Mary Ellen Bute, John Whitney, Harry Smith: Abstract Films

Reading Albert Glinsky's book on inventor Leon Theremin, I saw mention of a filmmaker I'd never heard of, Mary Ellen Bute. I found a couple of her works posted on YouTube by AnimArchiv.


Rhythm In Light:




and Tarantella:




Looking around for Bute, I came across John Whitney's computer graphics work, Arabesque (courtesy postingoldtapes):




And some work of Harry Smith (courtesy donjuanauxenfers):



For those of you wondering: yep, it's the same Harry Smith who helped kickstart the folk music revival in the mid 20th century with his LP compilation of old 78s, Anthology of American Folk Music.

more Mary Ellen Bute, Norman Mc Laren films

Above is Spook Sport, a Mary Ellen Bute movie done with Norman McLaren. Posted on YouTube by autochromex. Good for Halloween.

Below is part one of McLaren's extraordinary Pas de Deux. Posted by superchat9000.



Link to part two of "Pas de Deux".


Another Mc Laren, A Phantasy (posted by ypsis):



And there's yet more McLaren to be found, like Begone Dull Care, Neighbours and Synchromy.

Ralph Steiner rocks the water

Ralph Steiner could take a damn picture.

Even when it meant taking 24 per second.

In 1929 he shot an amazing short film called H2O. The video embedded above, handy as it is (thanks to drzewko), is but a coarse approximation of the film.

Good copies can be found in the Unseen Cinema DVD set [which also includes the amazing Glen Falls Sequence by Douglass Crockwell & works by the aforementioned Mary Ellen Bute] and in Kino Video's Avant-Garde DVD set.

I dunno if there was any originally intended music to accompany H2O, but each of the three versions I've seen thus far is set to a different piece of music.

And indeed there's two vids of live musicians having a go: one featuring the band Tangleweed (courtesy singalonginesperanto) and another with composer Philip Glass on piano (courtesy rollindust).

In 1978 Steiner put out a book, A Point of View, that features a short (and funny as hell) autobiography as well as an overview of his still photographs. Definitely worth seeking out in your local library.