R. Bruce Elder
Crack, Brutal Grief
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Add rightsFormat Blu-ray Interzone
Original format 16mm
Year 2000
Language(s) English
Artist(s) R. Bruce Elder
Running time 130 min
Films
CRACK, BRUTAL GRIEF (2000) 130'
A HARROWING OF IMAGE by Stephen Broomer
Description
Crack, Brutal Grief was born in response to the tragic suicide of a friend of the filmmaker, an event that led him to a defining encounter with the grotesque imagery of the early Internet. Faced with this inhumanity, the artist offers an alchemical possibility: to confront and elevate the debased images of death, exploitation, and suffering to the full dignity of grief, thus achieving catharsis.
R. Bruce Elder is one of Canada's most celebrated experimental filmmakers and critics. His films have taken the form of epic, in the manner of Pound. They constitute an exhaustive exploration of history, philosophy, and vision—a quality that led Jonas Mekas to call him "the most important North American avant-garde filmmaker to emerge during the 1980s." In Crack, Brutal Grief, Elder applies this critical discernment to the Internet age.