Short Films By Hollis Frampton, George Landow, And Robert Nelson

Three key American experimental films that all resemble guessing games. Hollis Frampton’s (Nostalgia) (1971), one of his greatest works, is a profound and profoundly tricky meditation on photography and memory. Remedial Reading Comprehension (1971) by George Landow, who has since renamed himself Owen Land, is one of his funnier structural puzzles. And Bleu Shut (1970), according to Fred Camper, engages the viewer in a peculiar brand of ‘participatory’ cinema: clock hands on the screen supposedly tell us when the film will end, while we hear two voices on the sound track trying to guess the names of the small pleasure boats whose pictures we see, in a parody of multiple-choice quiz shows. (JR)

This entry was posted in Featured Texts. Bookmark the permalink.