AVANT-GARDE FILM & VIDEO CATALOG

Films & Videos by Al Razutis (XAR) - only available on these DVDs

These titles remain available on DVD video as both collectors items and legacy of the migration of 'film' to 'video' to digital media.
A physical 'DVD'is reprentative of these films and their origins. A physical fact, not just a file on a computer screen.
Mastered in their original formats / aspect ratios.


MAJOR TITLES ON DVD:


Visual Essays - Origins of Film - DVD films sales direct from Al Razutis

Amerika - DVD films sales direct from Al Razutis


HISTORICAL TITLES ON DVD:


Video Art DVD films sales direct from Al Razutis

THESE WORKS IN THEIR ENTIRETY ARE NOT AVAILABLE ON THE WEB - ONLY ON DVD

AMERIKA can be projected 'single screen', including a version where films / reels are screened 'in any order', or it can be projected in the director's choice 'three screen version'.

See the available AMERIKA - DVD - Complete film & 3-Screen version

Video excerpts from 3-screen AMERIKA on You Tube
click for You Tube video of excerpts from 3 screen Amerika

Film is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art - Pompidou.


VISUAL ESSAYS: ORIGINS OF FILM are in individual film reel version and continuous play version of the six visual essays.

click for illustrated page on VISUAL ESSAYS ORIGINS OF FILM

This film is in international collections and continues to be screened internationally.


WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE?

A collaborative video installation and film between fine arts painter Anne Popperwell and filmmaker Al Razutis.
This DVD is available as INSTALLATION & SCREENING DVD

This work has been screened internationally and is in permanent collections.

click for description of WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE?

LINKS TO MANY SUBJECTS:

DETAILS CONCERNING THESE FILM WORKS


AMERIKA

Produced and Directed by Al Razutis, 1972-1983

SINGLE SCREEN 170 min. - THREE-SCREEN 56 min.
Film sales price list DVD sales price list

click for 'Amerika' individual films page

AMERIKA   is a "feature-length experimental film which was created one reel at a time to function as a mosaic that expresses the various sensations, myths, landscapes of the industrialized Western culture (1960's -1980's) through the eyes of media-anarchism and avant-garde film techniques." (AR)

'Amerika' Brings Reality Into Focus - SPECIAL SCREENINGS - November 21, 1988, LA Times
"Al Razutis' monumental, 3-hour "Amerika" (1972-1983), which Filmforum is presenting tonight at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) at 7:30, may well be the most provocative and challenging experimental work to screen in Los Angeles this year. Between the Biblical quotes that frame it: "Let us create man in our image . . ." and "Let us start anew . . . East of Eden," Razutis alternately dazzles and numbs but winds up making us think critically about how the media has shaped our very notion of reality."

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times November 21, 1988

"The 'Simulacrum', the 'Spectacle', the 'global village' gone into hyperbole is the 'mediascape' of AMERIKA. Here, the spectacles of ever-changing 'media' employ shifting signifiers (the formal elements) and produce coded and proliferating signifieds (meanings) of consummer truths, world views, historical 'facts', anthropomorphized fears and gratifications.

click for AMERIKA film stills page - separate window
AMERIKA film stills
2006 DVD source
click for VIDEO - Ilmin Museum of Art installation of AMERIKA
AMERIKA 3-screen gallery installation
,
2004 Seoul, Korea (.wmv 30 sec. video)
click for AMERIKA poster by Samantha Hamerness-Coombs
AMERIKA poster
,
by Samantha Hamerness-Coombs
 

AMERIKA EXCERPTS CLIPS ON YOU TUBE

2 min. excerpt video on YouTube:
(6 min. into 3-screen film)

Amerika - 3 screen -  by Al Razutis - 2 min.excerpt on YouTube 6 minutes into 3 screen film

1 min. excerpt video on YouTube:
(15 min. into 3-screen film)

Amerika - 3 screen -  by Al Razutis - 1 min.excerpt on YouTube 15 minutes into 3 screen film

2 min. excerpt video on YouTube
(33 min. into 3-screen film)

Amerika - 3 screen -  by Al Razutis - 2 min.excerpt on YouTube 33 minutes into 3 screen film

2 min. excerpt video on YouTube:
(40 min. into 3-screen film)

Amerika - 3 screen -  by Al Razutis - 1 min.excerpt on YouTube 40 minutes into 3 screen film

"The predominant characteristic of the film is that it draws from existing stock footage archives, the iconography and `memory bank' of a media excessive culture (one theme being media 'bank robbery' and anarcho appropriations - interventions), to locate its `subjects'. The techniques employed in rendering the various fragments vary from video-synthesis, optical matte effects, audio-synthesis,time-lapse cinematography, to more conventional 16 mm forms of representation. It formally references three decades of underground - avant-garde - experimental - commercial - documentary cinemas, and the tensions therein." (A.R.)

'Amerika' was banned briefly in Canada ( see the article in Opsis 1984 - Regina vs... ) and has been featured in international retrospectives in exhibitions and collections in the three-screen format. This film is a Los Angeles Film Critics Award winner and in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Paris - Pompidou.

Produced, Directed, Written, Photographed and Edited by Al Razutis
Appearances by: Samantha Hamerness-Coombs, Lincoln Clarkes, Al Razutis
Soundscapes by: Tony Giancinti, Al Razutis

Critical discussions on the film 'AMERIKA' and filmmaker:

Note: This film contains brief sequences of extreme (stock footage) violence and graphic sexual (stock footage) subject matter. It is assumed you are a consenting adult when you view this film.

Awards:
Los Angeles Film Critics' Award - 1988

Permanent Collections:
Museum of Modern Art of France (George Pompidou) - Paris
(film)
National Library of Australia (VHS, film sections)
Amherst College (DVD)
University of Quebec (Montreal) (DVD)
California Institute of the Arts (VHS)
Simon Fraser University (DVD)

'AMERIKA' - Limited Edition - available on Dual Layer DVD


Visual Essays: Origins of Film

Produced and Directed by Al Razutis, 1973-1984

56 min. color, sound
Film sales price list DVD sales price list

 click for page on individual films in VISUAL ESSAYS: ORIGINS OF FILM

These six visual essays on film/image history attempt to reconstruct the vision of cinematic creation occurring in the minds of cinema's "primitives" ; together they comprise a critical/structural investigation of silent cinema. "I thought it necessary to engage the original film texts by creating a process of `discovery' wherein the viewer could partake in the `myth of creation' without being encumbered by the full questions of ideological significance, historical placement, and authorship." (A.R.)

"Both the visual artist and the educator make their appearances throughout Origins of Film,  but it looks to be the poet who has the final say. Informing the overall shape of the project is an argument that is presented at a number of levels. Each film is structured around a distinct set of optical printing and collage techniques [and] ... embodies a `look' which becomes the film's central strategy and metaphor." (Peter Chapman, Independent Eye)

In the collections of
National Gallery of Canada (Permanent Collection - film)
Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Spain (DVD)
University library of Lausanne, Switzerland (DVD)
University of Provence, France (DVD)

click for illustrated page on VISUAL ESSAYS ORIGINS OF FILM

VISUAL ESSAYS SHORT CLIPS ON YOU TUBE


'Lumiere's Train...'
2 min. excerpt video on YouTube:

Lumiere's Train (arriving at the station -  by Al Razutis - 1 min.excerpt on YouTube

'Melies Catalogue'
1 min. excerpt video on YouTube:

Melies Catalogue -  by Al Razutis - 1 min.excerpt on YouTube

'Sequels in Transfigured Time'
2 min. excerpt video on YouTube:

SEQUELS IN TRANSFIGURED TIME'  by Al Razutis excerpt on YouTube

'Ghost: Image'
1 min. excerpt video on YouTube:

Ghost: Image -  by Al Razutis - 1 min.excerpt on YouTube

'For Artaud'
1 min. excerpt video on YouTube:

For Artaud -  by Al Razutis - 1 min.excerpt on YouTube

'Storming the Winter Palace'
1 min. excerpt video on YouTube:

Storming the Winter Palace -  by Al Razutis - 1 min.excerpt on YouTube

'Visual Essays: Origins of Film' - Limited Edition - available on DVD


IF YOU CANNOT LOCATE A VIDEO TITLE
or looking for short films - videos by Al Razutis no longer in general distribution
VISIT: 'Film - Video Archives'


Why Don't You Just Leave?

Produced and Directed by Anne Popperwell and Al Razutis, 1996

28 min. color, sound

WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE?

Abstract images, uncompromising text, and the voices of men from the Family Violence Project in Victoria, BC expose the implications of domestic violence towards women.

Created as a video installation piece for a travelling exhibition of paintings by west coast artist Anne Popperwell, 'Why Don't You Just Leave?'

WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE?
'Why Don't You Just Leave? can be presented in single monitor or video projected in installation or theater. .

This tape explores the various 'languages' of domestic violence by presenting text, voice-over testimonials from men who have engaged in violence. The visuals supply segmented and semi-abstracted images of women's bodies bearing text written upon the physical 'sites' of violence. As analysis of violence, the tape deals with the segmentation of our knowlege of violence and is presented in a poetic (non-didactic) manner for both male and female audiences.

This videotape on DVD continues to be exhibited in a variety of national and international exhibitions.

WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE? CLIPS ON YOU TUBE

1 min. 30 sec. (silent) excerpt video on YouTube

Why Don't You Just Leave -  by Anne Poppwerwell and Al Razutis - 1 min. 30 sec.   silent excerpt on YouTube

2 min. (sound) excerpt video on YouTube:

Why Don't You Just Leave -  by Anne Poppwerwell and Al Razutis - 2 min. sound  excerpt on YouTube

'Why Don't You Just Leave?' - available on DVD

DVD sales price list

For additional DVD SALES information: alrazutis@ymail.com

For additional DVD SALES information: DVD SALES PAGE - LEGACY VIDEO ART TITLES


IF YOU CANNOT LOCATE A VIDEO TITLE
or looking for short films - videos by Al Razutis no longer in general distribution
VISIT: 'Film - Video Archives'


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