NOW PLAYING: Holiday Films
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As the holiday season approaches, GME’s launch of the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room comprises an international array of short films, a format that Adrienne championed throughout her career. The movies streamed here are primarily in the experimental vein, and thus are lesser-known movies in the canon of holiday films. This selection incorporates abstract and hand-painted films, found footage movies, puppet animation, and live action. The international reach of Mancia’s programming interests is represented here with films from the United States, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, and Germany.
Mancia personally knew many of these filmmakers and promoted the artistry of their films by programming their works at MoMA in their original celluloid formats. They range from the colorful abstractions of Marie Menken’s LIGHTS (1966) to Kenneth Anger’s homoerotic yearning in FIREWORKS (1947). The live action footage of a family at home in Karel and Borivoj Zemen’s A CHRISTMAS DREAM (1946) is combined with stop-motion puppet animation, while the live action footage of holiday shoppers on New York City streets is overlaid with Jerome Hill’s painted-on-celluloid imagery of Mary and Joseph with their donkey in MERRY CHRISTMAS (1969).
The politically-trenchant found footage film of Harun Farocki’s WHITE CHRISTMAS (1968) is contrasted with the humorous and gender-bending imagery constructed by George Kuchar in SOLSTICE (2009), and with a playful homage to Stan Brakhage in ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS (2015).
Continuing to the link provided below, Lindsay Anderson’s EVERY DAY EXCEPT CHRISTMAS (1957) is a poetic and moving ode to Covent Garden.
Please enjoy this inaugural program, curated by the GME team.
LIGHTS (1966) by Marie Menken
“Made during the brief Christmas-lit season, usually between the hours of midnight and 1:00 A.M., when vehicle and foot traffic was light, over a period of three years. Based on store decorations, window displays, fountains, public promenades, Park Avenue lights, building and church facades. I had to keep my camera under my coat to warm it up, as the temperature was close to zero much of the time.” —Marie Menken
MERRY CHRISTMAS (1969) by Jerome Hill
“Made in 1969, MERRY CHRISTMAS sees Hill apply his experimental painting technique on documentary-like images of the bustling New York streets during Christmastime. He hand-painted the entire short, the characters Mary, Joseph and the donkey drawn onto the film. The technique was an intensive process for the filmmaker that included drawing, painting and gluing objects directly onto the film.” —Jake Perlin, Le Cinema Club
A CHRISTMAS DREAM (1946) by Karel and Bořivoj Zeman
“On Christmas Day, a young girl abandons her old rag doll in favor of her shiny new toys. That night, Santa Claus appears and takes pity on the doll. The girl dreams that the doll comes to life and dances and skates.” —MUBI
FIREWORKS (1947) by Kenneth Anger
“This flick is all I have to say about being seventeen, the United States Navy, American Christmas, and the Fourth of July.” —Kenneth Anger
WHITE CHRISTMAS (1968) by Harun Farocki
“WHITE CHRISTMAS pairs Bing Crosby’s crooning hit song with footage from Vietnam and a Pieta-like picture of a mother holding a dead child. Title cards throughout promise that Uncle Sam has addressed exploding gifts to the Vietcong.” —Travis Diehl, New York Times
SOLSTICE (2009) by George Kuchar (Words and Lyrics by Andy Ditzler, 2006)
“SOLSTICE is a music video illustrating the feelings inspired by this holiday song written by a young man I met in Atlanta, Georgia, Andy Ditzler. My students and I, at the San Francisco Art Institute, concocted the visuals to accompany the tune and the result should evaluate all those suffering from blues of every shade and intensity.” —George Kuchar
ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS — MARIAH CAREY (DIRECTED BY STAN BRAKHAGE), by Conor Williams
“What IF Stan Brakhage directed Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas’ video? Having asked that question, I can’t think of much to follow it up. I could talk about Brakhage’s abstract, layered methodology, or I could talk about Carey’s seemingly immortal Christmas hit, but why? That would just be adding words upon words, for no reason. Just watch Conor Williams’ ingenious video, and get in the holiday spirit.” —Press Play Redux
Click here to view Lindsay Anderson’s EVERY DAY EXCEPT CHRISTMAS (1957) on the Internet Archive.
