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/
Crew
Portrait of Jason
Director, Editor, Producer
The Cool World
Director, Writer, Editor
The Connection
Director, Editor
Ornette: Made in America
Director, Editor
Ornette Coleman: A Jazz Video Game
Director
Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World
Director
Bridges-Go-Round 1
Director, Director of Photography, Producer
Bullfight
Director, Camera Operator, Editor
Skyscraper
Director, Editor, Producer
Dance in the Sun
Director, Editor
A Moment in Love
Director, Editor, Camera Operator
Bridges-Go-Round 2
Director, Producer, Cinematography
Carl Lee, Max and Friends at the Hotel Chelsea
Director
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Trans
Director
24 Frames Per Second
Director
Christopher and Me
Dialogue
A Short Lecture and Demonstration on the Evolution of Ragtime as Presented by Jelly Roll Morton
Director
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: One Two Three
Director
For Life, Against the War
Director
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Initiation
Director
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Mysterium
Director
Home Movies #20: Dance Tests
Director
Outtakes for 'In Paris Parks'
Director
Rose and the Players – Part 2
Director
Rose and the Players – Part 1
Director
This Is Not 'In Paris Parks'
Director
Bullfight: The C and D Rolls
Director
Home Movies #15 Shirley with Camera
Director
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971
Director
Carl Lee on Joe Franklin Show
Director
Morris at Ornette's Art Show
Director
Yoko and John Party
Director
Ricky Leacock Visit, evening, April 19, 1971
Director
Ricky Leacock Visit, daytime, April 19, 1971
Director
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 17, 1971
Director
The Tee Pee Video Space Troupe: The First Years
Director
