16mm AVANT-GARDE FILMS
Al Razutis - Major Works
AMERIKA
Produced and Directed by Al Razutis, 1972-1983
SINGLE SCREEN 170 min. - THREE-SCREEN 56 min. 
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)
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'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
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"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.
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1 min. excerpt video on YouTube: (15 min. into 3-screen film)

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

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"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.)
Click
on thumbnails for specific films-reels as individually released - with YouTube clips
'AMERIKA'
was banned briefly in Canada ( see 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
2002 Film Screening at The Blinding Light!!!
Cinema (Vancouver) revued by Bryan Zandberg Amerika....Amerika
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 an adult when
you view this film.
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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
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