BY BRAKHAGE 2 DVD boxset of classic US underground film

Working completely outside the mainstream, Stan Brakhage has made nearly four hundred films over the past half century. Challenging all taboos in his exploration of “birth, sex, death, and the search for God,” Brakhage has turned his camera on explicit lovemaking, childbirth, even actual autopsy. Many of his most famous works pursue the nature of vision itself and transcend the act of filming. Some, including the legendary Mothlight, were made without using a camera at all. Instead, Brakhage has pioneered the art of making images directly on film itself—starting with clear leader or exposed film, then drawing, painting, and scratching it by hand. Treating each frame as a miniature canvas, Brakhage can produce only a quarter- to a half-second of film a day, but his visionary style of image-making has changed everything from cartoons and television commercials to MTV music videos and the work of such mainstream moviemakers as Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, and Oliver Stone. Criterion is proud to present 26 masterworks by Stan Brakhage in high-definition digital transfers made from newly minted film elements. For the first time on DVD, viewers will be able to look at Brakhage’s meticulously crafted frames one by one. DISC FEATURES Two-disc set includes new high-definition digital transfers of all the following films, approved by Stan Brakhage: The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes Black Ice Cat’s Cradle Commingled Containers Crack Glass Eulogy The Dante Quartet The Dark Tower Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse Desistfilm Dog Star Man Eye Myth For Marilyn The Garden of Earthly Delights I…Dreaming Kindering Love Song Mothlight The Stars are Beautiful Stellar Study in color and Black and White Three hand-painted films: Nightmusic; Rage Net; Glaze of Cathexis Wedlock House: An Intercourse Window Water Baby Moving The Wold Shadow Interview with the filmmaker Essay by Brakhage expert Fred Camper (www.fredcamper.com) Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition