Film Screenings / Programs / Series
AVANT-GARDE ADS: PART 1
November 15 – December 16
November 15-December 16, 2025
The particular realm of cinema that Anthology Film Archives was put on earth to preserve, present, and celebrate is one that has famously been difficult to label, with filmmakers, programmers, and scholars perpetually debating the appropriateness of such terms as “experimental”, “avant-garde”, “independent”, etc. One descriptor that seems reasonably comprehensive and relatively uncontroversial is “non-commercial”, since much of this body of filmmaking has been made in implicit or explicit opposition to the commercial mainstream embodied by Hollywood, and by profit-driven cinemas around the world. The film series “Avant-Garde Ads”, however, aims to trouble that seemingly foundational distinction by calling attention to those instances in which (for lack of a better term) “avant-garde” filmmakers – even those who seem most indisputably to embody the anti-commercial purity and radicalism of this filmmaking tradition, such as Stan Brakhage, Peter Kubelka, Jordan Belson, Bruce Baillie, and Nathaniel Dorsky – have made advertisements, corporate films, public service announcements, or other sponsored works. Far from simply works-for-hire, these films invariably reflect – and often fully embody – the qualities that mark the filmmakers’ wholly independent work.
“Avant-Garde Ads” features works from the first decades of the cinema that show the then-especially-porous – seemingly almost nonexistent – boundaries between what we now think of as commercial and experimental filmmaking (including sublime animated advertisements by figures such as Walter Ruttmann, Lotte Reiniger, Oskar Fischinger, Len Lye, and the Dodals), as well as little-known later ads or sponsored films by everyone from Nathaniel Dorsky, Jerome Hiler, and Robert Breer to Paul Bartel, Ingmar Bergman, David Cronenberg, and David Lynch. It also includes sponsored films by makers who may not have come from the realm of avant-garde cinema, but who nevertheless produced works that are as visually inventive, formally audacious, and flat-out trippy as anything that has emerged from the underground cinema.
The series expands even further to explore other ways in which experimental filmmakers have engaged with the phenomenon of advertising, by making works that adopt the form, style, or technique of ads; by using ads as found footage; or by actually buying airtime for their own purposes (examples include Richard Serra & Carlotta Schoolman’s TELEVISION DELIVERS PEOPLE, Chris Burden’s THE TV COMMERCIALS 1973-1977, and Stan Douglas’s TELEVISION SPOTS).
Whether the films included here represent something like an “applied experimentalism”, avant-garde incursions into enemy territory, evidence of the reality that even the most independent of artists need to make a living, or all of the above, “Avant-Garde Ads” complicates the idea that “avant-garde film” and sponsored cinema exist in entirely separate universes.
Special thanks to all the artists, and to Miguel Armas (Light Cone); Lindsay Basile (David Zwirner); Michal Brezovský (National Film Archive, Prague); Rebecca Cleman, Karl McCool, and Jooyoung Park (Electronic Arts Intermix); Martha Colburn; Peter Courtemanche (Stan Douglas Studio); Julia Curl (Film-Makers’ Coop); Sarah Davy, Susan Hughes, and Alexandra Porter (Len Lye Foundation); Antje Ehmann (Harun Farocki GbR); Kristen Gallerneaux, Jim Orr, and Brian Wilson (The Henry Ford); Anke Hahn (Deutsche Kinemathek); Matevž Jerman (Slovenian Cinematheque); Jori Johnson (History Colorado); Kajsa Hedström (Swedish Film Institute); Agnes Iski (National Film Institute Hungary); Brett Kashmere & Zachary Epcar (Canyon Cinema); Tajana Kosor (Heretic); Rikako Kosugiyama (National Film Archive of Japan); Yasuko Kumashiro (Tokuma Shoten Publishing); Marianka Louwers (Philips Company Archives); Kevin Lutz (Austrian Film Museum); Kristin MacDonough & Emily Martin (Video Data Bank); Brooke Mallinger (Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision); Philip Mathews & Elisabeth Tiso; Simona Monizza & Olivia Buning (Eye Filmmuseum); Linda Murray & Nick Carbone (NYPL, Jerome Robbins Dance Division); Márton Orosz; Frédéric M. Savard (National Film Board of Canada); Dietmar Schwärzler & Gerald Weber (sixpack film); Jon Shibata (Pacific Film Archive); Nick Spark (Periscope Film); Robert Thompson & Michael Taylor (National Archives); Mark Toscano & Edda Manriquez (Academy Film Archive); Tauni Western (Eames Office); and Drew Yoel.
ADVERTISEMENTS (1920s-40s)
This program collects pre-WWII-era advertisements, many of them experimental animations by renowned avant-garde filmmakers and artists such as Walter Ruttmann, Lotte Reiniger, Hans Richter, Oskar Fischinger, László Moholy-Nagy, and Len Lye. Made when the cinema was still in its infancy, with the lines between different forms of moving-image production not yet fully established, these films are often virtually indistinguishable from the artists’ non-commercial work, and are essentially experimental films made in the service of various products.
Walter Ruttmann DER SIEGER 1921, 2 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for Excelsior tires. Courtesy of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Walter Ruttmann DAS WUNDER 1922, 3 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for Kantorowicz liqueur. Courtesy of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Lotte Reiniger THE SECRET OF THE MARQUISE / DAS GEHEIMNIS DER MARQUISIN 1922, 2.5 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for Nivea skin cream.
Julius Pinschewer & Lotte Reiniger THE BARCAROLE / DIE BARCAROLE 1924, 3.5 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for Pralinés Mauxion dessert. Courtesy of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Julius Pinschewer & Guido Seeber FILM (KIPHO) 1925, 5.5 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for the Kino- und Photoausstellung trade show. Courtesy of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Hans Richter TWO PENNY MAGIC / ZWEIGROSCHENZAUBER 1929, 2 min, 16mm. Ad for the magazine Koelnische Illustrierte Zeitung.
Lotte Lendesdorff & Walter Ruttmann HEALTH TONIC / DER AUFSTIEG 1926, 2 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for the GESOLEI health and art exhibition in Düsseldorf. Courtesy of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
László Moholy-Nagy, György Kepes, and Sybille Pietzsch (uncredited contributors) under the direction of Egon von Tresckow DER FEINSCHMECKER 1934, 2 min, 35mm-to-digital, silent. Ad for Jena Glass.
Oskar Fischinger CIRCLES / KREISE 1933-34, 2 min, 16mm. Commissioned by Tolirag publicity agency.
Oskar Fischinger MURATTI GETS IN THE ACT 1934, 3 min, 16mm. Ad for Muratti Cigarettes.
Oskar Fischinger MURATTI PRIVAT 1935, 2 min, 16mm. Ad for Muratti Cigarettes.
Karel Dodal & Irena Dodalová BUBBLES GAME / HRA BUBLINEK 1936, 2 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for Saponia soap. Courtesy of the National Film Archive, Prague.
Karel Dodal & Irena Dodalová AN AUTUMN SONG / PÍSEŇ PODZIMU 1937, 2 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for the Prokop Čáp [Prokop and Stork] department store. Courtesy of the National Film Archive, Prague.
Len Lye KALEIDOSCOPE 1935, 4 min, 35mm. Ad for Churchman Cigarettes. Print courtesy of the Austrian Filmmuseum.
Gyula Macskássy INCANDESCENT LOVE / IZZÓ SZERELEM 1939, 2 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for Tungsram light bulbs. Courtesy of the National Film Institute Hungary.
Gyula Macskássy & György Szénásy LIGHT / FÉNY 1942, 1 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Ad for Tungsram light bulbs. Courtesy of the National Film Institute Hungary.
Len Lye THE BIRTH OF A ROBOT 1935, 6.5 min, 35mm. Ad for Shell Lubrication oils. Print courtesy of the Austrian Filmmuseum.
Alexander Hammid & Elmar Klos THE HIGHWAY SINGS / SILNICE ZPÍVÁ 1937, 4 min, 35mm. Ad for Bata tires. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
Total running time: ca. 65 min.
Sat, Nov 15 at 6:30 and Sun, Dec 7 at 8:15.
LONGER FORM ADVERTISEMENTS
Toshio Matsumoto, Genichiro Higuchi, and Masao Yabe
BICYCLE IN DREAM / GINRIN
1955, 12 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Music by Tôru Takemitsu. Commissioned by the Japan Bicycle Promotion Institute. Courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ).
“Toshio Matsumoto (FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES) began his filmmaking career by planning, cowriting, and assistant-directing GINRIN, an astonishingly experimental PR film commissioned by the Japan Bicycle Promotion Institute. His collaborators on the project were Shozo Kitadai and Katsuhiro Yamaguchi, members of Japan’s postwar collective Jikken Kobo, the composer Toru Takemitsu and the special effects creator Eiji Tsuburaya, who would go on to do the same for the GODZILLA series.” –Taro Nettleton, ART REVIEW
Toshio Matsumoto
THE RECORD OF A LONG WHITE LINE / SHIROI NAGAI SEN NO KIROKU
1960, 13 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Kansai Electricity.
“A short history of the development of Japan’s energy supply after the war, commissioned by the energy company Kansai and made as a stylistically heterogeneous blend of animations, veristic observations, etc.” –INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL OBERHAUSEN
Ed Emshwiller
FUSION
1967, 16 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Spring Mills. Courtesy of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
“A cine-dance film sponsored by Springs Mills to promote a new line of towels designed by Pucci. Dancers throw, move through, dance with, and are draped in a variety of designer towels.” –Ed Emshwiller
Total running time: ca. 45 min.
Sat, Nov 15 at 8:30 and Tues, Dec 9 at 6:45.
ADVERTISEMENTS (1950s-90s)
This program of post-WWII advertisements encompasses striking commissioned films by experimental film- and video-makers like Jordan Belson, Peter Kubelka, Pat O’Neill, Chick Strand, Dara Birnbaum, and Jeff Preiss, and art-house giants such as Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg, and throws in appearances from Frank Zappa, John Waters, and Father Guido Sarducci for good measure.
John Waters & Douglas Brian Martin [Nuart Theatre no smoking PSA] 1982, 40 sec, 35mm
Mark Shepard [EZTV No smoking PSA] ca. 1985, 30 sec, video
Ingmar Bergman BRIS SOAP COMMERCIALS [selection] 1951, 6.5 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute.
Oskar Fischinger MUNTZ TV 1953, 1.5 min, 16mm. Ad for Muntz TV.
Jordan Belson CHRONICLE 1955, 2 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Ad for the San Francisco Chronicle. Courtesy of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
Paul Bartel THE SUBJECT WAS WRINKLES 1960s, 7.5 min, 16mm-to-digital
Len Lye RHYTHM 1957, 1 min, 16mm, b&w. Commissioned (but rejected) by Chrysler.
Peter Kubelka ADEBAR 1957, 1 min, 35mm. Commissioned (but rejected) by Vienna’s Café Adebar.
Peter Kubelka SCHWECHATER 1958, 1 min, 16mm. Commissioned (but rejected) by Schwechater Bier.
Anonymous Commercials for d-c-fix and INKU GF-Kante 1963/65, 4 min, 35mm, b&w. Preserved (2013) by the Austrian Film Museum.
Dwinell Grant PEPSI-COLA-COMMERCIAL 1960, 1 min, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
Pat O’Neill, Neon Park, and Chick Strand SEARS SOX 1968, 5 min, 16mm. Commissioned by Sears department stores. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Ed Seeman & Frank Zappa [Luden’s Cough Drops ad] 1967, 1 min, video
Karpo Godina [Zastava 101 ads] ca. 1975, 1.5 min, video
Karpo Godina [Koloy’s Spearmint Chewing Gum ad] ca. 1970s, 1 min, video
Dara Birnbaum REMY/GRAND CENTRAL: TRAINS AND BOATS AND PLANES 1980, 4 min, video. Commissioned by Remy Martin. Courtesy of the Estate of Dara Birnbaum and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
George Manupelli & William Farley FATHER GUIDO SARDUCCI ON ART SCHOOL 1982, 1 min, video. Ad for the San Francisco Art Institute.
Dara Birnbaum MTV: ARTBREAK 1987, 30 sec, video. Courtesy of the Estate of Dara Birnbaum and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
David Daniels [ABC promo – Michael Jackson] 1987, 12 sec, video
David Daniels [Honda Scooter ad] 1988, 30 sec, video
David Daniels [IDIOT BOX opening sequence] 1990, 30 sec, video
David Daniels [Clearasil ad] 1995, 30 sec, video
M. Henry Jones & Tom Marsan [America’s Best Contacts and Eyeglasses commercial] 1990, 30 sec, video
Jean-Luc Godard [Closed Jeans ads] 1987/88, 2 min, video
Jean-Luc Godard [Nike Air 180 ad] 1991, 15 sec, video
Jean-Luc Godard [Schick Aftershave ad] 1991, 1 min, video
Jean-Luc Godard [Parisienne People Cigarettes ad] 1992, 45 sec, video. Co-directed by Anne-Marie Miéville.
David Cronenberg [Nike Air 180 ad] 1990, 30 sec, video
David Cronenberg [Caramilk ad] 1990, 30 sec, video
David Lynch [Georgia Coffee ads] 1991, 2 min, digital
David Lynch [Michael Jackson Dangerous Short Films intro] 1991, 30 sec, digital
David Lynch [Adidas the Wall ad] (1993, 1 min, digital)
David Lynch [Sci Fi Channel interstitials] 1997, 1 min, digital
David Lynch PARISIENNE PEOPLE 1998, 1 min, digital. Ad for Parisienne cigarettes.
David Lynch [Playstation 2 ad] 2000, 1 min, digital
David Lynch [David Lynch Coffee ad] 2011, 4 min, digital
Jeff Preiss NIKE: HIPPIES / JOEL 1993, 1 min, 16mm-to-digital
Jeff Preiss CHERRY COKE: RUGBY 1998, 1 min, 16mm-to-digital
Jeff Preiss YELLOW PAGES: TOUR / CRITIC / GREEN ROOM 1998, 2 min, 16mm-to-digital
Total running time: ca. 70 min.
Sun, Nov 16 at 5:15 and Tues, Dec 9 at 8:30.
STAN BRAKHAGE
Stan Phillips COLORADO LEGEND 1961, 11 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Photography, Editing, and Pictorial Direction by Stan Brakhage. Produced for the State of Colorado.
Stan Phillips BALLAD OF THE COLORADO UTE 1963, 17 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Photography, Editing, and Pictorial Direction by Stan Brakhage. Produced for the State of Colorado.
“Educational/informational films made as commissioned works for the Colorado Department of Public Relations through Western Cine, which was a film laboratory (and Brakhage’s primary lab), but also a production company for educational films for an unknown period in the early 1960s. Although directed by Brakhage’s longtime friend Stan Phillips, Brakhage is credited with ‘photography, editing, and pictorial direction’, and the films bear some hallmarks of his personal style.” –Mark Toscano
Stan Brakhage
MR. TOMPKINS INSIDE HIMSELF
1962, 41 min, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
“An educational film made by Brakhage with Western Cine owner John Newell (who also photographed much of the film), based on ‘Mr. Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life’ by George Gamow. Although some of the medical and scientific footage in this film was obtained from separate sources, there is a credit stating ‘Microphotography of Vessels of Living Bat’s Wing, Mouse Lung, Red Blood, Slides, and Photography of Internal Heart of Sheep and External Heart of Living Dog by Stan Brakhage and George Gamow’. Some of this footage was also used by Brakhage in DOG STAR MAN.” –Mark Toscano
Total running time: ca. 60 min.
Sun, Nov 16 at 7:30 and Mon, Dec 8 at 6:30.
CULTURE + EDUCATION
This program pairs Jonas Mekas’s FILM MAGAZINE OF THE ARTS – commissioned by Show Magazine, but rejected for containing no references to the magazine itself – with films made for various school systems by Bruce Baillie and Chick Strand; Robert Breer’s PBL #2 (a cartoon history of the black American for broadcast on the NET network); Cathryn Aison and Philip Glass’s SESAME STREET segment, GEOMETRY OF CIRCLES; and Jerome Hiler and Nathaniel Dorsky’s LIBRARY, a moving and lovely paean to New Jersey’s Sussex County Library.
Jonas Mekas FILM MAGAZINE OF THE ARTS 1963, 20 min, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
“In Spring, 1963 Show Magazine called me and asked that I make a film on arts in New York. I told them, why did they want me to make it – didn’t they know I was a bit unusual?… ‘We want something unusual,’ they said. So I went out and made a newsreel on arts. Show people looked at the rough cut of the film and became very angry. ‘But there is nothing about Show Magazine and DuPont fabrics in the movie,’ they said. ‘What has that to do with the arts in New York!’ I said. The battle was short. The film was destroyed. Really, I have no idea what they did with it. This workprint of the first FILM MAGAZINE OF THE ARTS is the only print in existence, as far as I know.” –Jonas Mekas
Bruce Baillie HERE I AM 1962, 11 min, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
“A film for the East Bay Activity Center in Oakland, a school for mentally disturbed children.” –Bruce Baillie
Bruce Baillie THE BROOKFIELD RECREATION CENTER 1964, 6 min, 16mm. Preserved by BAMPFA, 2012.
“Made for the Oakland Public Schools on an experimental series of classes in the arts.” –Bruce Baillie
Chick Strand CHILDREN ARE OUR FIRST PRIORITY 1972, 12.5 min, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
This extremely rare work by Chick Strand is a sponsored film about Title 1 schools.
Robert Breer PBL #2 1968, 1 min, 16mm
“A concise, one-minute cartoon history of the black American, commissioned by the Public Broadcast Laboratory and shown on NET network.” –CANYON CINEMA
Cathryn Aison & Philip Glass GEOMETRY OF CIRCLES 1979, 2.5 min, digital. Commissioned by SESAME STREET.
Jerome Hiler & Nathaniel Dorsky LIBRARY 1970, 18 min, 16mm-to-DCP. New digitization by the Harvard Film Archive. Narrated by Beverly Grant; score by Tony Conrad.
“[In 1970 Hiler and Dorsky] collaborated on an unexpected and little-known work, an industrial film commissioned by New Jersey’s Sussex County Area Reference Library, whose local branch Dorsky and Hiler frequented first as patrons, then eventually as projectionists and programmers for the library’s 16mm screenings. […] A collaboration with their friends Tony Conrad and his wife, actress Beverly Grant, who contributed, respectively, its minimalist score and voiceover narration, LIBRARY…is a direct complement to both filmmakers’ contemporary diary films and an extension of their somewhat idealized vision of daily life in rural New Jersey. More importantly, the film gives revealing expression to the close correspondence uniting Dorsky and Hiler’s work, and their shared dedication to an ideal of art as a form of spiritual experience and devotion.” –Haden Guest, CINEMA SCOPE
Total running time: ca. 75 min.
Mon, Nov 17 at 6:15 and Mon, Dec 8 at 8:30.
CULTURE + TOURISM
Hans Richter’s THE NEW APARTMENT – produced for a Swiss architectural and interior design exhibition to promote modern approaches to design – is paired here with travel- and tourism-themed films by the great experimental animators Len Lye and Norman McLaren, the trippy bicentennial animation 200, and a fascinating film designed to promote the city of Pittsburgh (on the occasion of its own bicentennial), which was made with contributions from photographer Weegee, avant-garde filmmakers Stan Brakhage, Lye, and Stan Vanderbeek, and photographers W. Eugene Smith and Willard Van Dyke.
Hans Richter THE NEW APARTMENT / DIE NEUE WOHNUNG 1930, 28 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Schweizerischer Werkbund (SWB).
Len Lye COLOUR FLIGHT 1938, 4 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Imperial Airways.
Len Lye SWINGING THE LAMBETH WALK 1939, 4 min, 35mm. Commissioned by the British Tourist and Industrial Development Association. Print courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Len Lye LIFE’S MUSICAL MINUTE 1953, 2 min, 35mm-to-DCP
Norman McLaren NEW YORK LIGHTBOARD RECORD 1961, 9 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
PITTSBURGH 1959, 28 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Produced by On Film Co.
Vince Collins 200 1975, 3 min, 16mm-to-DCP
Total running time: ca. 80 min.
Mon, Nov 17 at 8:15 and Sun, Dec 7 at 6:00.
INDUSTRIALS/COMMUNICATIONS 1: RADIO
The films included here were designed to promote and celebrate the still-novel technology of radio broadcasting. Most were commissioned by the Dutch company Philips Radio, which produced numerous promotional films, in various countries and by numerous different filmmakers, throughout the 1930s and beyond, many of them strikingly experimental in form.
Hans Richter EUROPA RADIO 1931, 10 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Philips Radio. Courtesy of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Hans Richter FROM LIGHTNING TO TELEVISION / VAN BLIKSEMSCHICHT TOT TELEVISIE 1936, 29 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Philips Radio. Digitally restored by EYE Filmmuseum, and screened with the permission of Royal Philips / Philips Company Archives.
Karel Dodal & Irena Dodalová THE WIZARD OF TONES / ČARODĚJ TÓNŮ 1936, 1.5 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Telefunken. Courtesy of the National Film Archive, Prague.
Karel Dodal & Irena Dodalová THE SOUNDS OF OUTER SPACE / ZNĚJÍCÍ VESMÍR 1936, 2 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Telefunken. Courtesy of the National Film Archive, Prague.
George Pal THE BALLET OF RED RADIOVALVES 1938, 2.5 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Philips Radio. Courtesy of EYE Filmmuseum and Royal Philips / Philips Company Archives.
George Pal THE SHIP OF THE ETHER 1936, 7.5 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Philips Radio. Courtesy of EYE Filmmuseum and Royal Philips / Philips Company Archives.
Jószef Misik KERMESSE FANTASTIQUE 1951, 10 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Philips Radio. Courtesy of EYE Filmmuseum and Royal Philips / Philips Company Archives.
Joop Geesink THE TRAVELLING TUNE 1962, 10 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by Philips Radio. Courtesy of EYE Filmmuseum and Royal Philips / Philips Company Archives.
Total running time: ca. 80 min.
Sat, Nov 22 at 5:45 and Tues, Dec 16 at 6:30.
INDUSTRIALS/COMMUNICATIONS 2: TECHNOLOGY + MATHEMATICS
These films focus mainly on then-novel communications technologies, including magnetic tape, new postal methods, and above all, computing (and its potential for creating new kinds of imagery). Reflecting the radical nature of these technologies, the sponsored films included here adopt highly experimental approaches to sound, image, and editing.
Charles & Ray Eames A COMMUNICATIONS PRIMER 1953, 22 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Screened by permission © Eames Office, LLC (eamesoffice.com). All rights reserved.
Ferdinand Khittl THE MAGIC RIBBON / DAS MAGISCHE BAND 1959, 21 min, 35mm-to-DCP
Edgar Reitz COMMUNICATION / KOMMUNIKATION – TECHNIK DER VERSTÄNDIGUNG 1961, 11 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Commissioned by the German Post Office.
Bernard Longpré TEST 0558 1965, 4 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
John Whitney, Sr. EXPERIMENTS IN MOTION GRAPHICS 1968, 12 min, 16mm
Raymond Brousseau & Bernard Longpré DIMENSION SOLEILS 1970, 4 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
Lillian Schwartz PIXILLATION 1970, 4 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Produced at Bell Laboratories. From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Lillian Schwartz & Ken Knowlton UFOS 1971, 4 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Produced at Bell Laboratories. From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Lillian Schwartz ENIGMA 1972, 4 min, 16mm-to-DCP. Produced at Bell Laboratories. From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Total running time: ca. 90 min.
Sat, Nov 22 at 8:00 and Tues, Dec 16 at 8:45.
PSAs: ECONOMY/WAR/HEALTH
This program pays tribute to the sponsored film category of the Public Service Announcement, with several works (by Hans Richter, Len Lye, and Norman McLaren) made during WWII, as well as Carl Dreyer’s anti-speeding cautionary tale, THEY CAUGHT THE FERRY, Niki de Saint Phalle and her son Philip Mathews’s ads raising awareness about AIDS, David Lynch’s anti-littering spot, and more.
Hans Richter INFLATION 1928, 3 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Len Lye MUSICAL POSTER NO. 1 1940, 3 min, 35mm. Print courtesy of the Austrian Filmmuseum.
Len Lye NEWSPAPER TRAIN 1942, 6 min, 35mm-to-DCP
Len Lye KILL OR BE KILLED 1942, 18 min, 35mm. Print courtesy of the Austrian Filmmuseum.
Len Lye WORK PARTY 1942, 7 min, 35mm-to-DCP
Norman McLaren KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT 1944, 3 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
Norman McLaren V FOR VICTORY 1941, 2 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
Norman McLaren FIVE FOR FOUR 1942, 3 min, 35mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
Philip Mathews, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Silvio Barandun AIDS (Public Service Announcements) 1990, 4 min, video. Directed by Philip Mathews and animated by Steve Dovas, Barbara Nislick, and Tony Luamaco. Based on the book “AIDS: You Can’t Catch It Holding Hands”.
Tom Rubnitz SUMMER OF LOVE PSA 1990, 30 sec, video
Rachael Guma EXTRA ULTRA SUPER GAL 2024, 3.5 min, DCP
Carl Th. Dreyer THEY CAUGHT THE FERRY / DE NÅEDE FÆRGEN 1948, 11 min, 35mm. Print courtesy of the Austrian Filmmuseum.
David Lynch WE CARE ABOUT NEW YORK 1991, 1 min, digital. Commissioned by the New York Dept of Sanitation.
Pat Lehman DRUG ABUSE 1972, 1 min, video
Jeff Preiss JACKSON SONG 1990, 2 min, 16mm-to-digital. Commissioned by Burger King.
Cliff Roth THE REAGANS SPEAK OUT ON DRUGS 1988, 7 min, video-to-16mm
Total running time: ca. 80 min.
Sun, Nov 23 at 5:45 and Thurs, Dec 11 at 8:45.
ARTIST ADS
In contrast to the previous works in the series, which comprise films or advertisements sponsored by various companies or industries, this program consists of films made independently by artists that engage with or intervene in advertising. The first section showcases the rare but fascinating instances in which artists (such as Richard Serra, Carlotta Schoolman, Chris Burden, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Stan Douglas) have actually purchased TV airtime for their own purposes, as well as finding room for works like Vito Acconci’s ELECTION TAPE ’84, Muntadas’s THIS IS NOT AN ADVERTISEMENT, and Harun Farocki’s MUSIC-VIDEO, which were displayed on public advertising billboards. The second part of the program finds artists making films that adopt the form of ads or otherwise satirize or critique advertising.
1. Buying time (artists buying their own advertising time):
Richard Serra & Carlotta Schoolman TELEVISION DELIVERS PEOPLE 1973, 6.5 min, video
Chris Burden THE TV COMMERCIALS 1973-1977 1973-77/2000, 4 min, video
Lynn Hershman Leeson COMMERCIAL FOR MYSELF 1978, 46 sec, video
Vito Acconci ELECTION TAPE ’84 1984, 2 min, video
Muntadas THIS IS NOT AN ADVERTISEMENT 1985, 5 min, video
Stan Douglas TELEVISION SPOTS 1987-88, ca. 5 min, video
Harun Farocki MUSIC-VIDEO / MUSIKVIDEO 2000, 1 min, video
2. Films that adopt the format/language of ads:
Joan Logue 30 SECOND PORTRAITS: NEW YORK ARTISTS 1982, 15 min, video. Made in collaboration with the artists.
Thom Andersen MELTING 1965, 6 min, 16mm
Michael Smith MIKE 1987, 3.5 min, video
Valie Export A PERFECT PAIR 1987, 13.5 min, video
Kristin Lucas INFORECEPTOR 1994, 5 min, digital
Tony Cokes AD VICE 1999, 6.5 min, digital
Ilana Harris-Babou REPARATION HARDWARE 2018, 4 min, digital
Total running time: ca. 85 min.
Sun, Nov 23 at 8:00 and Fri, Dec 12 at 6:30.
ADS AS FOUND FOOTAGE, PROGRAM 1
Harun Farocki
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CONSUMER / EIN TAG IM LEBEN DER ENDVERBRAUCHER
1993, 44 min, DCP. In German with English subtitles.
“Harun Farocki plunders 40 years of advertising films, which he orchestrates to constitute an ironic 24 hours in the life of typical consumers, mixing different colors, periods, and various ‘ideologies of well being’ to hold up a mirror to our times, values, worries, hopes. This collage of ‘beautiful images,’ gleeful and chaotic, deconstructs not only the domestic reference points which punctuate our daily life, but also gives full rein to an off-beat humor in the tradition of Brechtian distanciation.” –Andrei Ujica
Preceded by:
Andrew Lampert BENETTON 2004, 4.5 min, 16mm-to-digital, silent
Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut WAITING FOR COMMERCIALS 1966-72 1992, 6.5 min, video
Peter Kubelka POETRY AND TRUTH / DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT 1996-2003, 13 min, 16mm
Total running time: ca. 75 min.
Mon, Nov 24 at 6:30 and Thurs, Dec 11 at 6:45.
ADS AS FOUND FOOTAGE, PROGRAM 2
Radu Jude & Christian Ferencz-Flatz
EIGHT POSTCARDS FROM UTOPIA / OPT ILUSTRATE DIN LUMEA IDEALĂ
2024, 71 min, DCP. In Romanian with English subtitles.
This found-footage documentary is assembled exclusively out of post-socialist Romanian advertisements. Drawing from the debris of Romania’s long transition period, the film speaks about love and death, the human body and its frailty, the natural and the supernatural, and of course, socialism and capitalism. Bouncing between found poetry and an outdated encyclopedia, between trash art and Summa theologiae, EIGHT POSTCARDS sees Jude teaming up with philosopher Christian Ferencz-Flatz to make another hilarious and unforgiving take down of meta capitalist mythology.
Mon, Nov 24 at 8:30.
HARUN FAROCKI ON ADVERTISING
Harun Farocki
EVERYBODY A BERLINER KINDL / JEDER EIN BERLINER KINDL 1966, 4 min, 16mm-to-DCP
“[This film] deals with advertising for Berliner Kindl, a local beer. It is a matter of the act of self-refutation, an act which is, however, far more than an ironically positioned, merely aesthetic ‘gesture’ – it is evidently related to the manner in which one approaches politics, political speeches and political semiotics.” –Klaus Kreimeier
THE APPEARANCE / DER AUFTRITT
1996, 40 min, 16mm-to-DCP. In German with English subtitles.
“Farocki once again takes us into the world of advertising. An advertising agency has to pitch a marketing concept to an optician’s consortium, represented by the manager who is the first to see the campaign. The logo submitted, ‘Eyedentity’, is examined from every angle: it must simultaneously express both the company’s dynamism and its reliability! A fascinating, dispassionate glimpse behind closed doors, where every detail is dramatized to win that lucrative contract.” –Jörg Becker
STILL LIFE / STILLEBEN
1997, 56 min, 16mm-to-DCP. In German with English subtitles.
According to Farocki, today’s photographers working in advertising are, in a way, continuing the tradition of 17th century Flemish painters in that they depict objects from everyday life – the “still life”. The filmmaker illustrates this intriguing hypothesis with three documentary sequences which show the photographers at work creating a contemporary “still life”: a cheese-board, beer glasses, and an expensive watch.
Total running time: ca. 105 min.
Tues, Nov 25 at 7:00 and Fri, Dec 12 at 8:45.
