Visual Alchemy - History

But it is precisely what I engaged in -- in a series of 'black leader' films late 60's and early 1970's it was. No point in trying to 'appease a public' I thought, we thought, when most of us underground filmmakers had dropped out that money, fame, public art game which fed the machine.

So, here it is, now on You Tube. A video of the film projection with intermittent comments by the curators Felix Rapp and Sidney Gordon. This version in particular some might find 'difficult'. Well, difficult is very satisfying to some of us -- why abandon all the perks of 'modernity' if not to be difficult?

AAEON (Abridged) film by Al Razutis 1971 -- projection in theater version

On YouTube: https://youtu.be/o_yarXiMOQs

Exhibition curator Felix Rapp (who videotaped this in the Cinematheque, Vancouver theater in 2024) and XINEMA Film Curator Sidney Gordon screen the film AAEON and note that this is an abridged version, and further converse sparsely as the film runs on screen.

This 1971 experimental film was composed entirely by Al Razutis on his custom built optical printer and represents a synaesthetic film concert with a complex montage, overlays, with sound composed by Phillip Werren.

"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.)

The film was a 'hands on' project, created in the spirit of Underground and Experimental authorship where all aspects of film production (producing, directing, cinematography, editing, lab timing, original conforming-neg cutting) were created by individual filmmakers (designating 'a film by') and not by hired technicians, as in VFX department. 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.

NOTE: the use of prolonged sequences of BLACK LEADER (where the screen goes black for extended periods, while the sound continues) is intentional and part of Razutis' ongoing experimental film works using disruption, waiting, contradiction of normal cinematic viewing experience (See his film "Black Angel Flag... Eat" by AR 1968 for the origins of this).

NOTE ALSO: The recording of sound by an omni microphone in a theater necessarily includes short bits of conversation between the curators Felix Rapp and Sidney Gordon. ALL THIS IS INTENDED in the filmmaker's preference and why it is included here in this version of this film.

The release print with optical track is courtesy of Cinematheque, Vancouver film archives.

This film is also archived at the Academy Archives, Hollywood, USA and the National Film Archives, Ottawa, Canada.

In 1970, while living in Crescent Beach BC (near the border), I completed AAEON and wanted some 'cash' (to live on). The Bellevue Film Festival - just down the highway, adjacent to Seattle, was a film fest that offered a one thousand dollars prize, was focused on independent and experimental film, had one juror, and I thought (being overly confident, and totally desperate) that I was going to succeed. Well, things turned out differently, and this is a recollection of one such 'lesson in life'.

First, the Bellevue Film Festival had a terrific mission statement, as per the following quote from Ernest Callenbach (the first juror):

INDEPENDENT FILM -- meaning the film made by artists for their own purposes rather than as commercial enterprises expected to bring in a profit -- is especially important at this juncture in film history. Independent film-makers who shoot their films in somewhat the same spirit as the early pioneers of the industry, are able to adopt the spontaneous, personal approach which is becoming increasingly rare in an industry saddled with monstrous costs. It begins to seem likely that the film history of the present is being written, not on the sound stages of Hollywood, but in the garages and lofts of the shoestring artists who borrow equipment, use outdated film, and turn their friends into performers. In sorting out these excellent works from the run of independent production, the various independent film-makers festivals play a crucial role.

So, with unbridled optimism and a terrible desperation (for prize money) I set out with a film-maker friend Keith Rodan, to Bellevue to 'collect on my efforts'. Well, I didn't win a damn thing, and maybe there was (or was not) an 'honorable mention', I can't remember. What I do remember was sitting horrified in the theater watching the 'grand prize winning film' 'The Golden Positions' by James Broughton. I thought, 'what the fuck?!' I also thought, 'who is this guy Broughton anyways?' I was told: "Don't you know he's FAMOUS?" I thought, 'so what?, not knowing that the Bellevue Film Festival had indeed invested in bringing in 'names' to bolster their reputation and heighten their visibility. This agenda had escaped me, and would be 'lesson number one'."

-For the history of the Bellevue Film Festival see the on-line essay (which is illuminating): http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3469

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