Director: Ron Rice

Starring: Jack Smith, Mario Montez, Barbara Rubin, Guy Henson, Joel Markman, Zelda Nelson, Francis Francine, Beverly Grant, Francis Stillman, Barry Titus

Year: 1964

Runtime: 23 mins.

Synopsis: Polymorphously exotic, Chumlum conjures a vision from the Arabian Nights. As the actors pose in harem costumes and bizarre makeup, Rice explores the allure of indolent women, diaphanous hangings, and swaying hammocks — stretching out the experience through colorful in-camera superimpositions. The psychedelic montage moves at a languorous pace far removed from the rush of modern life. Questions of motivation and plot are beside the point. (from Treasures IV DVD booklet)

DVD: Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986

Official Website: None

Reviews: All Movie Guide (Nicole Gagne)
Bright Lights Film Journal (C. Jerry Kutner)

Underground Film Timeline: 1960 — 1969

Video: None

Director: Marie Menken

Starring: N/A

Year: 1964

Runtime: 67 mins.

Synopsis: Taken from a moving vehicle, for much of the footage. The rest uses stationary frame, stop-motion. In the harbor sequence, I had to wait for the right amount of activity, to show effectively the boats darting about; some sequences took over an hour to shoot, and last perhaps a minute on the screen. The “strength and health” sequence was shot at a body beautiful convention. Various parts of the city of New York, the busy man’s engrossment in his busy-ness, make up the major part of the film … a tour-de-force on man’s activities. (from Film-Makers’ Cooperative)

DVD: Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986 (compilation DVD)

Official Website: None

Underground Film Timeline: 1960 — 1969

Reviews: None

Video: None

Director: Kurt Kren

Starring: Not Applicable

Year: 1964

Runtime: 3 mins.

Synopsis: In 9/64 O Christmas Tree Kren offers a more visually descriptive development of a Muehl “action”. The images have been chosen to follow a more dramatic sequence, probably because the action itself contained a wide range of images and materials. (From Six Pack Film.)

DVD: Index DVD (Austrian compilation of Kren’s Actionist work)

Official Website: None

Reviews: None

Video: None

Director: Stan Vanderbeek

Starring: Not applicable

Year: 1964

Runtime: 15 mins.

Synopsis: Dedicated to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. A surrealistic fantasy based on the 15th century woodcuts of the dance of the dead.

A film experiment that deals with the photoreality and the surrealism of life. It is a collage-animation that cuts up photos and newsreel film and reassembles them, producing an image that is a mixture of unexplainable fact (Why is Harpo Marx playing a harp in the middle of a battlefield?) with the inexplicable act (Why is there a battlefield?). It is a black comedy, a fantasy that mocks at death … a parabolic parable. (From Canyon Cinema.)

DVD: None

Official Website: None

Underground Film Timeline: 1960 — 1969

Reviews: None

Awards: Bell Telephone Prize; Third Experimental Film Competition, Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium (1964); Midwest Film Festival (1964); Ann Arbor Film Festival (1964)

Video: None

Director: Stan Brakhage

Starring: Stan Brakhage, Jane Brakhage

Year: Prelude (1962); Part I (1962); Part II (1963); Part III (1964); Part IV (1964)

Runtime: 78 mins. (total)

Synopsis: A man, along with his canine companion, climbs a mountain during the four seasons and ponders his position in the universe.

DVD: By Brakhage – Anthology – Criterion Collection (compilation)

Official Website: None.

Underground Film Timeline: 1960 — 1969

Reviews: Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)

Video: None

Director: Kenneth Anger

Starring: Bruce Byron, Ernie Allo, Frank Carifi, Steve Crandell, Johnny Dodds, Bill Dorfman, John Palone, Barry Rubin, Johnny Sapienza

Year: 1964

Runtime: 28 mins.

Synopsis: A “high” view of the Myth of the American Motorcyclist. The machine as totem, from toy to terror. Thanatos in chrome and black leather. Part I – Boys & Bolts. Part II – Image Maker. Part III – Walpurgis Party. Part IV – Rebel Rouser. (from Canyon Cinema)

DVD: The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 2 (compilation)

Official Website: None

Underground Film Timeline: 1960 — 1969

Reviews: Los Angeles Times (Kevin Thomas)
Slant Magazine (Eric Henderson)

Video: None