Stan Brakhage: An Interview

A major figure among underground filmmakers, Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) boasted a prolific career that spanned more than 50 years and 300 films. His personal, independent films range in length from nine seconds to several hours, and contemplate such fundamental issues as form, life, and death—most famously in Window Water Baby Moving (1959), Dog Star Man (1961-65), and The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (1971). His early writings and journals about filmmaking are collected in Metaphors on Vision (1976). His work incorporated a wide variety of innovative and uniquely expressive forms and techniques, explored in-camera, in the editing room, and on the surface of the celluloid itself.

“I’ve had many definitions of art, and it’s like building a ship in a bottle. It’s a very marvelous and engaging activity, and you end up with something absolutely useless or simply decorative, which astonishes little children,” Brakhage says in this interview with B. Ruby Rich.

A historical interview originally recorded in 1977 and re-edited in 2008 with support from the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund.