Michel Auder

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Cleopatra situates itself in the same relationship to Hollywood as the Warhol/Morrisey films of the
period. It corresponds to Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1963 Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and
Richard Burton which Auder’s cast watched and used as the starting point for scene by scene
improvisation Auder drew his cast from Warhol’s ensemble – including not only Viva and Louis
Waldon, but also Taylor Mead, Ondine, Andrea Feldman, Gerard Melanga and others.
The film revels in epic excess like Mankiewicz’s cinematic debacle which succumbed to vast length,
a bloated budget, multiple revisions and a scandal occasioned by the extramarital escapades of its
co-stars.Read More »

Quote:
This video is an ensemble piece that contains a collection of experimental performance art pieces by various performers. The entire video takes place in The Kitchen, an enormous artist’s loft in the midst of New York City. All the performance pieces are what could be considered Avant-garde in nature, though that term has fallen out of use today in order to make way for the more pedestrian and commonplace whitewash term of alternative; however, when this video was created, the style and feel of each of these pieces was more intentionally risk-filled and groundbreaking than what we see today as is the nature with the ideals of the avant-garde–I don’t think the term alternative had been coined and/or abused as yet, people were still saying New Wave or Punk or using terms even more inaccurate and less flattering. Don’t get me wrong, these differing pieces are new and experimental concepts in art but all are carefully rehearsed and well scripted, there is some, but very little improvisation on the whole. Read More »

Jonas Mekas’ BIRTH OF A NATION (1997) continues the filmmaker’s investigation into the possibilities of film-as-diary to offer glimpses of key figures of experimental cinema, including Stan Brakhage, Tony Conrad, and Michael Snow, compiled from footage shot over four decades. As far back as the masterpieces WALDEN (1969) and LOST, LOST, LOST (1976), Mekas has been turning his roaming camera on those around him, eschewing conventional documentary in favour of a more impressionistic, subjective engagement with his friends and surroundings.Read More »