I hope I'm not upsetting anyone, since I was originally sent this information in confidence, but since it's now been forwarded to me from multiple sources — and is available in a web archive — I figure it's OK to share some new information (from the Frameworks mailing list) about Stan Brakhage. I only wish it were good news.

Despite Brakhage's misgivings about the video format, I'm happy to know that in the very near future thousands of people who wouldn't otherwise encounter his work will be exposed to it on DVD courtesy of Criterion's forthcoming By Brakhage collection. (No, I will not stop flogging this release. To my mind, it's one of the most significant DVD releases to date. I await it eagerly etcetera.)

I'm not familiar with most of the writing that's to be collected in the new Documentext book, but I've got a nice old hardcover called Brakhage Scrapbook (since reconfigured as part of Essential Brakhage) that has some pretty phenomenal stuff in it — the man writes eloquently and poetically, a style that provides a nice complement to his sometimes inscrutable visual work. I have another book called Film at Wit's End (sadly, out of print) that collects transcripts of his lectures on key avant-garde filmmakers — invaluable, and not only for the passage in which he describes Maya Deren picking up and throwing a refrigerator across the room.

# # #

In other news, Mike D'Angelo has the roster for New Directors/New Films, and he's posted it at Cinemarati.

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