By Brakhage

Working completely outside the mainstream, Stan Brakhage made nearly four hundred films over the past half-century. Challenging all taboos in his exploration of "birth, sex, death, and the search for God," Brakhage turned his camera on lovemaking, childbirth, and even actual autopsy. Many of his most famous films pursue the nature of vision itself and trascend the act of filming. Treating each freame as a miniature canvas, Brakhage pioneered the art of making images directly on film itself - starting with clear leader or exposed film, then scratching, drawing, and painting on it by hand. Brakhage sometimes produced only a quarter-second of film a day, but over the years, his visionary style of image making has influenced everything from cartoons and television commercials to MTV music videos and major motion pictures.