Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) is one of the most influential filmmakers in American avant-garde cinema, noted for his unflinching social commentaries and technical innovations. The wildly prolific, visionary Brakhage made more than 200 films over a half-century. Challenging all taboos in his exploration of “birth, sex, death, and the search for God,” he turned his camera on explicit lovemaking, childbirth, and even autopsy. Many of his most famous works, including Dog Star Man (1961) and The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (1971), pursue the nature of vision itself and transcend the act of filming. Some, including the legendary Mothlight (1963), were created without using a camera at all, as he pioneered the art of making images directly on film stock, by drawing, painting, and scratching.
