CVM Store: Documentaries about Visual Music and Abstract Art
New: The Painter Sam Francis (2008), by Jeffrey Perkins. DVD, NTSC, 85 mins.
Forty years in the making, ‘The Painter Sam Francis’ is artist Jeffrey Perkins’ lyrical and intimate portrait of a friend, mentor, and leading light of American abstract art. The film retraces Francis’ life and career from his childhood in California to his artistic maturation in post-war Paris, his time spent in Japan, and his return to the United States. Hinging on an interview that Perkins conducted with Francis in 1973, as well as extended scenes of the artist at work in the studio, the film provides deep insight into a man for whom creativity was a powerful life-sustaining force. Interviews with friends, family, and fellow artists - including Ed Ruscha, James Turrell, Bruce Conner, Alfred Leslie, and others (Walter Hopps, Betty Freeman, Ed Moses, and many more) - illuminate a mysterious and complex personality, and its reflection in a body of work that is simultaneously diverse and singular.
Private home use $30.
Institutions $200. (Classroom
and Library Use, does not include rights for public exhibitions)
New:
LUMIA: Thomas Wilfred and The Story of Light
Art. DVD, NTSC, Region-free.
81 minute Documentary. Lumia is the story of Thomas Wilfred and the birth of light art. Wilfred began his career as a Danish Lute player, giving command performances for the Kings and Queens of Europe. He captivated audiences throughout the 1920's and 30's with his sensational projected light shows, named Lumia. World War 2 intervened, followed by television and the New York School of Painting. Wilfred's star fell, and he spent his last decades making automated versions of his work and executing commissions for private collectors and museums. Includes segments on artists Charles Dockum, Chris Sidenius, Mary Hallock Greenewalt, and Earl Reiback. Includes a brief clip from CVM's restoration of a 1952 Dockum Mobilcolor performance film.
FEATURING: Craig Antrim, Kerry Brougher, Fred Collopy, Dorothy Conway, Greta Dockum, Eugenia Victoria Ellis, A.J. Epstein, Eugene Epstein, Nancy Frederick, Lawrence Friedman, R.A. Friedman, Hal Glicksman, Robert Haller, Cindy Keefer, Richard Land, Terry Montlick, Otto Piene, Earl Reiback, Jack Shor, Kathleen Sciacca, Christian Sidenius, Steve Smith, George Stadnik, Donna Stein, Karole Vail, Judith Zilczer. Directed by Meredith Finkelstein and Paul Vlachos. 81 mins, 2008 release.
Private home use $30.
Institutions $100. (Classroom
and Library Use, does not include public performance rights)
NOTE: We also carry a different DVD of visuals only - excerpts from 5 Thomas Wilfred LUMIA Compositions, available on our Main Store Page
Video Out: The Story of VJ'ing and Live Video
Art. DVD,
NTSC.
From the psychedelic light shows of the 1960's to the heady, early days of experimental video art; from New York's nascent Soho Scene to today's techno underground, Video Out tells the story of live video art over the last thirty years. Featuring: Steina and Woody Vasulka, Bill Etra, Kurt Ralske, Benjamin Weil, Carl Goodman, Angie Eng, The Light Surgeons, Joshua White, Glen McKay, George Stadnik, and many others. Produced and Directed by Meredith Finkelstein and Paul Vlachos, 2005. Approx 80 minutes. (Quicktime trailer)
Private home use $30.
Institutions $100. (does
not include public performance rights)
CAMERA 3 SERIES: Each DVD or video contains interviews and clips from the filmmakers' works. (Same price, private home use or institutional use. Public performance rights are not included). NOTE: not all of these titles are available on DVD.
A11---HANS
RICHTER: GIVE CHANCE A CHANCE. Scripted
documentary and interview. Richter talks about his career, early experiments
with the movie camera, association with the world of the Surrealists, origins
of Dada, and evolution of his own style. Includes examples of graphic work and
films including Ghosts Before Breakfast, Inflation, Rhythmus
21, Dreams That Money Can Buy, Dadascope and 8 x 8
(a chess film made with Jean Cocteau).1973,
27 mins, NTSC DVD. $60
Poem
Field by Stan Vanderbeek and Ken Knowlton, 1964
A16---STAN
VANDERBEEK: THE COMPUTER GENERATION. 1972, 27 mins. The
pioneering experimental filmmaker is seen here at work with Wade Shaw at the
sophisticated 'new' 1972 computer at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.
His main thesis is the inevitable interaction of computers with artistic creativity."
Includes excerpts from several of his films. Out of Stock.
A17---VANDERBEEKIANA!
: STAN VANDERBEEK’S VISION. 1968, 28 mins. The
pioneering film experimenter at home discusses work, jokes, found images, toys,
inventions, etc. This documentary includes excerpts from his films Will,
See Saw Seams, Image After Image After Image, and Poem field
#1. Back in stock soon, inquire
A23---JOHN
WHITNEY, SR.
John
Whitney, Sr. one of the early pioneers in films made by computer-driven cameras
explains and demonstrates his work. Shot on location at Whitney's home in California,
includes excerpts from his films "Matrix 3", "Catalog", "Permutations" and from
James Whitney's "Lapis," shot with John's motion cam invention. Making abstract
motion in time, and impinging directly on the viewer's emotions as music does
-- these were among Whitney's early goals. "Music organizes time in a special
way, creates tension in us, then satisfies, gratifies. We can do the same for
patterns-- something is going to happen, make it happen in a way you don't expect.
Film permutations can be parallel to tones in harmonic sequenceÉ dominant chord
resolves into tonic chord." To do this, says Whitney, "we need new tools, and
to learn how to control them. They're unlike musical instruments which we have
been practicing on for 300 years. We have to start from scratch. " --CATV. 1975.
27 mins, Out
of Stock.
A31---LEN LYE. 1957.
Filmmaker Len Lye shows excerpts from several of his works and discusses his
ideas with Peretz William Johnnes, director of the Film Center of the YM-YWHA
in New York City. Lye also speaks of his work and ideas, demonstrates some "tangibles",
and shows clips from his films. Len Lye was a New Zealand filmmaker active from
about 1930 through the 60's. As a youth he studied Polynesian art. One of the
first artists to paint and draw directly on film, he also developed several
of the montage and fast-cutting techniques later used successfully in advertising.
His interest in the relationship between light and rhythm led to experiments
with moving sculptures he called "tangibles." These later evolved into moving
sculptures that generated their own music. 1962, Out of
Stock.
A36---OSKAR FISCHINGER. 1977. Exploration of the film work of the painter,
abstract artist, engineer, animator and film artist Oskar Fischinger, with many
examples of his work. Commentary by his widow Elfriede Fischinger, by writer
William Moritz who spent years cataloguing Fischinger's work, and by film animator-historian
John Canemaker. 1977, 28 mins. CVM Note: Film historian John Canemaker's
amusing article regarding the taping of this show, and the travels of Elfriede
and Bill to New York, was originally published in Funnyworld Magazine,
No. 18, Summer 1978, and is online at the Fischinger Archive website: Elfriede!
On the Road with Mrs. Oskar Fischinger This title only on VHS Video.
A43---MARY ELLEN BUTE FILMS “FINNEGANS WAKE” - A portion of
Bute's feature film "Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake" is shown, with
discussion by its producer-director Mary Ellen Bute and William Tindall, Professor
of English at Columbia University, New York City, author of "The Reader's Guide
to James Joyce." 1965, DVD. Back in stock soon
Ordering Information:
Via Credit Card - click the order button next to each item; or call CVM with
your order via telephone at 213-683-1514 (12-6pm PST).
Via
Check - For dvds, videos and books, add US$5.00 shipping for first item, .50
for each additional item. CA residents please add 9.25% tax.
Via University/Institutional
PO - contact us at CVM Store.
NOTE: Institutional rates listed do not include public performance rights, only
classroom use and non-paying educational use is permitted. Museum exhibitions
do NOT fall under these categories; no usage in museum exhibitions is permitted
for any of the dvds or videos sold by CVM, please inquire for information on
additional permissions and procedures for such requests.
Mailing address: Center for Visual Music, 453 South Spring Street, Ste. 834, Los Angeles CA 90013. Videotapes are also available for pickup at our downtown Los Angeles Gallery Row office BY APPOINTMENT (213-683-1514).
Prices listed do not include shipping. Please allow up to 2 weeks to fulfill order; most ship within 3 business days.
PLEASE NOTE: We cannot accept returns unless product is defective. Please ask questions before purchasing.
For additional information, please contact CVM Store
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