PSYCHEDELIC CINEMA 1960's-70's

Including experimental films continuing the tradition in 2003, Vancouver

QUICK LINKS TO:   Films by SAM PERRY, commentary by Gary Lee-Nova,     STEEL MUSHROOMS by GARY LEE-NOVA,     OFF ON by SCOTT BARTLETT, commentary by various       7362 by PAT O'NEILL, commentary by various     AAEON by AL RAZUTIS, descriptive essays by Al Razutis,
plus AN EYE FOR AN EYE and GATHERING STORM by DAVID RIMMER (2003).

PSYCHEDELIC FILMS by SAM PERRY, GARY LEE-NOVA, DAVID RIMMER and AL RAZUTIS on YouTube - XALRAZUTIS channel


SAM PERRY FILMS (circa 1965)

A necessary background on Sam Perry is provided by artist - filmmaker Gary Lee-Nova in his 'Extended Interview' for Director Richard Martin and 'Backbone' documentary film project.

2 min. EXCERPT section on Sam Perry on You Tube:   https://youtu.be/c01ethZYy88.

Light shows and film loops   --   Vancouver 'Tripps Festival' (1966)   --   Vancouver 'Sound Gallery'

Gary Lee-Nova on the films of Sam Perry and Tripp's festival - click for You Tube excerpt from interview

"...(Sam Perry) became a focal point for organizing light shows (in the mid-1960's Vancouver)... he had such great ideas... we produced a lot of footage for a rock and roll show called the 'Tripps Festival' (1966)... we took 25 movie projectors into the Garden Auditorium... forty slide projectors... and overhead projectors... four or five of those... phenomenal. He had all this stuff..."   -- Gary Lee-Nova

Lee-Nova -- Extended Interview on VIMEO by Richard Martin.

Gary Lee-Nova also remembers:   "Sam had a writing project that had cinematic components. Sam called the project WEST COAST TANTRAS. Some of those were published by Bill Bissett in his Blew Ointment Magazines."

click enlarge -Sam Perry 1 - Sun Strobes Light Shows Nitobe with Gary Lee-Nova 1965 on YouTube 'Sam Perry 1 - Sun Strobes Light Shows Nitobe' with Gary Lee-Nova circa 1965
YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/8jHuqcZo2DQ
Duration: 14 min. 45 sec. at 24 fps.
Sound: sprocket hole sound (silent)
16mm Film to digital transfers: UBC Belkin Gallery Scott Watson

Gary Lee-Nova (May 2018): "There were also explorations of what Sam called 'Sun Strobes.' This is a process of directly looking at the sun with closed eyes and then spreading the fingers of both hands extended fully in front of the face and then moved up and down. This has a strobing effect for the sunlight landing on the eyelids and creates sets of interesting visual patterns for the closed eyes.

(later)"With 16mm cameras, Sam and I went to the Nitobe Garden. It was late Spring or early Summer of 1965. Sam filmed me engaging plant forms like green leaves and holding them up to my eyes and observing the visible structures of the leaves."


click enlarge -Sam Perry 2 - Sun Strobes Light Shows Nitobe with Gary Lee-Nova 1965 on YouTube 'Sam Perry 2 - Flicker - Light Show - Collage' with Gary Lee-Nova circa 1965
YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/dRLEDkip_m0
Duration: 13 min. at 24 fps.
Sound: sprocket hole sound (silent)
16mm Film to digital transfers: UBC Belkin Gallery Scott Watson

Gary Lee-Nova (May 2018): "Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville innovated a machine they called 'Flicker' which produces similar effects to what Sam was filming with me."

"The other footage is of me with a large pair of scissors, cutting up verbal material from magazines. I was working on collaging text and pictorial material onto a large, fascinating chair owned by Bill Bissett."


Gary Lee-Nova remembers:   "I made some notes about Sam and our relationship a couple of years ago ('Sam Perry August 2015'):

"I had a film maker friend. He was also a writer and poet.
In the early 1960s, he traveled to northern India, to make a film about the Tibetan refugees.
In Vancouver, Sam and I did some film work together and collaborated on some projects, me in front of his cameras for the most part.
Later on, I was moving to Montreal and had to return some books that I had borrowed from him.
At his place, I asked him where to put his books and he told me to put them into a bureau drawer. I opened the drawer and there was a Browning Hi-Power 9mm semi-auto pistol or a Browning .32 calibre semi-auto laying the drawer.
I put the books in the drawer and then I asked him about the gun.
He explained that when traveling in the Himalayas, there was a robber problem, so he had the gun for that reason. He was traveling with a wife and children.
Several months later, I returned to Vancouver from Montreal.
In my absence, my filmmaker friend had become involved with the LSD25 crowd around Tim Leary and all his fellow travellers.
There was a crusade to distribute as much of the drug as possible. Sam's involvement led to him consuming far too much of the drug and he turned into a paranoid schizophrenic.
No one knew what to do about it beyond expressing sorrow and helplessness.
The few who tried to help him knew less than zero about psychology, or psychological illnesses. He was then in-and-out of a couple of psychiatric care facilities.
A few weeks later, another friend found my filmmaker friend dead in his studio, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Of course this was a shocking event, and I reprimanded myself severely over it because I knew he had that gun, but had forgotten about it.
I could have taken action, taken that gun away from him, but I failed."

"I hope that you'll keep me in the loop when the remainder of the material is digitized. All the best Scott.
Thank you. Best regards, Gary
P. S. Bcc: to Al Razutis"


STEEL MUSHROOMS by GARY LEE-NOVA and DALLAS SELMAN

'Underground film' -- COLLAGE FILM

8 min. color sound 1967, production assistance Stan Fox

images strip with frames from Steel Mushrooms 1967 by Gary Lee-Nova and Dallas Selman - click to enlarge in separate window

Watch Steel Mushrooms on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/pGgFB9CMqIM

Steel Mushrooms is a 1967 experimental ('underground') film made by Gary Lee-Nova and Dallas Selman, with soundscape by Dennis Vance. It was produced with support from Stan Fox.

A full description of the film can be found in the article "Recovering Lost History - Vancouver Avant-Garde Cinema 1960-69' by Al Razutis at the url:   https://www.alchemists.com/visual_alchemy/writings/recovering_lost_history.html#lee-nova

An 'extended interview' with Gary Lee-Nova done by director - filmmaker Richard Martin for his "Backbone" (the film) project is here:   https://vimeo.com/channels/966891/114223278

"My interests are to connect the dots... between light show projections, underground film, early video art, and what became called 'experimental cinema' and 'expanded cinema' (as described by Youngblood 1970)."(AR)


OFF ON by SCOTT BARTLETT

'Synaesthetic film' -- FILM - VIDEO - LIGHTSHOW PROJECTION HYBRID

9 min. color sound 1967 - Scott Bartlett dir. with assistance from Tom Dewitt, Manny Meyer, and Michael McNamee

images strip with frames from Off On 1967 by Scott Bartlett, Tom  Dewitt, Manny Mayer and michael McNamee - click to enlarge in separate window

Watch Off On on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEr9Z7Q4ZxY

"Off On is an experimental film created by Scott Bartlett made and released in 1968. It is most notable for being one of the first examples in which film and video technologies were combined (also using psychedelic light show film loops). The nine-minute film combines a number of video loops which have been altered through re-photography or video colorization, and utilizes an electronic sound track to create its unique effect.

In 2004, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". "
(Wikipedia)

Recent writings by Razutis: > Page on OFF ON

"My interests are to connect the dots... between light show projections, underground film, early video art, and what became called 'experimental cinema' and 'expanded cinema' (as described by Youngblood 1970)."(AR)

Full thread on Scott Bartlett film posted on FaceBook May 9, 2019 at https://www.facebook.com/102922939863571/photos/a.112187032270495/1337508106405042/?type=3&theater

The "Making Off On" by Cynthia Anne Haagens is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yASi81-qxRI


7362 by PAT O'NEILL

'Synaesthetic film' -- 9 min. color sound 1967 - Pat O'Neill dir.

images strip with frames from 7362 by Pat O'Neill 1967 - click to enlarge in separate window
Frames from '7362' - panel by John Coulthart

Watch 7362 on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WusH--ZU_to

"Pat O'Neil...has made many experimental films using techniques perfected with an optical printer. This film incorporates footage of oil derricks in Venice, California and nude models filmed in the artist's studio. Its synthesizer score is by Joseph Byrd." -- Alessandro Cima.

"I finished my first film in 1962. Then I started doing abstract or composite films. I began to use the camera as a sort of gathering device to provide elements for manipulation through re-photography. This led to 7362 which was finished in 1967. I didn't have much knowledge about the history of the medium at that time. I had maybe three film classes at UCLA and beyond that the midnight screenings at the Coronet and the Cinema Theater were my education." -- Pat O'Neill, Millennium Film Journal interview 1997.


AAEON by AL RAZUTIS

28 min. color sound 1969-71 - Al Razutis prod./dir

90 sec. excerpt video of 2 select sections AAEON
'head title', 'Nightwood'
from 16mm film sources on YouTube:

AAEON by Al Razutis excerpt on YouTube

3 min. excerpt video from AAEON
'Nightwood' section
from 16mm film sources on YouTube:

AAEON by Al Razutis - Nightwood excerpt on YouTube

CLICK for image strips from AAEON a film by Al Razutis

"AAEON is based on experiments with dream recollection - it is a 'dream work' inspired directly by my dreams and the recollection of the vivid imagery and fractured time that would be recalled nightly by purposely waking myself (every hour) and audio recording my recollections of the events. This project required the construction of a film 'machine', the film optical printer, which I built in various stages in 1969-1972 in Crescent Beach and Vancouver." Photo of early version of optical printer by Al Razutis.

"The film is composed of four interwoven stages or stanzas that constantly develop and redefine mythological space/time circulating around the ideas of 're-birth' (Tibetan Buddhist ideas, the Tarot, William Blake, oriental and western mysticism were some of the influences at the time) . The film is composed and edited on an optical printer effecting distortions of motion, time, composition, and colour through extensive use of 'layering' (in bi-pack printing, matte printing, step printing, colour separation, burning the film in a projection gate, infrared photography)." (A.R.)

Original music composed and performed by Phillip Werren. The music and imagery were created as a 'synergy' of both elements. Production assistance was also provided by Peter Jones, NFB Vancouver, one of the few individuals at the NFB who took an active interest in supporting underground and experimental films of the 60's-70's. Appearing: Jurgen Hesse, Kathy Razutis, Ed Varney, and Al Razutis. Screened at the Bellevue Film Festival (1970).

In the collections of Pacific Cinematheque Pacifique, and National Film Board of Canada, Vancouver.

>> AAEON FILM PAGE - PICS / TEXTS

AAEON (1970) film by Al Razutis - click for film page

All remaining release prints of this film are now stored at the Academy Archives in Hollywood, USA.

References: Photo collage of AAEON frames and film optical printer / animation stand at Crescent Beach 1970, with Razutis making 'AAEON'.   Photo of final film optical printer at Visual Alchemy, Vancouver, 1974.



AN EYE FOR AN EYE by DAVID RIMMER and JACOB CINO / THIRD EYE TRIBE

'Synaesthetic Cinema' -- FILM - VIDEO - LIGHTSHOW PROJECTION HYBRID

10 min. color sound 2003 -- co-editor Sarah Butterfield

images strip with frames from An Eye for an Eye by David Rimmer and Jacob Cino - click to enlarge in separate window

Watch An Eye for an Eye on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/xIZpO9mT9wM

"An experimental film by David Rimmer (2003) which was influenced by or done to be performed at 'Rave' concerts which Rimmer was fond of attending in the 2000's. The relationship / resemblance of this film to 'light shows' (live projections) of the 1960's is unmistakable as an influence." (A.R.)




GATHERING STORM by DAVID RIMMER

'Synaesthetic Cinema' -- FILM - VIDEO - LIGHTSHOW PROJECTION HYBRID

6 min. color sound 2003 -- Producer: Svend-Erik Ericksen, NFB, Vancouver

images strip with frames from Gathering Storm by David Rimmer - produced by National Film Board of Canada  - click to enlarge in separate window

"A hauntingly beautiful film about the world's flight into chaos.

Technique:   "Rimmer has taken (Norman) McLaren's camera-less technique to new heights. He paints directly on clear 35mm leader, using odd materials such as household cleaners, varnish, inks and sometimes fish scales and ferns. He feeds the loops through a film editing machine, overlays them with music and records the result with a mini DV camera."


Production:   National Film Board of Canada (www.nfb.ca)   --   Producer:   Svend-Erik Eriksen

Watch Gathering Storm on VIMEO at: https://vimeo.com/32645959




More on early experimental films by David Rimmer can be found in the article 'Recovering Lost History - Vancouver Avant-Garde Cinema 1960-69' by Al Razutis at the url:   https://www.alchemists.com/visual_alchemy/writings/recovering_lost_history.html#davidrimmer

An 'extended interview' with David Rimmer done by director - filmmaker Richard Martin for his Backbone documentary film project is here:   https://vimeo.com/channels/966891/114388039


Historical texts as reference:

'Recovering Lost History: Vancouver Avant-Garde Cinema 1960-1969' (Al Razutis)


Vancouver avant-garde film of the 60's published essay by Al Razutis       Sam Perry and Vancouver avant-garde film of the 60's published essay by Al Razutis

Al Razutis personal chronologies:

'Three Decades of Rage' .PDF (Mike Hoolboom)


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History of Visual Alchemy

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Underground - Intermedia

Beyond Intermedia         Synaesthetic - Expanded Cinema         Holographic Cinema of the 1970's

Drawing on Film - Video Archives
click for AL RAZUTIS FILM ARCHIVES page

Post 1972 Studio > Studio Photo Archives from the 70's / 80's / 90's


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