Xcèntric 2017
Bruce Conner (II): Breakaways
The CCCB's cinema
Audiovisuals
Bruce Conner is noted for his transgressive, pioneering use of found footage, but he also made and edited films. His career provides an index of US counterculture attitudes, from the psychic experiments of the beat generation and hippies to the appropriations of punk rock. These two programmes, ranging from his first films to his latest digital projects, reaffirm Conner’s importance as a filmmaker who is both innovative and influential.
This programme contains Conner’s early films about dance and popular music, like BREAKAWAY, and others such as MONGOLOID, a video clip for a song by Devo, or MEA CULPA and AMERICA IS WAITING, two collaborations with David Byrne and Brian Eno. These pieces highlight his use of images not as an accompaniment to the music, but as sophisticated counterpoints that reveal our deeper truths. This programme explores his interest in psychedelia and his practice of revising his own films towards the end of his trajectory, as in the case of the versions of LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS and his last film, the emotive EASTER MORNING.
Bruce Conner:
COSMIC RAY, 1961, 16 mm, 5 min; VIVIAN, 1964, 16 mm, 3 min; BREAKAWAY, 1966, 35 mm, 5 min; LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS (BEATLES VERSION), 1959-67, 35 mm, 3 min; MONGOLOID, 1978, 16 mm, 4 min; TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND, 1979, 16 mm, 5 min; VALSE TRISTE, 1979, 16 mm, 4 min; MEA CULPA, 1981, 16 mm, 5 min; AMERICA IS WAITING, 1981, 16 mm, 4 min; LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS, 1959–67/1996, 35 mm, 15 min; EASTER MORNING, 2008, vídeo, 10 min.
Directors: Bruce Conner
This activity is part of Xcèntric 2017
Related contents
Xcèntric. Programme March - April 2017
José Rodríguez Soltero, Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki, Kerry Laitala, Bruce Conner, Travis Wilkerson, Laida Lertxundi, Thom Andersen, Morgan Fisher, Ju Anqi, Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel, Bruce Weber, Eduardo Williams are some of the filmmakers featured in our programme March - April 2017 of Xcèntric.
