Bruce Conner Movies
Bruce Conner was one of the more innovative and entertaining avant-garde filmmakers in American film during the '60s. Much of his work involved rhythmically editing footage he culled from obscure sources to create funny, often politically charged short statements. Among his best known films are Cosmic Ray (1961) in which Ray Charles sings "What'd I Say" while half-naked go-go dancers gyrate wildly, and Report (1965) which shows the same shot of President Kennedy's assassination over and over. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 2007
- Add Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco to QueueAdd Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco to top of Queue
While Los Angeles has been the capital of major studio filmmaking in America since the early ears of the 20th Century, in the northern part of California, San Francisco has become home to a different breed of filmmaker -- artists who treasure their independence and carefully guard their creative vision, even while working in the highest echelons of the commercial movie business. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas are just two of the best-known directors to emerge from the San Francisco film community, and Fog City Mavericks is a documentary which pays homage to a number of important filmmakers from the City by the Bay. In addition to Coppola and Lucas, Fog City Mavericks profiles directors Clint Eastwood, Carroll Ballard, Philip Kaufman and Chris Columbus, pioneering independent auteur John Korty, experimental filmmaker Bruce Conner, producer Saul Zaentz, editor and sound designer Walter Murch, cinematographer and director Caleb Deschanel, digital animation moguls Brad Bird, Pete Docter, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, and actor Robin Williams, and many more. While examining these individuals, the film also embraces the whole of the San Francisco film scene, and explains why these artists remain so loyal to their hometown. Fittingly, Fog City Mavericks received its world premiere at the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2006
Veteran experimental filmmaker Bruce Conner directed this compelling collage of sounds and images inspired by a classic gospel song. Conner has made a number of films that have matched found images with music from his favorite performers (ranging from Ray Charles to Devo), and in the mid-1980's he began working on a documentary about the influential gospel vocal group the Soul Stirrers. While the documentary was never completed, Conner has combined some of the footage he shot for that project with archival film from a variety of sources and edited them to accompany the Soul Stirrers' 1946 recording of the classic spiritual "His Eye Is On The Sparrow". The result is a short film that celebrates this music as well as the time and place that helped to inspire it. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
