Stan Brakhage / A Moving Picture Giving and Taking Book Signed 1st Edition 1971
A Moving Picture Giving and Taking Book. Author: Stan Brakhage Title: A Moving Picture Giving and Taking Book Publication: West Newbury, Massachusetts: Frontier Press, 1971. Bound in original publisher leatherette with gilt titling. Book design by Philip Trussell.
Signed and inscribed by the author on the endpaper:'For the great Broughtons- all 4 of them. The importance of the friendship and collaboration between Brakhage and James Broughton cannot be overstated. Brakhage called Broughton'the father of poetic cinema - a legend' and, upon arriving in San Francisco in 1953, urgently asked'where is Broughton? Indeed, like Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren, Broughton was one of the founders of'poetic cinema' while Brakhage would go on to become its most renowned practitioner and proponent.
Throughout his life, Brakhage would need to defend his friend's work from misinterpretation and obscurity. Nothing could be more emblematic of their artistic ethos than this slender volume; simultaneously a technical manual for the amateur filmmaker, philosophical treatise and prose poem. The inscription to'the great Broughtons- all 4 of them' refers to Broughton, his wife artist Suzanna Hart, and their two children. They were married in 1961 over a typically ritualized and grandiose three day ceremony, which was filmed by Brakhage while also serving as best man. Broughton would use the footage to create his great film Nuptiae in 1969.An extraordinary and important association copy. This listing was created by Bibliopolis.