Stan Brakhage in Rolling Stock, 1980-1990

This is a collection of writings by the giant of experimental cinema, Stan Brakhage, that shows him in a completely new light, as part of world cinema. For the duration of the 1980s, Brakhage contributed to the Boulder literary magazine Rolling Stock , mostly publishing reports from the Telluride Film Festival. These reports show that Brakhage was keenly interested in world cinema, anxious to meet and dialogue with filmmakers of many different stripes. The book also contains substantial discussion of Brakhage's work in light of the filmmakers he encountered at Telluride and discussed in Rolling Stock . Long chapters are given over to Soviet filmmakers such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Larissa Shepitko, and Sergei Parajanov, as well as the German filmmaker Hans-JÃ"rgen Syberberg. Brakhage was a keen viewer of these filmmakers and their contemporaries, both at Telluride and in his role as teacher at the University of Colorado, and Stan Brakhage and Rolling Stock attempts to place his work alongside theirs and thus reclaim him for world cinema. The book's appendices reprint letters Brakhage wrote to Stella Pence (Telluride's co-founder and managing director), as well as summaries of his work for Telluride and a brace of difficult-to-find reviews.

Table of Contents:
Preface by Linda Williams Introduction Chapter One: A Conservative Avant-garde: Brakhage, Tarkovsky and Syberberg Stan Brakhage Texts Brakhage text 1 âClosely Watched Blursâ Brakhage text 2 âBrakhage at the Ninth Tellurideâ Brakhage text 3 âTelluride Gold: Brakhage Meets Tarkovskyâ Brakhage text 3.1 âShort Takes on Telluride:âStraightâ European vs. New Americanâ Critical Interlude: Notes on the Films Brakhage Showed to Tarkovsky, 1983 Brakhage text 4 âTelluride Zincâ Brakhage text 4.1 âMailer Madness, Torn Machoâ Brakhage text 4.2 âLosey and Leighâ Brakhage text 5 âTelluride Takes, Brakhage Talksâ Brakhage text 6 âBrakhage Observes: Telluride the 13thâ Brakhage text 7 âThe Gold, the Bad & the Usualâ Chapter Two: A Certain Kind of Soviet: Brakhage, Parajanov and Shepitko Conclusion Epilogue: Pordenone, 2015 Appendices Appendix A: Final Brakhage text: âInternational Cinema: The 12th Denverâ Appendix B: Blessings: Letters from Stan Brakhage Appendix C: Ruby Rich: âHitler: A Film From Germany: Is this a fascist film or an exposé of fascist filmmaking?â Appendix D: A Stan Brakhage / Telluride filmography Appendix E : A Stan Brakhage / Rolling Stock bibliography Works Cited

About the Author :
Jerry White is Canada Research Chair in European Studies at Dalhousie University. He is the author of numerous books on film, including Two Bicycles: The Work of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville (WLU Press, 2013).

Review :
Impressively informative, exceptionally well written, thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, Stan Brakhage in Rolling Stock, 1980-1990 is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library Film & Media Studies collections in general, and Stan Brakhage supplemental studies reading lists in particular. -- Carl Logan, Midwest Book Review