Adrian Salas
Adrian SalasMIAS 210Winter 2015
The Challenge of Harry Smith and the Avant-garde in FilmAmerican
artist Harry Smith (1923-1991) dabbled in a broad range of
disciplines across the artistic spectrum. As Rani Singh, Smiths
one-time assistant and later executor of his estate, states in
reference to Smith, [w]ell never be able to separate the truth
entirely from myth, but we can be sure that from an early childhood
there were instilled an appreciation of nature and an alchemical
synthesis of the arts and sciences, which culminated in the melding
of music, anthropology, linguistics, ethnology, film, occultism,
design, and the plastic arts.[footnoteRef:0] Smith is maybe best
known for curating and compiling together the Folkways Anthology of
American Folk Music in 1952 from his personnel collection of 78 RPM
records.[footnoteRef:1] No less a personage than Beat Generation
figurehead Allen Ginsberg has said, [t]his box-set was a historic
bomb in American folk music. It turned on Peter, Paul and Mary,
tuned on the whole folk music world at the time...[footnoteRef:2]
Beyond his influential take on musicology, Smith also built up a
significant body of work in film spanning roughly twenty films in
forty years (exact numbers change depending on where one sources
their filmographic information), which is perhaps his most
extensive surviving artistic legacy.[footnoteRef:3] Examining the
material and intellectual issues with some of his key works such as
Heaven and Earth Magic, Mahagonny, and Early Abstractions will shed
light on some of the issues involved with conserving and preserving
the legacy of a rather non-traditional filmmaker operating outside
the normal studio channels that are normally thought of as the home
of moving images. [0: Singh, Rani. American Magus Harry Smith: A
Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press,
1996. 13.] [1: Cohen, John. "Sing Out!, Volume 19, No.1, 1969." In
Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith --Selected Interviews,
edited by Rani Singh, 66-100. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press,
1999.] [2: Ginsberg, Allen, and Hal Willner. "Introduction: Allen
Ginsberg Interview with Hal Willner." In Think of the Self
Speaking: Harry Smith - Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh.
1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 4.] [3: "Curriculum
Vitae." Harry Smith Archives. Accessed March 15, 2015.
http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/1_bio/index.html.]
Artists such as Smith possess major shortcomings when it comes
to custodianship of their materials. Simply taking an accurate
survey and inventory of his work is somewhat complicated, as Smith
was prone to sell, lose, or destroy works original works of his at
random (paintings as well as films), with little or no
documentation or thoughts to future posterity.[footnoteRef:4] Smith
was also an interminable editor who constantly would go back to
earlier works in his filmography to obtain material to incorporate
into later works which further muddies the water as to making a
complete picture of his projects. Smith had a system of numbering
his works sequentially (Film #1, Film #2, etc...) in addition to
alternative titles given to some works, although not every number
seems to have an existent corresponding work, or many times early
works get incorporated into later works. Looking at various sources
for a comprehensive filmography yields a range of answers for the
amount of material he released. There are works going all the way
to number fourteen listed in the Film-makers Cooperative Catalogue
no. 3 from 1965 (this catalogue is from way before Smiths death in
1991 or the end of his active film-making but this list gets
subsequently republished in P. Adams Sitneys most current third
edition of Visionary Cinema from 2002). A program for an event
called Articulated Light at Harvard in 1995 includes a filmography
that tops out at Film #18, Mahagonny. The Articulated Light list
subsequently is republished as the filmography used for the books
Thinking of the Self Speaking and American Magus. The filmography
found on the webpage for the Harry Smith Archives, and subsequently
sourced with some additions to Wikipedia, shows Smith as having
produced works all the way up to Film #20. Finally, referring to
the Getty Research Institutes inventory of the Harry Smith Research
Archive, which the Getty acquired in 2013, there is a listing
noting a hand spliced reel of 16mm film in the collection titled
Film #22. The breadth of his legacy combined with Smiths somewhat
eccentric and at times erratic lifestyle of cadging money off his
friends, as Allen Ginsburg says, resulted in conditions that were
often perilous to the survival and correct accounting of his
films.[footnoteRef:5] [4: Singh, Rani. "Harry Smith Interview."
Interview by author. March 5, 2015.] [5: Ginsberg, Allen. American
Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New
York: Inanout Press, 1996. 109.]
The films of Harry Smith usually take the form of experimental
projects situated in the avant-garde. Cinema historian and
Anthology Film Archive co-founder P. Adams Sitney attempts to
contextualize American avant--garde cinema by stating: The precise
relationship of the avant-garde cinema to American commercial film
is one of radical otherness. They operate in different realms with
next to no significant influence on each other.[footnoteRef:6]
Adams in short outlines a theory that avant-garde cinema exists as
a complete separate entity from traditional popular films and that
the two share very little aside from the basic medium and
technology of moving image recording and playback. In the case of
Harry Smith and his filmed works, Sitney reserves a fair measure of
praise: [6: Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film: The American
Avant-garde, 1943-2000 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2002. xii.]
The hand-painted films with which he began his career as a
film-maker are the most remarkable ever achieved in that technique;
and his subsequent films, both animated and photographed from
actuality, sustain his stature as one of the central film-makers of
the avant-garde tradition.[footnoteRef:7] [7: Ibid. 235.]
Smiths films often encapsulate animation and collage to create
non-narrative art works, and are rife with symbolism culled from
his anthropological studies of spiritual and philosophical works.
Many of his films are also influenced by his interest in alchemy.
Given Smiths musicological studies, naturally sound and music often
plays major roles in Smiths works, inspiring him to incorporate
recorded audio works that he comes across or creates as the aural
component to his film, and even as a direct influence on the visual
content. Films for an experimental or avant-garde oriented creator
such as Smith were an ongoing project. A great challenge in
preservation, distribution and later restoration is to decide what
the films intended fixed form should be. Artists such as Smith
could be particularly painstaking and laborious in their continuous
re-imagining of their works. According to Singh, it seemed that
Smith often worked with no defined endpoint in mind for what form
his films were to ultimately take.[footnoteRef:8] This raises many
issues for caretakers of his filmic legacy, because even though
there may be clues such as documentation of exhibitions, artists
notes and papers, and existing prints and videos, the ultimate form
a work is to take was often beholden to the whims of the artist or
external forces such as running out of resources, or approaching a
deadline imposed by an exhibitor sponsor such as a representing
gallery. [8: Singh, Rani. "Harry Smith Interview." Interview by
author. March 5, 2015.]
While one can contend that all film makers are constrained by
the limitations of their resources and backers, an independent,
non-commercial film maker like Smith works on a different scale of
economics then filmmakers working for a studio or producer. Some
projects may literally consist of one man, and as such film making
could potentially go on indefinitely assuming the artist has the
will to continuously work on a project. Singh was quick to point
out that Harry Smith often made his films for himself under his own
volition, and aside from occasional grants, often lived quite
destitute. The story Jonas Mekas relates to how the Film-Makers
Cooperative came to take in several of Smiths work illustrates the
catch-as-catch-can nature of how his filmography came to be
preserved: He comes in--I see Harry Smith, and he drops his three
or four boxes of films, Can you take care--can you show my films,
here they are, you can have them, do what you want with them...
Those were Early Abstractions, Late Superimpositions, and Heaven
and Earth Magic--his key works. Then a few days later he again came
in and I found out more--that these were the actually prints--that
the originals do not exist or he doesnt know where they are--tell
you the truth, even now, today, we dont know.[footnoteRef:9] [9:
Mekas, Jonas. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist.
Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 79.]
As often Smith was the only party with a say in the chain of
custody for his productions, this left many of Smiths films subject
to his idiosyncrasies until such time that someone like Anthology
Film Archive or Film-Makers Cooperative could take in copies of his
films.Display of artists work in and of itself can be a contentious
issue encountered in the preservation of experimental film and
video works. Smith was fond of exploring the artifice of motion
picture display. Often this resulted in works that were intended to
have non-standard projections and presentations. Smith has stated:
In a number of cases Ive made special screens to project films on.
All those so-called early abstract films had special screens for
them. They were made of dots and lines. All those things
disappeared.[footnoteRef:10] Beyond the issue of Smiths custom
screens, there are other complications with presentation beyond the
conservation and projection of film elements that exhibitors and
preservation minded parties have to take into account with
screening Smiths works. [10: Sitney, P. Adams. "Film Culture No.
37, 1965." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected
Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 44-64. 1st ed. Seattle:
Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 55.]
Heaven and Earth Magic: Film #12 Issues of display raise their
head in one of Smiths most famous works, Heaven and Earth Magic:
Film #12 (ca.1957-1962). Talking about screening Heaven and Earth
Magic, Jonas Mekas outlines the rather complex conditions of how
Smith originally presented the work: He had structures, machines
constructed specifically to project Heaven and Earth Magic... So he
screened from 62--63 on that contraption--on the special machine
where there was a screen and the film was projected. It was
projected on a screen that has ornaments around it. And he
projected--around the film itself--other images and designs, and
used also color filters here and there. So it was like every time
it was slightly different and it was very impressive. I think its a
masterpiece, even when you see it in the black and white version as
its projected now.[footnoteRef:11] [11: Mekas, Jonas. American
Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New
York: Inanout Press, 1996. 80.]
The film as originally shown comes to resemble almost an
immersive experience where the audience is witness to active
compositing of the imagery before them. The films become
performative actions, in a way, as their complete meanings are
continuously being created and somewhat reconstructed with each
screening according to variables beyond the standard ones which go
into motion picture projection. Taking into account how much of the
presentation was dictated by Smiths presence, the preservation of
these films require parties to engage in active negotiation with
the material to determine how much of Smiths ancillary elements
feasibly can and should be included in the films presentation going
forward. Items such as Smiths custom projector are probably too
much of an idiosyncrasy and too difficult to feasibly reconstruct,
minus the existence of extensively detailed technical documentation
and interested parties with enough technical expertise and
resources to undertake such a project. As Smith described it, the
projector was to show slides along with the film, and allow for the
slides to be taken out and changed as the film ran.[footnoteRef:12]
This would have allowed Smith to frame his scenes in ways that
responded to the narrative, by changing what went on outside the
traditional areas employed by a moving image projection.
Presentation elements such as the filters, gels, and custom
drawings added to projections would be less of a challenge to
incorporate into a presentation in a more fixed form, such as
digitally editing in colors to a restored preservation, but this is
dependent on whether examples and documentation exist for what
Smith had in mind. This last step can be quite complicated, as
Jonas Mekas, among others with similar stories, recounts later in
the previously quoted interview several occasions when Smith tossed
films as well as other ephemera and equipment he was using out into
the street during a screening in a fit of rage.[footnoteRef:13]
[12: Sitney, P. Adams. "Film Culture No. 37, 1965." In Think of the
Self Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected Interviews, edited by Rani
Singh, 44-64. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 61.] [13:
Mekas, Jonas. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist.
Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 80-81.]
At the end of the day, a preservationist must work best with
what material they have. Even if Smiths extra--filmic elements
exist, it can prove prohibitively complicated to re--incorporate
them into the film. A judgment call must be made in which it is
decided whether the extra elements are inextricable to viewing and
understanding the film. Mekas himself seems to find that the black
and white print version still stands up on its own merits, even
with none of the other adornments of Smiths original presentation.
It is perhaps bests to view the filters, extra images and, custom
screens as illuminating additions to the film, should there be a
way to incorporate them according to the original presentations but
not prohibitive obstacles for viewers taking in the experience. An
appropriate parallel can be perhaps drawn with the tinting and
toning incorporated into silent films. The extra step of tinting
was not something that was unwaveringly reproducible (within
certain limits) like creating the films prints themselves. Rather,
tinting, much like Smiths extra flourishes required an artisanal
intervention with the produced film to introduce the dye to the
film stock. While a tinted silent can change the reception of the
film by the audience, it is not a necessary element to the
distribution and screening of a work. While, it would be preferable
to see moving images reproduced with their exact original
presentation elements intact, if the main heart of a work is still
intact like with the actual film of Heaven and Earth Magic an
audience can still derive a significant part of the experience from
viewing the piece if it holds enough artistic merit and is crafted
well enough, as Mekas indicates.
Mahagonny: Film #18Smiths film Mahagonny (ca.1970-1980), also
known as Film #18, is a prime case--study of the difficulties
inherent in attempting to present a nontraditional film work in a
way that is respectful to the perceived intentions of the artist.
The technical challenges of reconstituting the film are detailed in
a short documentary, Restoring Harry Smiths Mahagonny, which was
prepared to coincide with the 2002 restoration of the
work.[footnoteRef:14] The film, according to different sources, was
either shot over six years (according to the restoration
documentary), or shot over two years starting in 1970 and
subsequently edited for the next eight (according to Rani
Singh).[footnoteRef:15] This confusion is perhaps par for the
course with a personality like Smith, whose rambling interviews can
read like a concoction of half-truths, misremembrances,
mis-direction, the fantastical and occasional frankness. For
instance, in an interview on his filmography conducted in 1965, a
few simple questions posed to Smith about dating related to his age
and filmography causes Smith to launch into a long series of
far-fetched biographical details (including his supposed familial
ties to the Czarina of Russia, The Knights Templar, The Masons and
Aleister Crowley) which eventually leads him to make the following
admission: Theres confusion in the notes for the Catalogue
[Film-makers Cooperative No.3, 1965], because I tend to glamorize,
saying that I did such and such at a much earlier age than I did
it.[footnoteRef:16] At any rate, both time frames given for the
length of Mahagonnys production imply that much thought was given
by Smith in planning and editing down the footage as it finally
came to be presented in 1980. [14: Restoring Harry Smith's
Mahagonny, Directed by Simon (New York: Cineric, Inc, 2002).
Online. Accessed March 13, 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klCfLPaC4Vg.] [15: Singh, Rani.
"The Getty Research Institute Presents Harry Smith's Film #18,
Mahagonny: Symposium Statement." Harry Smith Archives. January 1,
2002. Accessed March 13, 2015.
http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/4_news/mahagonny.html.] [16:
Sitney, P. Adams. "Film Culture No. 37, 1965." In Think of the Self
Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh,
44-64. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 51.]
The piece, as originally conceived, was intended to be shown by
having two projectionist running four 16mm projectors and a reel to
reel tape recorder simultaneously. The films program itself
consisted of twelve twenty-five minute reels of 16mm films, which
were then copied to create another twelve reels of mirrored
footage. All twenty-four reels of footage were then to be run in
unison on the four projectors according to a chart of Smiths
devising. The presentation was intended to be accompanied by a 1956
German language recording of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weills 1930
opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (or Aufstieg und Fall
der Stadt Mahagonny in the original German).[footnoteRef:17] The
complication of running the two hour and twenty-one minute film
resulted in only six screenings at the Anthology Film Archives in
1980, all under the direct supervision of Smith.[footnoteRef:18]
When it came time to restore the piece there was some challenge on
how exactly the presentation of the film was to be preserved. Even
if the 16mm elements for the four projectors were preserved,
restored, and released for distribution the issue of running the
film correctly would be a prohibitive challenge for many potential
exhibitors, due to the equipment involved and the issues that would
present themselves with attempting to correctly synchronize the run
times for four prints. The solution that was finally settled on was
to compile the four 16mm prints into a 35mm composite print with
the four different images running together in a single tiled frame
along with an optically printed soundtrack. [17: Hoberman, Jim.
"Mirror Men." The Village Voice Movies. September 10, 2002.
Accessed March 13, 2015.
http://www.villagevoice.com/2002--09--10/film/mirror-men/.] [18:
"Harry Smith's Film #18, Mahagonny." Getty Research Institute,
Exhibitions & Events. January 1, 2002. Accessed March 13, 2015.
http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/events/mahagonny.html.]
To properly prepare the restoration, documentation was consulted
to determine the correct order and aesthetics for the piece.
Sources included Harry Smiths charts which laid out his plan for
the performance, pictures of Smith working, and interviews with
audience members from the 1980 Anthology screenings. Determining
the films final presentation was complicated by Smiths continuous
re-editing of the piece, but by comparing the running times of the
16mm prints with Smiths charts, and then referencing slides made by
photographers documenting the event and Harry Smiths preparations,
sequencing, running order, and the correct orientation of the four
projections with each other were eventually deduced. Another
problem was determining how the four prints were intended to run
together in time.[footnoteRef:19] Three of the prints could easily
be coordinated according to the documentation present, but the
fourth proved troublesome. After ruminating over the problem, the
preservationist working on the print discovered that one of the
projectors was intended to lag behind the others by 14 seconds.
Once this key bit of information was uncovered, the other pieces of
the preservation fell into place in short order.[footnoteRef:20]
[19: Restoring Harry Smith's Mahagonny, Directed by Simon (New
York: Cineric, Inc, 2002). Online. Accessed March 13, 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klCfLPaC4Vg.] [20: Singh, Rani.
"Harry Smith Interview." Interview by author. March 5, 2015.]
The compilation of the four 16mm films into a single 35mm print,
showcases the type of problem solving that must be undertaken to
ensure non-traditional works can be presented outside their
original contexts. While the composite optical print may not
necessarily be 100% accurate to Smiths original performances, the
amount of variability inherent in the original showings due to the
number of elements involved in projecting the films means that
pursuing a 100% accurate recreation of the 1980Anthology screenings
is perhaps a fools errand. Rather, the composite print ensured
Mahagonny was able to have a stable record and a greater avenue of
venues able to show the film to interested audiences. Avant-garde
films are not made with wide appeal in mind, but artificially
limiting the range of the films potential audience due to technical
limitations that can easily be overcome is not ideal either.
Although none besides Harry Smith could ever say for sure, the
practical choices made by the Mahagonny preservation walk a fine
line, but seem to fairly balance the needs of practical
presentation while not substantially altering Smiths original
vision.
Early AbstractionsSmiths film Early Abstractions (ca. 1964) was
edited together as an anthology of his earliest works from his
earlier films, Film(s) #1-5, #7, and #10. According to the Harry
Smith Archives, the film was originally a silent print and designed
to be accompanied by a reel to reel soundtrack provided by the band
the Fugs, whom Smith was associated with through producing their
first album.[footnoteRef:21] Smith was screening the film in New
York in the early 1960s with the Fugs soundtrack, and then
proceeded to get in an argument with someone in the middle of the
showing and throw down his equipment and tapes, and subsequently
that was the last time he used the Fugs soundtrack.[footnoteRef:22]
Around 1965, Early Abstractions was re-edited and released for
distribution with an optical soundtrack taken from the Beatles 1964
Meet the Beatles! LP. This seems to have been a completely
unlicensed or authorized use of the Beatles music though, so it was
somewhat of a calculated risk to release the Abstractions in this
form. Somehow this does not seem to have seriously impeded the
distribution of the film through the years, despite the Beatles
notoriously protective label Apple Records reputation (although
Abstractions was re-edited before Apple Records formed in 1968, so
it seems initially the danger was in running afoul of either the
Beatles British label Parlaphone or their US label Capitol). [21:
"Curriculum Vitae." Harry Smith Archives. Accessed March 15, 2015.
http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/1_bio/index.html.] [22: Mekas,
Jonas. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by
Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 80.]
Many of the filmographies and interviews encountered for Harry
Smith list the Beatles cut of the film, so it seems to be the
version of Early Abstractions that had the most penetration into
the public. It is curious that in Mekas interview from 1993, he
talks about finally pulling the Beatles version (whether this is
through Anthology Film Archive or Film-Makers Cooperative is a bit
unclear), and the hopes that Mystic Fire Video will put out a
variant version of the film with what is said to be the original
jazz soundtrack on video at some time in the near
future.[footnoteRef:23] Therefore it is curious that a DVD from
2013 released under the aegis of the Harry Smith Archives called
Harry Smith: Selected Films said to be sourced from new digital
transfers contains the Meet the Beatles! soundtrack on Early
Abstractions. When I asked Rani Singh about this, she said that she
just has never considered it an issue as they film has never been
challenged by the Beatles or any of their representatives in all
the years it has been in distribution. Her reasoning is that the
film is too under the radar and small for them to be concerned with
going after, even though it was deemed significant enough to be
named to the Library of Congresss National Registry in
2006.[footnoteRef:24] [23: Ibid.] [24: "Complete National Film
Registry Listing." National Film Preservation Board. Accessed March
15, 2015.
http://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/.]
Soundtracks and scores can be of enormous concern in the
preservation process, but perhaps just as much, if not more, for
the rights issues than the technical concerns. While there is a
significant amount of legwork involved with clearing rights for
moving images, the basic process can be fairly straightforward if a
chain of custody can be determined for the rights
holders.[footnoteRef:25] Music copyright on the other hand is a
much more complicated process. The number of parties that must be
dealt with in obtaining rights to either use a song or to
re-license a song that was previously cleared can start to become
staggering due to the many facets involved with music rights. As
one recent book on the process of film production states: Clearing
music... is one of the thorniest jobs a producer can do. It usually
requires extensive research, long delays, and complex negotiations.
If you ever have the experience of trying to clear many songs for a
movie, youll probably never want to do it again.[footnoteRef:26]
Assuming one can navigate the tricky landscape of determining the
music publisher and the record label and receiving permission to
obtain the subsequent rights (sync and public performance rights
from the music publisher, and a master use license from whoever
holds the rights to a particular recording), the whole process can
still be held up if affordable fees cannot be negotiated. [25:
Michael C. Donaldson and Lisa A. Califfs book Clearance and
Copyright (Silman James Press; 2014) is a good primer and guide for
understanding the processes involved.] [26: Ascher, Steven, and
Edward Pincus. "Producing and Distributing the Movie." In The
Filmmaker's Handbook : A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age,
2013. 2013 ed. New York, New York: Plume, 2012.]
Lapses in musical rights for a previously released film can come
back to affect a motion picture later on, when unresolved licensing
issues or the need to renew licensing for an extended term beyond
the initial negotiated period becomes a necessity when a re-release
is contemplated. Failing to secure these music rights can
essentially lock away a movie from the public, even one that has
received extensive preservation and archival treatment. A striking
examples of the effect music licensing can have on a production is
the case of Killer of Sheep (1978) which never received
distribution and was only able to be shown sporadically at
festivals, despite near universal critical acclaim due to director
Charles Burnett never clearing music rights.[footnoteRef:27] The
AFI Catalog notes that the film was preserved by the UCLA Film and
Television Archive as part of a 2000 grant, but due to lingering
musical rights issues it still took 6 years and $142,000 in
licensing fees to finally clear the movie for distribution in 2007.
A further example of the power of music copyright is the case of
Its a Wonderful Life (1946). The Frank Capra film itself
technically entered the public domain for a while, but due to
anomalies in the copyright code and a series of legal maneuvers,
Paramount was able to do a partial re-capture of copyright of the
film through exploiting rights held on Dimitri Tiomkins
score.[footnoteRef:28] [27: Sterritt, David. "Killer of Sheep."
Turner Classic Movies. Accessed March 16, 2015.
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/184975|0/Killer-of-Sheep.html.]
[28: The Curious Copyright Case of It's A Wonderful Life," YouTube
video, 21:37, posted by Filmmaker IQ, December 14, 2014,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnUGXQwJMSM.]
The aforementioned examples of music copyright serve as prime
examples of the effect music copyright can have across all facets
of a motion picture. While the Beetles soundtrack is the most
blatant example of the tricky ground walked by the caretakers of
Harry Smiths estate, it is not the only example, as Smith was very
interested in the intersection between music and visual
performance. Smith stated that I had a really great illumination
the first time I heard Dizzy Gillespie play. I had gone there very
high, and I literally saw all kinds of colored flashes. It was at
that point that that I realized music could be put to my
films.[footnoteRef:29] Many of his films consequently are made to
be played with recordings that Smith had in mind, such as jazz
artists like Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker, or the Bertolt
Brecht/Kurt Veill score that Mahagonny is intended to be set to.
The only film of Smiths that actually had a soundtrack printed on
the film by Smith upon original release is Heaven and Earth Magic.
Instead many of his films were intended to be accompanied by a
separate recording being synched with the film. This then means
that the two, sound and film, are not inextricably linked, but
instead are complementary technologies that Smith just
contextualizes by placing in proximity with each other, and may
explain why his estate seems to have been able to avoid legal
entanglements over music for the most part. While the Beetles score
being later included to distributed versions of Early Abstractions
is still somewhat of a puzzling anomaly, it seems that Smiths
separation of sound and visual mediums may in a way have helped
allow his films to be more unrestricted. [29: Sitney, P. Adams.
"Film Culture No. 37, 1965." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry
Smith -- Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 44-64. 1st ed.
Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 56.]
ConclusionThe challenge of working with Harry Smiths films can
lie in a multiplicity of aspects. There are the unique presentation
and aesthetic concerns involving missing components that are part
of working with Heaven and Earth Magic that must be negotiated. The
non-traditional projection issues of showing Mahagonny and its four
simultaneous film reels introduce technical restoration challenges
that film preservationists must make decisions about which may
differ from the authorial intent of Harry Smith, but will enhance
access. Early Abstracts is an interesting study in taking
calculated risks in the face of copyright and clearance concerns
that can potentially lock up a restoration for all intents and
purposes. While many of these concerns are universal across moving
image preservation to varying degrees, Smiths itinerant and
rambunctious lifestyle introduce unique concerns to those searching
for material and documentation in order to preserve his legacy. His
works were made largely outside the framework of institutional and
commercial entities, so wrapped up in his greater autonomy to
create are the dangers his works faced from the increased exposure
to his sometimes erratic whims and cavalier custodial habits.
Works CitedAmerican Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist.
Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996.
Ascher, Steven, and Edward Pincus. "Producing and Distributing
the Movie." In The Filmmaker's Handbook : A Comprehensive Guide for
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