Stan Brakhage on Gregory Markopoulos & Jim Davis

Stan Brakhage, in addition to his amazingly productive career as a filmmaker, was a polemicist and theorist for avant-garde film of no small measure. His extensive writings on film include Metaphors on Vision, A Moving Picture Giving and Taking Book, and Film at Wit's End; his prolific lectures, over a period of some five decades, helped to advance the cause of avant-garde film.

The Anthology DVD, Stan Brakhage on Gregory Markopoulos & Jim Davis, provides examples of Brakhage's talent as lecturer and polemicist. Anthology Film Archives provides this description of the disc: "This rare and illuminating collection features three previously unreleased sessions with Brakhage. The first is a casual, intimate look at Brakhage exploring footage left behind by his friend, the filmmaker Charles Boultenhouse, who had previously passed away; the second is a very personal lecture on filmmaker and friend Jim Davis.

Finally, Brakhage's lecture at the Whitney Museum is a thoughtful meditation on another friend and fellow filmmaker Gregory Markopoulos." Stan Brakhage on Gregory Markopoulos & Jim Davis (a bit of a misnomer, as the disc also includes Brakhage on Charles Boultenhouse) is an opportunity to see Brakhage in his guise as a major teacher and theorist of film, a vital and central aspect of his artistic practice.