A wholly unique figure from the heyday of the NY underground, Jud Yalkut (1938-2013) was a multi-media pioneer whose radical films and videos remain as trippy and innovative today as they were back then. Born and raised in NYC, Yalkut studied literature before turning to experimental cinema in the early 1960s. A member of the groundbreaking intermedia collective USCO and an early creative partner of Nam June Paik (1932-2006), Yalkut documented a veritable who’s-who of important artists while also making his own distinguished films and videos. He left for Dayton in 1973 to spearhead the film and video department at Wright State University and continued to be a major figure in the Ohio arts scene for the rest of his life. Yalkut’s expansive body of work deserves serious reinvestigation, and these two programs highlight 16 newly preserved titles along with a complete retrospective of Yalkut’s video/film hybrids, or “Videofilms,” made in collaboration with Nam June Paik.
Special thanks to Peg Rice, and to Chris Hughes & Laura Major (Colorlab).
An additional Yalkut film, KUSAMA’S SELF-OBLITERATION, will be screening on January 14 as part of “Inventing Downtown.”
PROGRAM 2: THE PARTICIPATING CAMERA: FILM JOURNALS AND DIARIES:
All titles preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
CLARENCE (1965-68, 10 min, 16mm. Sound by Mel Lyman, Jim Kweskin, and the Lyman family; with the voice of Clarence Schmidt.)
“Poetic montage of the ‘sculpture garden house’ of 67 year old hermit-builder Clarence Schmidt of Woodstock, New York.” –Jud Yalkut
D.M.T. (1966, 3 min, 16mm)
“Filmic translation of the first multi-media presentation of Jackie Cassen and Rudi Stern.” –Jud Yalkut
KENYON FILM (1969-72, 10 min, 16mm, silent)
“A psychic portrait of the forces that converge on a small college town when its annual film festival, one of the finest in the country, erupts in alternating meditativeness and activity; with portraits of the filmmaker George Landow and the late poet Paul Blackburn, and the doves and stained glass of Kenyon College.” –Jud Yalkut
JOHN CAGE MUSHROOM HUNTING IN STONY POINT (1972-73, 8 min, 16mm, silent)
“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
METAMEDIA: A FILM JOURNAL OF INTERMEDIA AND THE AVANT-GARDE 1966-1970
(1972, 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.
Total running time: ca. 85 min.