FILMOGRAPHY
1. FIRST PERIOD. Forms that involved continuous or near-continuous filming operations that did not use conventional film editing, and except for HARMONICA were silent. The movements in the silent films had analogies with sound, and paved the way for my later work with sound. Films were "meditative," related to minimalism, imagery typically related to landscape. Partially concerned with relation of film to painting, and the analogies between camera possibilities and the activities of consciousness.
BLUES (1969) 8 ½ minutes, silent, 16fps.
CORN (1970) 11 minutes, silent, 24fps
FOG LINE (1970) 10 ½ minutes, silent, 24 fps
DOORWAY (1970) 7 ½ minutes, silent, 16 fps
THOUGHT (1970, re-titled 1980) 7 ½ minutes, silent, 16fps
HARMONICA (1971) 10 ½ minutes, sound, 24 fps
BARN RUSHES (1971) 34 minutes, silent, 16 fps.
See Scott MacDonald, A Critical Cinema (U. of California, 1988) and Maureen Turim, Abstraction in Avant-Garde Films (Ann Arbor, 1987.) Individual films in collections of Pacific Film Archives, Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Donnell Library. Numerous screenings including Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, Hamburg Filmschau (Germany) and widespread screenings at venues and universities in the US and Europe. FOG LINE film preservation grant, Donnell Library, 2003. BLUES, DOORWAY and BARN RUSHES, “Avant Garde Masters” Film Preservation Grant, Donnell Library, 2005. BLUES, DOORWAY, FOG LINE, BARN RUSHES, NY Film Festival, 2005. BARN RUSHES was screened for several months as part of “Manisfesta 7” in Trentino, Italy, July – October 2008. FOG LINE included in National Film Preservation Foundation DVD “TREASURES IV, AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE FILM, 1947 – 1986” March 2009. DOORWAY screened in 2012 Tribeca Film Festival.
2. SECOND PERIOD. "Elective Affinities," a series of four feature-length films, all but the first using sound material in a formally complex manner. Films are edited into a structure involving formal patterning, with repetition and permutation of elements. While formal structuring seems to dominate the initial experience, these films are further developments of my interest in thought and consciousness in cinema, and include elements of autobiography and a particularly cinematic way of exploring issues such as family, psychology, education, freedom, the theme of "nature" in art. See Maureen Turim, "'Elective Affinities': Larry Gottheim's Cinematic Quaternion," Afterimage (Rochester, NY) 12, 8, March 1985.
HORIZONS, Part 1, “Overture” to “Elective Affinities” (1971-73) 75 minutes. Hamburg Filmschau 1973; Festival of Independent Avant-Garde Film, London, 1973; Museum of Modern Art, 1974; Whitney Museum, 1974; Anthology Film Archives, 1974; Centre Beaubourg, Paris Museum of Modern Art (1974); Walker Art Center (1976). Pacific Film Archives, 1984; Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, 1986. Collection Centre Beaubourg. “Avant Garde Masters” film preservation grant, Donnell Library, 2005. My best discussion of HORIZONS in the context of some other films is in an interview with Luke Burton in the online magazine “Vertigo.”
http://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/issue-31-winter-2012-in-conversation/connecting-movements/
MOUCHES VOLANTES , “Elective Affinities” Part 2. (1976) 69 minutes. Whitney Museum, 1976; Museum of Modern Art (l978); Film Museum, Munich, 1980; Royal Film Archives, Belgium, 1980; Collective for Living Cinema, 1982, "10 Years of Living Cinema." Film preservation grant, Donnell Library, 2003, Harvard Film Archive 2008.
FOUR SHADOWS, “Elective Affinities” Part 3. (1978) 64 minutes. Whitney Museum, 1978. Whitney Biennial Exhibition, 1979; Berlin Film Festival, 1980; Film Museum, Munich, 1980; Royal Film Archives, Belgium, 1980; Collective for Living Cinema, 1982, "10 Years of Living Cinema"; Pacific Film Archive, 1987; American Museum of the Moving Image, 1988, "Independent America."
TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, “Elective Affinities” Part 4. (1980) 60 minutes. Whitney Biennial Exhibition, 1981; Institute of North American Studies, Barcelona, Spain, 1982; Pacific Film Archive, 1984.
The entire "Elective Affinities" series was shown at the Whitney Museum in 1981. Extensive program notes with introduction by John Hanhardt. Retrospective Anthology Film archives 2006.
3. THIRD PERIOD. Collaborative Films. Developed in collaboration with students at SUNY-Binghamton and others, in an attempt to apply the concepts of "association" I had worked on in the "Elective Affinities" films to a group of co-creators developing these associations cooperatively. Continues to develop my interest in sound/image relationships.
NATURAL SELECTION 35 minutes(1983)
"SORRY/HEAR US" 8 minutes (1984)
NATURAL SELECTION was included in the 1985 Whitney Biennial. Both films were shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1987.
4. FOURTH PERIOD. Continued work on sound/image relationships, in conjunction with a rapid disjunctive filming style, and extension into more direct subject areas.
MNEMOSYNE MOTHER OF MUSES (1986) 18 minutes. Museum of Modern Art, 1987. Selected for Parabola Distribution Program 3, 1988. Museum of the Moving Image, "Independent America," 1988. Pacific Film Archive, 1989. Broadcast on Channel 13 "Independent Focus" 1989. Collection Paris Museum of Modern Art, Archives du film experimental d'Avignon.
THE RED THREAD (1987)17 minutes. Museum of Modern Art, 1987. Selected for Parabola distribution program 3, 1988. Museum of the Moving Image, "Independent America," 1988; Pacific Film Archive, 1988; Whitney Biennial Exhibition, 1989.
5. FIFTH PERIOD. Continued work with sound-image relationships and formal structures. While not “documentaries” these incorporate material that could have found its way into a documentary.
MACHETE GILLETTE... MAMA (1989) 45 minutes. Collective for Living Cinema, 1989 (Early version.) Havana Film Festival, 1989. San Antonio Film Festival 1990.. International Festival of Short Film, Oberhausen. Parabola distribution program 5, 1990. CineSanJuan Caribbean Film Festival, October, 1990. National Latino Film Festival, 1991. Cineprobe, Museum of Modern Art, April 1991. Interview "Light Struck" Vol. 7, No. 2 and 3 (1991). L.A. Film Forum. The Cinematheque, San Francisco. Museum of Modern Art, 2006. . UnionDocs, Brooklyn, 2015. Collection Donnell Library Media Center, NYC.
YOUR TELEVISION TRAVELER. (1991) L.A. Film Forum, the Cinematheque, San Francisco. Museum of Modern Art, 1991. Collection Donnell Library Media Center, NYC. NY Film Festival 2005. THIS FILM HAS BEEN RESTORED. PLEASE DISREGARD THE OLD VERSION. THIS IS WHAT I WANT IT TO BE.
CHANTS AND DANCES FOR HAND. (1991 – 2017) 40 Minutes, digital. Material shot in Haiti on Hi-8 video. Jerome Foundation Grant, 1993. NYS Council of the Arts grant, 2015. An early version of some material, “The Opening,” was shown at the New York Film Festival, 2005. Premiere at Close-up Film Centre, London, May 2017. American premiere as part of Retrospective at Anthology Film Archive, April 2018
KNOT/NOT (2019) 22 minutes, digital. Premiere at Arsenal, Berlin, April 2019. Close up Cinema, London, April 2019. EXis Festival Seoul, Korea, July 2019, European tour April 2019—Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, Festival du Réel, Paris
ENTANGLEMENT (2022) 27 minutes, digital. A train ride through a quantum landscape. Phil Spitalny and his All Girl Orchestra. Pianist Alfred Cortot. Deadly serious, but comic.
SOME SCREENINGS WITH ARTIST PRESENT 2006 AND AFTER
Retrospective, Anthology Film Archives, 2006. Another April 2018.
Portland Film Festival 2006.
Harvard Film Archives, 2007.
San Francisco Cinematheque
Los Angeles Film Forum,
Red Cat Theater, L.A.
Visiting artist, Cal. Arts.
Several shows London and Cardiff, 2009.
“2 ½ Dimensional Film Featuring Architecture” Antwerp, 2010.
Fordham Library, NYC. 2016.
Tour in Europe, May/June 2017 in London, Manchester, Leeds, Stockholm, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, La Coruna, Barcelona
Tour in Europe March 2019 including Arsenal in Berlin, Festival du Réel at the Pompidou Museum in Paris, Bozar in Brussels. Close-up Film Centre, London
EXis Film Festival, Seoul, Korea
Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
Northwestern University
Block Museum, Evanston Illinois
Chicago Film Society
Hall Walls, Buffalo New York
Light Matter Film Festival at Alfred University
MOMA (twice)
New York Public Library