Shirley Clarke

Known for DirectingBorn 1919-10-02Died 1997-09-23New York City, New York, USA

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/Read more

Movies & web series

Galaxie

Brussels Loops

Ornette Coleman: A Jazz Video Game

Savage/Love

Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: One Two Three

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life

Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Trans

Rome Is Burning: Portrait of Shirley Clarke

Birth of a Nation

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

Skyscraper

A Moment in Love

In Paris Parks

Dance in the Sun

Bridges-Go-Round 1

Ornette: Made in America

Portrait of Jason

Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World

The Connection

Tongues

A Visual Diary

For Life, Against the War

A Scary Time

Bridges-Go-Round 2

Lions Love

Happy Birthday to John

Butterfly

The Cool World

Love Nest

Carl Lee, Max and Friends at the Hotel Chelsea

Christopher and Me

24 Frames per Second

Alien Blood

Home Movies #18 Florida

Shirley Clarke: The Artist with the Lens

A Short Lecture and Demonstration on the Evolution of Ragtime as Presented by Jelly Roll Morton

Fear Flight

Decroux Film

Home Movies #20: Dance Tests

Outtakes for 'In Paris Parks'

Rose and the Players – Part 2

Rose and the Players – Part 1

This Is Not 'In Paris Parks'

Bullfight: The C and D Rolls

As Kineastas

The Modnar Machine

The Beats: An Existential Comedy

Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Initiation