Film Screening
Jud Yalkut, Charlotte Moorman, and Their Circle
In conjunction with the exhibition A Feast of Astonishments:
Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s–1980s
Program 1 features short films by Jud Yalkut—a pivotal force in the avant-garde scene in the 1960s and ’70s, intermedia artist, and video pioneer—featuring John Cage, Yayoi Kusama, Timothy Leary, Carolee Schneemann, and others. Program 2 documents Moorman’s festivals of 1966 and 1969, with artists such as Joseph Beuys, Allan Kaprow, Alison Knowles, and Shigeko Kubota. Introduced by John Klacsmann, archivist, Anthology Film Archives.
Organized by Anthology Film Archives and co-sponsored by NYU’s Grey Art Gallery. Ticket information: anthologyfilmarchives.org
7:00 pm: Program 1
Total running time: approximately 65 min.
Us Down by the Riverside, 1966, 3 min., 16mm
“USCO light, Beatles sound. A visionary realization of the USCO Riverside Museum
installation exhibition in New York, the show which introduced the word ‘Be-In’ to the
English language.” –Jud Yalkut
Metamedia, 1966–71, 50 min., 16mm, silent
A film Journal of Intermedia and the Avant-Garde, 1966–70, including: Timothy Leary’s Celebration “The Resurrection of Christ” (1966); Ken Dewey’s “Red, White, and Blue Car Collision” (1967); EXPO ’67, Montreal, Canada; Yayoi Kusama at the Cooper Square Playhouse (1968); Hermann Nitsch’s “Orgy-Mystery Theater” (1968); Carolee Schneemann’s “Illinois Central Transposed” (1968); the 7th Annual New York Avant Garde Festival on Ward’s Island (1969); and the “Television as a Creative Medium” exhibition at Howard Wise Gallery (1969) with a performance by Charlotte Moorman. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
John Cage Mushroom Hunting in Stony Point, 1972–73, 8 min., 16mm, silent.
Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
“Filmic impressions of composer John Cage, mushroom hunting on his home ground of Stony Point, New York; visiting his home for the last time; radiating love towards his friends; and buying fruits and vegetables at the farm market before returning to New York City.” —Jud Yalkut
8:45 pm: Program 2
Total running time: approximately 65 min.
4th Annual New York Avant Garde Festival, 1966–72, 27 min., video
7th Annual New York Avant Garde Festival, 1969, 3 min., video
Founded and directed by Charlotte Moorman, the Annual Avant Garde Festivals of New York began in 1963 as open forums for the presentation of experimental music, which was emerging out of the Fluxus movement and Happenings. By 1971, these evening salons of inventive musical works were expanded to incorporate electronic music, dance, performance, kinetic art, and video art. For more than a decade, these carnivalesque productions were held at such wildly diverse locations as Shea Stadium, Wards and Mill Rock Islands in the East River, the World Trade Center, the decks of the Staten Island Ferry, and on a train en route to Buffalo from Grand Central Station. Yalkut’s rare historical documents include material recorded at the 4th and 7th Avant Garde Festivals. The 4th Festival in 1966 was held outdoors in Central Park, and featured over 65 events with artists, musicians, and performers, including Allan Kaprow, Dick Higgins, Al Hansen, Christo, Shigeko Kubota, Joseph Beuys, and Alison Knowles, among many others. The 7th Avant Garde Festival was presented in 1969 on two islands, Wards and Mill Rock, in the East River. Here Yalkut documents performances on Wards Island, beneath one of Buckminster Fuller’s famous geodesic domes.
The Chocolate Cello, 1973, 30 min., video
Yalkut documents the “chocolating” of Charlotte Moorman at the Clocktower in New York City on Easter Sunday, 1973. This project was based on a concept by artist Jim McWilliams, who devised other performance events for Moorman, including the Flying Cello.