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Bruce Conner, the Last Magician of the 20th Century
Program One

Screening on Film
  • Cosmic Ray

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1961, 16mm, black & white, 4 min.

Channeling the “black magic” of Ray Charles’ music, Conner used occult symbols and mysterious images to create this nocturnal and raucous masterpiece.

  • Mea Culpa

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1981, 16mm, black & white, 5 min.

In his first collaboration with David Byrne and Brian Eno, Conner used footage from educational films to create a rhythmically austere image-track for music from their pioneering “sampling” album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981).

  • A MOVIE

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1958, 16mm, black & white, 12 min.

The ultimate found footage film, A MOVIE summarizes—and critiques—the history of modern cinema in just twelve minutes.

  • Marilyn Times Five

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1968-73, 16mm, color, 14 min.

Conner’s response to structural cinema is at turns hilarious and sad, appropriating the strained performance of Marilyn Monroe imitator Arline Hunter.

  • Vivian

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1964, 16mm, black & white, 4 min.

An ecstatic portrait of actress Vivian Kurtz that features footage of a 1964 Conner exhibition and couches a humorous critique of the art market.

  • Ten Second Film

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1965, 16mm, black & white, silent.

Conner created a ten second scandal with this very short film, commissioned by the New York Film Festival as a “trailer” and promptly rejected for being simply “too fast.”

  • Take the 5:10 to Dreamland

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1977, 16mm, color, 5 min.

An oneiric, autobiographic chapter in Conner’s cinema with a mysterious, evocative soundtrack by Patrick Gleeson.

  • Valse Triste

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1979, 16mm, color, 5 min.

A lyrical companion piece to 5:10, this poetic found-footage memoir counts as one of Conner’s most intimate films.

  • Looking For Mushrooms

    Directed by Bruce Conner.
    US, 1996, 16mm, color, 15 min.

Conner returned to his first color footage of travels in Mexico and his early years in San Francisco, radically slowing down the original material—by adding five frames per shot—to craft a spellbinding and hypnotic superimposition of two worlds.

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