Join us at the San Francisco Public Library on Wednesday, July 10th for a free program of films by influential poet and avant-garde pioneer filmmaker James Broughton (1913-1999). The films cover Broughton’s career and will include The Pleasure Garden (1953); The Bed (1968); and Testament – 1974. Films will be introduced by Joey Cain.
In 1989 James Broughton received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Experimental Film, but the journey wasn”t always so obvious. “Cinema saved me from suicide,” he once said. But Broughton”s filmmaking wasn”t like anyone else”s. Today he is considered the “father of West Coast experimental film.” His poetic films broke taboos (including frontal nudity), celebrated quirk, and broadcast the whimsical while being one of the first to blend poetry with visual images.
- Testament (1974) is James Broughton’s exquisite self-portrait. A plethora of rich personal symbols is woven throughout the film, tied together by verbal games, Zen poems, anecdotes, songs, a child’s prayer, dreams, and visions.
- In 1967’s “summer of love,” James Broughton made The Bed, a celebration of the dance of life which broke taboos against frontal nudity and won prizes at many film festivals.
- The Pleasure Garden is a playful and poetic ode to desire, and winner of the Prix de Fantaisie Poétique at Cannes in 1954. Set in an overgrown garden dotted with classical statuary, it pits the forces of life, love and light against the dark, dreary and draconian.
WHAT: “Making Light of It” ~ A free screening of 3 James Broughton films
WHERE: Koret Auditorium, Main Branch, San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin * Street, San Francisco, California
WHEN: 6pm, Wednesday July 10th
FACEBOOK: Event Link