MetaFilter posts tagged with artist and film

A World of Struggle and Hope

bwg — Wed, 25 May 2011 01:21:02 -0800

The Busking Project: Tracking a path across the globe to interview, photograph, film, and discover the life and motivations of the world's street artists!

Larry Rivers' Archives

zarq — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:04:32 -0800

When "Proto-Pop" artist Larry Rivers' died in 2002, he left behind extensive archives of his letters, paperwork, photographs and film documenting the New York artistic and literary scene from the 1940s through the 1980s. They chronicle his friendships and relationships with dozens of artists, musicians and writers, from Willem de Kooning and Andy Warhol to Frank O’Hara. Also included: films and videos of his two adolescent daughters, naked or topless, being interviewed by their father about their developing breasts. Now, one daughter, who says she was pressured to participate beginning when she was 11, is demanding that material be removed from the archive and returned to her and her sister. Per the NYTimes article, the archives have been purchased from the Larry Rivers Foundation by New York University for their an undisclosed amount. They may eventually intend to exhibit the work. Salon.com: Child porn or Coming-of-Age film? More on Larry Rivers: Obit: Barbara Rose on Larry Rivers. She describes him as "...the hostile, affectionate, generous, stingy, gregarious, insecure, serious, superficial, all-American mutt who managed to offend most deeply those he loved the most." View his work online: (Some works may be NSFW. To the best of my knowledge, there are no depictions of child pornography at these links.) * The Larry Rivers Foundation * Flickr * Smithsonian American Art Museum * Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden * Museum of Fine Arts: Boston * The Parrish Art Museum * MOMA * Metropolitan Museum of Art * The Seavest Collection of Contemporary Realism: 1, 2 * "I Like Olympia in Black Face" 1970 / Centre Pompidou, Paris YouTube Videos: Interview: Inside New York's Art World: Larry Rivers, 1978 Archived film: Nobody Home Interview clip: Speaking about his son, Sam

We could see such people - no longer as mythical figures, but alive - as alive as their work

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:18:53 -0800

"The people whose stories you watch on Peoples Archive are leaders of their field, whose work has influenced and changed our world as we know it." The archive includes talks by luminaries such as Hans Bethe, Benoit Mandelbrot, Donald Knuth, Quentin Blake, Stan Lee and many others.

Ray Dennis Steckler, 1939-2009

Chinese Jet Pilot — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:53:00 -0800

Here's to Ray Dennis Steckler, the independent filmmaker who wrote, starred (as Cash Flagg) and directed influential films including The Thrill Killers, Rat Pfink a Boo Boo, and his masterpice The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies. A visionary artist whose influnce is clearly seen in contemporary cinema, Steckler was prolific (producing movies from 1963 until last year), economical (his films were self-produced, shot on 16mm film and later Hi-8 video), and brilliant (as clearly evidenced in this dance sequence from Creatures, "The First Monster Musical"). It hasn't been widely reported yet, but fans are mourning his passing. He died in his sleep yesterday, January 7th, aged 70. I hesitated to post about a death without an obituary to link to (especially since I posted another obituary 24 hours ago), but Ray Dennis Steckler was an important creative influence in my life. I saw Rat Pfink a Boo Boo as a film student, but not at school; my professors were only interested in "serious" cinema like Casablanca and similar crap. It was a revelation. I saw clear artistic vision and high production values in spite of miniscule budgets and volunteer crews. My first e-commerce purchase on the World Wide Web, probably in 1996 and with much trepidation, was a VHS copy of Rat Pfink a Boo Boo from Sinister Cinema. I still keep a VCR hooked up so that I can watch it. On our second date, I took my future wife to a screening of The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies at the old UC Theater in Berkeley, CA. They screened it in Terrorama -- costumed actors (actually the cast for that evening's showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show) "terrorized" the audience by shrieking and running through the aisles. It made an impression on her. I highly recommend Steckler's films to anyone with an eye for cinema. I mourn his passing. Disclaimer: The YouTube link to the Creatures dance sequence is a self-reference. I posted that clip a few years ago.