Since the 1950s, American animator Robert Breer has been well-known for his films exploring shape, color, perspective and motion. His work exhibits innovative graphic and dramatic interpretation as well as great wit and humor, and has inspired generations of other filmmakers. Robert Breer's prolific career as painter, sculptor, animator, and filmmaker began in Paris in 1950. After studying engineering at Stanford University, his interests shifted to the mechanics of film and motion. He experimented with flipbooks and was influenced by European avant-garde movements, especially Dada and Cubism. He is well-known for drawing by hand on 4x6 index cards and animating those drawings in the camera.
His film captures some aspects of beat poetry and music in its fragmented, collage aesthetic. He incorporates scenes and objects from everyday life with repetition, rhythm, and motion. His cartoons are playful and humorous and explore simple delights of life. Later in his career, he experimented with commercial animation. Today Breer continues to explore filmmaking and sculpture in his home in Tappan, New York. He was recently featured in the 2004-5 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, PA.
In addition to the interview with Robert Gardner, the films featured on the disc include:• Recreation • A Man and His Dog Out for Air • 69 • Gulls and Buoys • Fuji • Rubber Cement
Screening Room was a Boston television series that ran for almost ten years from 1972-1981. It offered independent filmmakers a chance to show and discuss their work on a commercial (ABC-TV) affiliate station. The series was developed and hosted by filmmaker Robert Gardner (Dead Birds, Forest of Bliss).
Many of the filmmakers presented on the show - Jan Lenica, John and Faith Hubley, Emile DeAntonio, Jean Rouch, Ricky Leacock, Jonas Mekas, Bruce Baillie, Yvonne Rainer and Michael Snow - are now considered some of the most influential contributors to their respective fields of modern experimental film, documentary, and animation.
Nearly 100 programs were produced during the years Screening Room was broadcast. Twenty seven episodes have been edited for release in 3 categories:
Animation,
Documentary, and
Experimental Film.