Movies: Robert Breer

  • 2021
    As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

    As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2021)

    As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

    7.62021HD

    A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order....

    As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
  • 1997
    Birth of a Nation

    Birth of a Nation (1997)

    Birth of a Nation

    6.31997HD

    Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades....

    Birth of a Nation
  • 1974
    Fuji

    Fuji (1974)

    Fuji

    5.71974HD

    A live action footage of a smiling, bespectacled (presumably) Western tourist set against the familiar cadence of an accelerating train revving up as it leaves the station sets the mesmerizing tone for the film's abstract panoramic survey of an Ozu-e...

    Fuji
  • 1986
    He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life

    He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1986)

    He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life

    81986HD

    A film collage tracing the story of the lives, loves, and deaths within the artistic community surrounding Jonas Mekas....

    He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
  • 1961
    Blazes

    Blazes (1961)

    Blazes

    4.71961HD

    100 basic images switching positions for 4000 frames....

    Blazes
  • 1956
    Recreation

    Recreation (1956)

    Recreation

    5.11956HD

    Featuring a commentary by Noël Burch (in nonsense French), Recreation's rapid-fire montage of single-frame images of incredible density and intensity has been compared to contemporary Beat poetry....

    Recreation
  • 1957
    A Man and His Dog Out for Air

    A Man and His Dog Out for Air (1957)

    A Man and His Dog Out for Air

    5.41957HD

    While birds can be heard singing a shrill song, lines crisscross wildly as if they aimed to form shapes. Their efforts seem hopeless until the very end ,,,...

    A Man and His Dog Out for Air
  • 1970
    70

    70 (1970)

    70

    51970HD

    "Made with spray paint and hand-cut stencils, this film was an attempt at maximum plastic intensity… Places Breer for the first time among the major colorists of the avant-garde." – P. Adams Sitney...

    70
  • 2011
    Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film

    Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film (2011)

    Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film

    6.72011HD

    Experimental filmmaker Pip Chodorov traces the course of experimental film in America, taking the very personal point of view of someone who grew up as part of the experimental film community....

    Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
  • 1986
    Bang!

    Bang! (1986)

    Bang!

    5.61986HD

    An experimental film in which a photograph of an airplane turns into a wire diagram, then into an animated plane in flight, and then it explodes into words....

    Bang!
  • 1957
    Jamestown Baloos

    Jamestown Baloos (1957)

    Jamestown Baloos

    4.71957HD

    Cut-outs of war machines and the figure of Napoleon – contributors to an anti-war theme – encounter abstract shapes, line drawings, old-master landscapes, short bursts of ‘real-time’ landscapes and shakily photographed gestural watercolors. … ‘a synt...

    Jamestown Baloos
  • 1959
    Eyewash

    Eyewash (1959)

    Eyewash

    4.91959HD

    A free flow from photography to geometric abstraction hand-painted by Breer. - Harvard Film Archive...

    Eyewash
  • 1972
    Gulls and Buoys

    Gulls and Buoys (1972)

    Gulls and Buoys

    5.91972HD

    An abstract view of a seacoast landscape, created by mixing original line drawings and rotoscoped imagery traced from live-action footage, presented against a sound track of seaside noises....

    Gulls and Buoys
  • 1969
    69

    69 (1969)

    69

    51969HD

    Robert Breer animation from 1969. 16mm, color, silent, using spray paint & stencils....

    69
  • 1980
    Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons

    Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons (1980)

    Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons

    6.31980HD

    Utilising an apparently new-found obsession with the colour red and reinvigorating some of the circular imagery of A Man and His Dog Out for Air and 69, Breer delves into the very basis of animation to explore how a variety of easily recognisable obj...

    Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons
  • 1953
    Form Phases III

    Form Phases III (1953)

    Form Phases III

    51953HD

    Different stages of paintings made with ink. The ink fuses, spreads....

    Form Phases III
  • 1956
    Cats

    Cats (1956)

    Cats

    41956HD

    Short hand drawn representation of a cat...

    Cats
  • 1953
    Form Phases IV

    Form Phases IV (1953)

    Form Phases IV

    6.51953HD

    Breer's earliest experiments in animation are wonderfully dense yet lyrical abstractions based on Breer's own geometric paintings. - Harvard Film Archive...

    Form Phases IV
  • 1963
    Breathing

    Breathing (1963)

    Breathing

    4.91963HD

    Breer’s animation explores the theme and variation of the drawn line: a line in constant movement and transformation. With a very sketchy style, he demonstrates how a simple, abstract image can fill and satisfy the imagination of the film viewer. - M...

    Breathing
  • 2003
    What Goes Up....

    What Goes Up.... (2003)

    What Goes Up....

    4.82003HD

    Robert Breer’s What Goes Up... continues his “kitchen sink” approach of including as many different kinds of things as possible. Central to his art are a series of tensions. Rather than using animation to produce seamless illusions, his films reveal ...

    What Goes Up....