Bruce Conner

Bruce Conner

Born: November 18, 1933
Died: July 7, 2008
in McPherson, Kansas
Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 - July 7, 2008) was an American artist renowned for his work in film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines. He first attracted public attention in the 1950s with his nylon-shrouded assemblages—complex sculptures of found objects such as women's stockings, costume jewelry, bicycle wheels, and broken dolls, often combined with collaged or painted surfaces. Simultaneously during the late 1950s, he began making short movies in a singular style that has since established him as one of the most important figures in postwar independent filmmaking. He used an innovative technique that can best be seen in his first film, "A MOVIE" (1958), which was created by piecing together scraps of B-movies, newsreels, novelty shorts, and other preexisting footage. His subsequent films are most often fast-paced collages of found and new footage, and he was among the first to use pop music for film sound tracks. His films have inspired generations of filmmakers and are now considered to be the precursors of the music video genre.

Movies for Bruce Conner...

Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments
Title: Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments
Character: Self
Released: May 1, 2004
Type: Movie
The inevitable fat cigar between his fingers, the American actor, director and fine artist Dennis Hopper (1936) self-mockingly looks back on his chequered life and career, at the request of Dutch director, photographer and fine artist Thom Hoffman. The latter sifted through the turbulent life story of Hopper, who is primarily known from the cult film Easy Rider (1969). Hopper went through as many high as low points. In conveniently arranged chapters, Hoffman shows the decisive moments in Hopper's life and asks colleagues like Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Sean Penn and Julian Schnabel to comment on them. The documentary is richly illustrated with film excerpts, photos, newspaper articles and anecdotes. The main reason for this film was the retrospective of Dennis Hopper's art work in the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum in 2001.
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Battle Stations – A Navel Adventure
Title: Battle Stations – A Navel Adventure
Released: March 12, 2002
Type: Movie
Starring Bruce Conner, a belly dancer, a geiger counter, and a toxic waste dump.
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Birth of a Nation
Title: Birth of a Nation
Character: Self
Released: August 6, 1997
Type: Movie
Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades.
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The Kitchen Presents: Two Moon July
Title: The Kitchen Presents: Two Moon July
Released: September 3, 1986
Type: Movie
Two Moon July was a multidisciplinary event that featured experimental video, film, visual art, performance and music in a theatrical framework. More than thirty artists participated in the program, which was produced for the Kitchen by Carlota Schoolman and directed by Tom Bowes.
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Underground New York
Title: Underground New York
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1968
Type: Movie
A rare behind-the-scenes view of the exploding New York “underground” in the late sixities, a turbulent time and place that was to change American culture forever. A German TV crew, led by journalist Gideon Bachmann, explores the epicenter of the sixties revolution in art, music, poetry and film and interviews the main players in the “New American Cinema,” that was born on the streets of New York. Against a backdrop of cultural upheaval in all of the arts and growing political agitation against the Vietnam War, Bachman interviews the most prominent figures in “underground film,” including Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, the Kuchar Brothers and Bruce Connor, and visits the most notorious location in the New York art world of the era - Andy Warhol’s Factory - to conduct an interview with the genius of Pop Art himself.
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Me & Bruce & Art
Title: Me & Bruce & Art
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1967
Type: Movie
Bay Area filmmakers and Canyon Cinema co-founders Ben Van Meter and Bruce Conner were invited to L.A. to talk about Underground Film on the Art Linkletter Show.
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Pas de Trois
Title: Pas de Trois
Released: January 1, 1964
Type: Movie
A short film documenting the making of Bruce Conner's Breakaway.