Larry Jordan, 1991); The Dead (Stan Brakhage, 1960)

Thursday 2 November 2000
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, UK, 1971)
Plus: Boobs a Lot (Aggy Read, 1968); Marilyn Times Five (Bruce Conner, 1968-73); Flak (Graeme Ewens, 1970)


The Films of Andy Warhol

Date: 8 August 1998 | Season: Andy Warhol Barbican

THE FILMS OF ANDY WARHOL
8 & 9 August 1998
London Barbican Centre

We are delighted to welcome Mark Webber, and art historian Jean Wainright, who will introduce two double bills of recently restored Andy Warhol films to complement The Warhol Look exhibition in the Barbican Art Gallery.

Three of the four films have never been shown in the UK and feature all the best known ‘superstars’ in films from before the commercial success of Warhol’s Flesh, Trash and Heat. The films come direct from the New York Museum of Modern Art courtesy of the Andy Warhol Museum.

Curated by Mark Webber for Barbican Screen.

Back to top


The Films of Andy Warhol: 1

Date: 8 August 1998 | Season: Andy Warhol Barbican

THE FILMS OF ANDY WARHOL: 1
Saturday 8 August 1998, at 3:30pm
London Barbican Centre

CAMP
Andy Warhol, USA, 1965, 16mm, b/w, sound, 66 min
Camp was made in the Factory and takes the form of a variety programme performed by various characters of the downtown scene.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO
Andy Warhol, USA, 1966, 16mm, b/w, sound, 67 min
This film shows the group rehearsing for their opening shows in the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. The rehearsal is interrupted by members of the New York City Polic Department who arrive in response to a telephone complaint about the noise. The film contains rarely heard unreleased music by the group.

Back to top


The Films of Andy Warhol: 2

Date: 9 August 1998 | Season: Andy Warhol Barbican

THE FILMS OF ANDY WARHOL: 2
Sunday 9 August 1998, at 3:30pm
London Barbican Centre

RESTAURANT
Andy Warhol, USA, 1965, 16mm, b/w, sound, 33 min

A filmed document of a staged dinner hosted by Warhol’s ill-fated starlet Edie Sedgwick at the newly opened L’Avventura restaurant in New York.

THE LOVES OF ONDINE
Andy Warhol, USA, 1967, 16mm, colour, sound, 85 min

Originally included as a part of ****, Andy Warhol’s 25 hour movie, The Loves of Ondine consists of a series of encounters between Ondine and various women who try to ‘adjust’ his sexual orientation, providing a platform for him to demonstrate his brilliant, misogynistic wit. Halfway through the film the story is punctuated by a notorious food fight sequence which was filmed in the house of Waldo Diaz Balart, brother-in-law of Fidel Castro.

Back to top


Underground America

Date: 23 October 1998 | Season: Underground America

UNDERGROUND AMERICA
23 October – 8 November 1998
London Barbican Centre & Lux Cinema

Throughout 1998 the Barbican Centre in London is presenting Inventing America, a huge celebration of American arts and culture. This yearlong project is the biggest festival of American music, theatre, art, literature and film ever seen in Europe. The Underground America series is the largest survey of American experimental and avant-garde film that has ever been staged in the UK. The season will be shown in two halves – at the Barbican Screen between 23-29 October and at the Lux Cinema between 1-8 November 1998.

Underground America particularly concentrates on the New York scene of the mid-1960’s which was a pivotal and defining moment for experimental cinema. It includes at least one work by all the major US film artists and a few important “honorary” Americans are also being represented. Acknowledged masters of avant-garde film such as Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger will be shown alongside less well-known but equally important film-makers who will belatedly receive their British premieres. The Underground America programme is not intended as a complete guide to the most celebrated works of American experimental film but will be a wide-ranging survey of the New American Cinema and the choice of films is specifically geared to show works that have rarely – if ever – been shown in this country. Many of the films are being brought over from the New York Film-Makers’ Cooperative and other important collections around the world.

The 16 programmes in this season will display the innocence, decadence, beauty and vision of a group of film-makers who went on to inspire a new wave of independent American directors like David Lynch, Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese and John Waters and without whom MTV, music videos and commercial television wouldn’t look at all the same. 99 films will receive rare screenings to present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for London cinema goers to experience the many aspects underground film scene. And please remember – these movies are not just for film students, they are wonderful entertainment and you will be amazed.

Curated by Mark Webber for the Barbican Centre.

Each programme is approximately two hours long. All programmes are subject to slight changes owing to print quality and availability.

UNDERGROUND AMERICA would not have been possible without the kind assistance of Robert Rider & Helen Johnson at the Barbican, Helen De Witt at the Lux, David Curtis & Gary Thomas at the Arts Council of England, MM Serra at New York Film-makers’ Cooperative, Jonas Mekas & John Mhiripiri at Anthology Film Archives, Dominic Angerame at Canyon Cinema, Beth Copley at London Film-makers’ Co-op, Jud Yalkut, Ken & Flo Jacobs, Tosh Berman, Victor Grauer, Ernie Gehr, Owen Land, Bruce Torpet, Gerard Malanga, Taylor Mead, Robert Beavers, Katerina Gregos at Deste Foundation, Miles McKane at Light Cone, Antonie Bergmeier at Cinedoc / Paris Films Coop, London Electronic Arts, BFI Distribution & Stills Department.

...and BEYOND HOLLYWOOD...

Surrealism

Date: 23 October 1998 | Season: Underground America

SURREALISM
Friday 23 October 1998, at 8:30pm
London Barbican Cinema

Many of the early American personal films were directly influenced by the Surrealist and Expressionist works that came out of Europe in the preceding decades and this opening selection demonstrates how the American film-makers developed the ideas of the past into their own style. Maya Deren was possibly the most important early pioneer of the new cinema and her Meshes Of The Afternoon was a major statement. The poet James Broughton’s nostalgic comedy Mother’s Day takes a perverse look at a childhood dominated by mother. Sidney Peterson made sophisticated and witty films that were rooted in Surrealism. Bells Of Atlantis is a masterful assemblage featuring the writer Anais Nin. Joseph Cornell was an artist known for his enchanting box constructions and his rarely seen films are similarly magical. Womancock is a confusing assault of imagery and Our Lady Of The Spheres is a phantasmagorical animation of Surrealistic engravings.

Maya Deren, Meshes Of The Afternoon, 1943, 18 min
James Broughton, Mother’s Day, 1948, 23 min
Sidney Peterson, The Lead Shoes, 1949, 17 min
Ian Hugo, Bells Of Atlantis, 1952, 10 min
Joseph Cornell & Rudy Burckhardt, A Fable For Fountains, 1957, 7 min
Carl Linder, Womancock, 1966, 10 min
Larry Jordan, Our Lady Of The Sphere, 1969, 10 min

PROGRAMME NOTES

The Beats

Date: 24 October 1998 | Season: Underground America

THE BEATS
Saturday 24 October 1998, at 3:30pm
London Barbican Cinema

This programme looks at the Beat movement’s influence on cinema. We begin with the UK premiere of the only film work by the often overlooked artist Wallace Berman. The writer Jack Kerouac wrote and narrated Pull My Daisy starring Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Larry Rivers. This film and John Cassavettes’ Shadows marked a turning point for the New American Cinema. Also included are two works by collagist Bruce Conner, an early appearance by one of the underground’s true stars – Taylor Mead in the Hollywood satire To L.A. With Lust – and Robert Nelson’s hilarious Oh! Dem Watermelons. Paperdolls includes photography by the legendary Jack Smith, and Warren Sonbert shows bohemian life in the New York of the 60s.

Wallace Berman, Untitled, 1956-66, 7 min
Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie, Pull My Daisy, 1957, 27 min
Christopher Maclaine, Beat, 1958, 6 min
Bruce Conner, A Movie, 1958, 12 min
Vernon Zimmerman, To L.A. With Lust, 1961, 27 min
Bruce Conner, Cosmic Ray, 1961, 4 min
Richard Preston, Paperdolls, 1962, 5 min
Robert Nelson, Oh! Dem Watermelons, 1965, 12 min
Warren Sonbert, Amphetamine, 1966, 10 min

PROGRAMME NOTES

Flaming Creatures

Date: 24 October 1998 | Season: Underground America

FLAMING CREATURES
Saturday 24 October 1998, at 8:45pm
London Barbican Cinema

Flaming Creatures was for many years the cause célèbre of the underground, being the subject of high profile busts and seizures, and its Baghdadian vision can still be shocking now. The authorities of the day often used this movie as proof that the underground films were all full of nudity and depravity. It’s maker, Jack Smith, was a key figure in the New York scene and starred in many of the best known films as well as his own unique theatre presentations. The monumental Flaming Creatures is shown here with some forgotten erotic escapades: Jerovi looks at the Narcissus myth, Avocada is a smouldering study of high art writhing, and Soul Freeze by Kuchar Brothers star Bob Cowan explores with shocking intensity the guilty fantasies of a Catholic priest.

Jack Smith, Flaming Creatures, 1962-63, 45 min
Jose Rodriguez-Soltero, Jerovi, 1965, 12 min
Bill Vehr, Avocada, 1966, 37 min
Bob Cowan, Soul Freeze, 1967, 25 min

PROGRAMME NOTES

Jonas Mekas

Date: 25 October 1998 | Season: Underground America

JONAS MEKAS
Sunday 25 October 1998, at 3:00pm
London Barbican Cinema

Without Jonas Mekas the history of experimental film would be a very different story. After arriving in America after the war Mekas devoted himself to film, founding the New York Film-Makers’ Cooperative, Anthology Film Archives and Film Culture magazine. His single-minded enthusiasm and motivation has brought much attention to the avant-garde film. Walden is his diary from 1964-1968, containing images from the most exciting time for experimental film and is an A-Z of the underground culture with Warhol, Ginsberg, Lennon, Leary and a cast of thousands. Watch it and see history unfold.

Jonas Mekas, Walden (Diaries, Notes and Sketches), 1964-69, 180 min

PROGRAMME NOTES