Still Underground: Films by Robert Nelson
January 21, 2008
REDCAT at Disney Hall
“Hauling Toto Big is a dense and ecstatic work of fragmented narratives, dream states, chaos and serenity… a culmination of Nelson’s cinematic interests.” Mark Toscano, Academy Film Archive
Known for prankster experimentalism and on-the-spot invention, the films of San Francisco native Robert Nelson are among the defining landmarks of the post-Beat American underground of the 1960s and ’70s. His free-spirited approach, sharp wit, and artistic rigor marked inspired collaborations with William T. Wiley, William Allan, Steve Reich, and the Grateful Dead, and helped shape a language and style for the burgeoning psychedelic culture. Nelson has only recently made his early films available again, and this evening he presents three: The Off-Handed Jape (with Wiley, 1967, 9 min., 16mm), The Awful Backlash (with Allan, 1967, 14 min., 16mm) and Bleu Shut (with Wiley, 1970, 33 min., 16mm). Concluding this program is Nelson’s latest major work, Hauling Toto Big (1997, 43 min., 16mm), winner of the Grand Prize at the 1998 Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Featuring a rare appearance by Robert Nelson
Curator’s Notes
This program concludes a four-part retrospective dedicated to Robert Nelson and organized in collaboration with Mark Toscano (Academy Film Archive). Started on December 2 and 16, the program includes an additional screening at Los Angeles Filmforum on January 20. See details below.
“The experience of being immersed in watching Hauling Toto Big seems to encapsulate the intangible, elusive nature of the filmmaker’s artistic quest. Robert Nelson’s films appear to me as a voyage of discovery: not only of what the material and conditions of cinema are capable of, but also for truths about life itself. Inevitably linked to the cultural environment in which they were made, they amount to a unique and personal journey through America’s post-psychedelic subconscious.” – Mark Webber
Detailed Program
The Off-Handed Jape (1967, made with William T. Wiley, 9min. 16mm) – Print restored by the Academy Film Archive.
One of Nelson’s collaborations with painter and good friend of about 50 years, William T. Wiley. Dr. Otis Bird and Butch Babad are challenged to act out amusing and creative pantomimes while two voices are evaluating their success.
The Awful Backlash (with William Allan, 1967, 14 min., 16mm)
Nelson collaborated on two films with another painter friend, William Allan an avid fisherman – The Awful Backlash and the more rarely seen War Is Hell (1968). Quite unusual and essential at the time of its release, the film is a fascinating and entertaining single take of a prolonged disentanglement, structurally evoking Allan’s collaborations with artist Bruce Nauman from around the same period.
Bleu Shut (with William T. Wiley, 1970, 30 min., 16mm) New print from the Academy Film Archive
Hailed as a true masterpiece by connoisseurs, Bleu Shut is broken down minute by minute, with a clock ticking away its duration to save the audience the trouble of craning their necks to see how much film is left on the projector. Comprising “a boat game and entertainments”, this landmark film is ingeniously artful and extremely entertaining as it brilliantly toys with audience expectation and participation.
Hauling Toto Big (1997, 43 min., 16mm)
In the mid 1990s, Nelson started assembling this film from a large stack of b/w footage he had kept from sketches, unfinished projects, class assignments, outtakes, and other assorted remnants, informed by jazz music, poetry, and the I Ching in its construction. A dense and ecstatic work of fragmented narratives, dream states, chaos and serenity, verité footage rendered into poetry, this is Nelson’s most recently completed film to-date, and a culmination of his cinematic interests. A winner of the Grand Prize at the 1998 Ann Arbor Film Festival, Hauling Toto Big has been so far too rarely screened.
About the filmmaker
Born 1930 in San Francisco in a family of Swedish immigrants, Robert Nelson studied painting at San Francisco State University and the California School of Fine Arts – where he was introduced to a circle of Bay Area artists that converged into the California Funk Art movement of the 1960s. “This influence, together with the Beat sensibility of the poetry and jazz scenes, and the improvisatory theatre of the San Francisco Mime Troupe (directly involved in his first few films), formed the touchstones of Nelson’s developing aesthetic.” (Mark Webber). His second wife is the legendary Swedish experimental filmmaker Gunvor Nelson, and Nelson started working with film by collaborating with her on two home movies: Building Muir Beach House (1961) and Last Week at Oona’s Bath (1962). Nelson taught at various institutions, including the San Francisco Art Institute, Sacramento State and CalArts, before landing a teaching job at UW Milwaukee in 1979 till his retirement in the mid-1990s. He then retreated in self-imposed isolation to a remote house in the mountains of Northern California – where he began to reassess his filmography.
Nelson has influenced a number of major filmmakers, such as Peter Hutton, Fred Worden, and Curt McDowell. He was the main force in co-founding the independent distribution company Canyon Cinema in 1966, hiring his former student Edith Kramer (later the head of the Pacific Film Archive) as its first director.
“After years away from the public arena, Nelson has recently begun to show his work again… This willingness to offer the films to new audiences is unquestionably a result of the care and attention they have received in the preservation activities of Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley) and Academy Film Archive (Los Angeles). Now in his seventies, Nelson speaks of “leaving a neat pile” for after his death, and as part of this project, he is attempting to establish definitive versions of his films.” – Mark Webber
Selected Filmography
Plastic Haircut (1963)
Oh Dem Watermelons (1965)
Confessions of a Black Mother-Succuba (1965)
Thick Pucker (1965)
Oily Peloso the Pumph Man (1966)
Super Spread (1967)
The Great Blondino (1967)
Hot Leatherette (1967)
Grateful Dead (1967)
War is Hell (1968)
Rest in Pieces/R.I.P. (1970/74/03)
King David (1970/2003)
Deep Western (1974)
Special Warning (1974/99)
Suite California: Stops and Passes (Parts 1 & 2) (1976/78)
Hamlet Act (1982)
Limitations (1988)
Additional Robert Nelson Screening at Los Angeles Filmforum
Sun Jan 20 | 7 pm
At the Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas
In person: Robert Nelson
This screening will present a unique opportunity to hear Nelson’s interesting perspective on his own artistic process – which is informed by his double background as a painter and a filmmaker. In the mid-1990s, Nelson re-evaluated his filmography, and decided to try to re-edit a lot of his films. Some of the re-edits were successful, many weren’t; and some of the films ended up being irretrievably destroyed. The screening will present three successful re-edits (King David, More, and Suite California Stops & Passes: Part 1), followed by a 25-minute reel of the remnants of many unsuccessful re-edits. The audience will have the unique, never-before-given opportunity to confront the wily artist about his self-destructive (?) practices! – Mark Toscano, Curator
King David (with Mike Henderson, 1970/2003, color, sound, 9min. 16mm)
More (1971/98, b/w, sound, 15min.)
Suite California Stops & Passes: Part 1 (1976/2004, color, sound, 35min., 16mm) (rework-in-progress edit)
worms still writhing after cut by 1/2 (1965-1967, b/w & color, sound, ca. 25min., 16mm) A reel of fragments. The abandoned remnants of failed re-edits: Thick Pucker, Thick Pucker 2, Oily Peloso the Pumph Man, Portrait of Gourley, Super Spread, Sixty Lazy Dogs, Half-Open & Lumpy, Penny Bright & Jimmy Witherspoon
Special thanks to Alice Moscoso
Arthur Magazine 