[Centuries of June]

Duration: 10

Year Published: 1955

Creator: [filmmaker, Joseph Cornell ; camera, Stan Brakhage].

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: silent

Credits: Cornell, Joseph, direction.; Brakhage, Stan, camera/lighting.; Tower house.; Bolts of melody.; Portrait of June.; June.

Description: No title, credits, or date on film; information supplied from: title on can and leader, Stan Brakhage's comments in Canyon Cinema Co-op catalog no. 6, and Visionary film / P. Adams Sitney.; Running time: 10:07.; Pacific Film Archive collection; non-circulating. Access by appt. only. CBPF.; Film-makers' cooperative catalogue, No.7, p.117.; Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary film. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979, p. 141; Barrett, Gerald R. and Wendy Brabner. Stan Brakhage: a guide to references and resources. Boston, MA.: G.K. Hall, 1983, p. 259; Filmed in Flushing, New York in 1955.; The camera pans across old wooden houses and trees, caressing the porch railing and the lines of the house. Children carrying school books walk down the sidewalk and look into the camera. Men work on the streets and sidewalk in the neighborhood. The camera then looks out over the cityscape visible from the house. Butterflies and birds cross the canera's lens, but it always returns to the house. At the end, boys play where the men had formerly been working. "This film comes to exist because Joseph Cornell wished, one fine summer day, to show me the old homes of his beloved Flushing. One of them had been torn down and another beside it was scheduled for demolition. In torment (similar to that which had prompted him to ask me to photograph the Third Ave. Elevated before it was destroyed) he suggested we spend the afternoon preserving 'the world of this house,' its environs. It would be too strong a word to say he 'directed' my photography; and yet his presence and constant suggestions (often simply by a lift of the hand, or lifted eyebrows even) made this film entirely his. He then spent several years editing it, incorporating 're-takes' into the film's natural process, savoring and lovingly using almost every bit of the footage. And then he gave it back to me, 'in memory of that afternoon.' It was originally to be called Tower house, then Bolts of melody (in homage to Emily Dickinson) and then Portrait of June, and very often simply June."-- Stan Brakhage, Canyon Cinema Co-op catalog no. 6.; PFA 1604-01-3108. COPY-SPECIFC DESCRIPTION: 1 reel of 1 (365 ft.) (10 min.) : si., col., 24 fps ; 16 mm. triacetate print. CONDITION NOTE: Last inspected: 19 Sept 1992; faded; red; leader; scratches; Fair condition: some scratches, one continuous; color poor: faded and red; in last inspection of 01 Aug 1988, color was mentioned as being good; lacks head leader CONDITION NOTE: Last projected (small screening room): 2012/02/29; Projectionist reports that print is faded

Metadata Source:BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE