Stan Brakhage Obituaries, with Fred Camper's comments and correction (original) (raw)

Home Film My Art Art Other: (Travel, Rants, Obits) Links About Contact

Stan Brakhage links page Stan Brakhage stills page

This is an index to Stan Brakhage obituaries that are no longer available online, or are available only with registration, together with my comments and corrections. They are listed somewhat in my order of preference. Many obituaries are still available online. Fred Camper

Stan Brakhage Obituaries

The Independent, March 15, 2003, by Michael O'Pray.
[Comments: This is the most extensive obit yet. I believe Brakhage lasted less than a full semester at Dartmouth. "Over a decade later a stay in hospital produced a film on the autopsy rooms...": I was unaware that a hospital stay occasioned The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes.].
Boston Globe, March 12, 2003, by Ty Burr.
[A good introduction. Correction: The title Window Water Baby Moving has no commas. Reprinted in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 15, 2003.]
The National Post (Canada) ran the Associated Press wire service story on March 12, 2003, shorter versions of which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, March 11, 2003, the Vancouver Sun, March 12, 2003, The Daily Telegraph (Australia), March 12, 2003, and The Globe and Mail, March 12, 2003.
[Error: This story makes it seem as if Brakhage attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a student ("earned three doctorates"). In fact, he taught there, flying in every other week from Colorado.]
The Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2003, by Kevin Thomas.
[A very sloppy job, full of errors, though the aesthetic comments are nicely sympathetic. Corrections: Brakhage's "eight-year struggle with cancer" consisted of one year of struggle (1996) and five years of remission before it returned in 2001. "23rd Psalm" is actually titled 23rd Psalm Branch, and is not 50 minutes, but way over an hour. Brakhage did acknowledge that he did commercial work, including work on TV commercials, in the 1950s and 1960s. He taught film for three decades. Saying that Brakhage "became disenchanted with Hollywood filmmaking" doesn't quite get at the fact that he continued to go to Hollywood films regularly and enjoy them, even while calling them a "drug" and saying his own practice opposed what Hollywood films try to do. And the correct title of "Window Water Moving Baby" is, of course, Window Water Baby Moving.]

And in French:
Lib�ration, March 11, 2003.
[Corrections: Brakhage's longest film, _The Art of Vision_, is about four hours and ten minutes, not three hours. Brakhage met his second wife, Marilyn, in 1987. He did not film Marilyn, as he had Jane. And he lived with Marilyn in Boulder, not in the mountains. And while he did authorize the release of his films on video, he only authorized the release of a few of them.]

Stan Brakhage links page Stan Brakhage stills page

Home Film My Art Art Other: (Travel, Rants, Obits) Links About Contact