The imperative of tension between creator and critic: Pauline Kael with Stan Brakhage
Channel: laminal
Date: 2022-07-13

The brilliant and surgical film critic Pauline Kael in conversation with legendary experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage. At points the conversation approaches dialectic, Brakhage defending his craft through his illustration of it as agnostic of audience and expectations. The seemingly defiant Kael probes further, mystified by the style and format of Brakhage, ultimately doing more listening than questioning as the conversation continues. Several years later, Kael would write a letter of recommendation (seen here on New Yorker letterhead) for hiring to the University of Colorado at Boulder on Brakhage's behalf, where he served in the position of Distinguished Professor of Film Studies.

Original audio was truncated, and here is improved and cleaned from the originally available transfer from 1/4", 5" reel to reel. Thanks and gratitude to the Anthology Film Archives of New York and Ubuweb for the publishing and availability of the original audio.

Dog Star Man footage shared under and protected by fair use. All copyrights retained by the image holders.

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/
https://ubu.com/
https://www.colorado.edu/brakhagecenter/documents/letter-pauline-kael