- Born
- Died
- Place
Shirley Clarke
A major figure of the American avant garde, Shirley Brimberg Clarke (1919-1997) was born into privilege as the daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants who made their fortune in manufacturing. Rebelling against a repressive bourgeois upbringing, Clarke turned first to dance, and later film and video, to express her distinctive vision of the world.
Moving freely across genres and media throughout her career (and often within a single work), Clarke’s cinema explores the porous boundaries between narrative and documentary filmmaking, and film and other media, such as painting, dance, performance and video. Her 1960s features The Connection (1961), The Cool World (1963) and Portrait of Jason (1967), for which she is arguably best remembered, address issues of urban alienation, poverty, addiction and racism, focusing on lives lived at the margins of American society. Fearless in both her personal and creative life, Clarke produced a body of work that is as formally innovative as it is rooted in social protest.
Clarke initially trained as a dancer, immersing herself in New York’s vibrant post-war avant-garde dance scene. Although her dance career never quite earned her the critical acclaim she’d hoped for, it had a lasting impact on her subsequent filmmaking and video work, informing an interest in how movement is recorded formally, while introducing her to key avant-garde dancers and choreographers.
Source: https://denniscooperblog.com/shirley-clarke-day-2/
As director
Fear Flight
A Short Lecture and Demonstration on the Evolution of Ragtime as Presented by Jelly Roll Morton
Home Movies #20: Dance Tests
Decroux Film
Outtakes for 'In Paris Parks'
This Is Not 'In Paris Parks'
Bullfight: The C and D Rolls
Rose and the Players – Part 1
Rose and the Players – Part 2
Ornette: Made in America
Ornette Coleman: A Jazz Video Game
Tongues
Savage/Love
A Visual Diary
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Trans
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: One Two Three
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Initiation
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Mysterium
24 Frames per Second
Carl Lee on Joe Franklin Show
Morris at Ornette's Art Show
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971
Yoko and John Party
The Arrest
Ricky Leacock Visit, evening, April 19, 1971
Ricky Leacock Visit, daytime, April 19, 1971
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 17, 1971
Makeup Magic
Carl Lee, Max and Friends at the Hotel Chelsea
Portrait of Jason
As actor
Shirley Clarke: The Artist with the Lens
Alien Blood
Birth of a Nation
Happy Birthday to John
As Kineastas
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
The Modnar Machine
The Beats: An Existential Comedy
Sex Stars
Rome Is Burning: Portrait of Shirley Clarke
Lions Love
Underground New York
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Portrait of Jason
Bill's Hat
Galaxie
Home Movies #15 Shirley with Camera
Home Movies #10 Wedding and Pregnancy
Home Movies #18 Florida
Shirley Brimberg Home Movies (When She Was Young)