Gregory J. Markopoulos

GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009
28—30 March 2009
London BFI Southbank NFT3

The London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival presents two programmes of rarely screened films by Gregory J. Markopoulos. 

PROGRAMME 1
Gregory J. Markopoulos, Twice A Man, 1963, 49 min
Gregory J. Markopoulos, Ming Green, 1966, 7 min

PROGRAMME 2
Gregory J. Markopoulos, Eros, O Basileus, 1967, 45 min
Gregory J. Markopoulos, Through a Lens Brightly: Mark Turbyfill, 1967, 15 min

Curated by Mark Webber, with thanks to Temenos Verein.

Gregory J. Markopoulos: Programme 1

GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009
Saturday 28 March 2009, at 4:30pm
London BFI Southbank NFT3

TWICE A MAN
Gregory J. Markopoulos, USA, 1963, 16mm, colour, sound, 49 min
with Paul Kilb, Olympia Dukakis, Albert Torgesen
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.

MING GREEN
Gregory J. Markopoulos, USA, 1966, 16mm, colour, sound, 7 min
An extraordinary self-portrait conveyed through the multiple layered superimpositions of the filmmaker’s sparsely furnished room.

Gregory J. Markopoulos: Programme 2

GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009
Monday 28 March 2009, at 8:45pm
London BFI Southbank NFT3

EROS, O BASILEUS
Gregory J. Markopoulos, USA, 1967, 16mm, colour, sound, 45 min
with Robert Beavers
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.

THROUGH A LENS BRIGHTLY: MARK TURBYFILL
Gregory J. Markopoulos, USA, 1967, 16mm, colour, sound, 15 min
The life of painter, dancer and poet Mark Turbyfill, seen in his 70th year, is evoked through traditional portraiture and personal objects.