GINKO YELLOW
2022 5 minutes, 16mm, silent
with Indigo Cohan
CHABROT
2022 3 ½ minutes, 16mm, black and white, sound
with Sheila Pinkel, Paolo Davanzo, Geneva Simmons and Andrew Halpern
A private toast. Inspired by a random encounter with this Wikipedia entry, while looking up “Chabrol, Claude” for a full listing of his films:
“Faire chabrot or faire chabròl is an ancient Occitanian custom whereby at the end of a soup or broth, one adds red wine to the bowl to dilute the remnants and brings it to the lips to drink in big gulps.” – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
4 FINGERS, 5 TOES
2022 11 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
Endangered animals on an endangered medium.
A heartbeat 4/4
Slow cinema, with sex scene.
HULA
2022 6 minutes, 16mm, color, sound
with Henry Franklin on bass
Abstract music notation and something very obvious.
EMIT A BEAM, SEE A LIGHT
2022 3 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, sound
with Richard Portman & Teresa Roupe
Statement and demonstration.
VERGE for my sisters
2022 5 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, silent
A horizon like a blade. Consistent across landscapes in California – ocean to desert and back to ocean.
2022 9 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, sound
An opera in the public domain.
“I tremble for my country when I think that god is just.”
Thomas Jefferson
MY DEAR EVAPORANT,
2022 5 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, silent
What can I say about a private letter?
MA SEWING
2021 1 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, silent
My mother, now 94. Shot more than 30 years ago.
FIRE BELLY
2021 3 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
Alchemists thought that salamanders could be reborn from fire – like the Phoenix, or the Christ.
But salamanders do not survive fire, nor extreme dryness. And they do not resurrect after burning. Consequently they are at present in great danger on the planet.
BIRDS IN THE WINDOW
2020 – 2021 9 minutes, color, sound, digital
by Amy Halpern and David Lebrun
Encounters from the plague year.
JANE, LOOKING
2020 2 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
with Jane Wodening (Brakhage)
A scrutinizing look back from a person who was a camera’s object for many years.
UNOWNED LUXURIES #3
2020 2 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
with Marpa Franzoni
NEWT LEADERS
2020 4 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, silent
The beautiful detritus of the medium.
# 27
2019, 3 minutes, color, silent with Caroline McCrystal Marcantoni
MY MINK (Unowned Luxuries #2)
2019 4 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
with Shaun Madigan and Lewis Weinberg
SLOW FIREWORKS
2019 5 minutes, 16mm, color, sound, digital
VEZELAY CURTAIN
2019 5 minutes, 16mm, color, sound, digital
“The wind has its own way of praying.” – Randolph Pitts
THE DEER’S BLESSING
2017 2 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, silent, digital
NEWT PAUSES
2016 7 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, silent
MY DIAMOND
2015 4 ½ minutes, color, sound, digital, with Sebastian de Trolio
The Unowned Luxuries films consider forms of possession – by the eyes, and by other ways of “owning”.
2014, 2 minutes, color, sound, digital, for Dumbarton Oaks, Night Fire Films
INJURY ON A THEME
2012 7 minutes, 16mm, sound, color
for Lynda Gudde
POURING GRAIN
2000 2 ½ minutes, 16mm, color, silent
BY HALVES
2012 7 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
PALM DOWN
2012 6 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
Two palindromes, no happy ending.
CHESHIRE SMILE
2012 5 minutes, 16mm, color, sound
with Adnan Ibrahim
“Stand up and use your ears like a man” – Charles Ives
ACCESS TO THE VIEW
2000 2 minutes, 16mm, color, sound
with Yogi John Franzoni
3-MINUTE HELLS
2012 14 minutes, 16mm, color, sound
with Arwa Ibrahim
1 – Detention
2 – Hollywood Hills
3 – Reptile
4 – Bestiary
5 – Abstract and Concrete
6 – Doorway Occupation 7 – Sideways
ELIXIR
2012 7 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
with Asha Wilson & Joyce Campbell
A love letter.
1992 64 minutes, 16mm, color, sound
mix by Richard Portman
“Amy Halpern’s 64 minute Falling Lessons is a stunningly sensual, life-affirming experience from a major experimental film artist that is open to myriad meanings. The film is a rhythmic montage of almost 200 faces, human and animals, that Halpern pans vertically, creating a cascade of visages suggesting that while individuals express a range of emotions they remain ultimately enigmas.
“The glimpses of life going on around all these faces have an unsettling, even apocalyptic quality, and the film forces you to consider living beings and their value collectively rather than selectively. Halpern’s rich, inspired mix of sounds, words and music complements her images perfectly.”
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
“A healing film… All of the people in it seem naked… It should be shown in mental institutions – to the patients and the doctors alike.”
Ornette Colman
“The strangest film I have ever seen.”
Chick Strand
READY-MADE
1985 3 minutes, 16mm, color, silent, animation
INVOCATION
1982 2 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
PYTHONESS
1979 2 minutes, 16mm, black and white, silent
with Siri Dharma Gagliano
CIGARETTE BURN
1978 7 ½ minutes, 16mm, sound, black and white
with Nancy Halpern & Yves Marton*
SELF-PORTRAIT AS A CITY
1977 5 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
camera operator in N.Y. Larry Gottheim
STUDY for CIGARETTE BURN
1976 2 minutes, 16mm, black and white, silent
FILAMENT (THE HANDS)
1975 6 minutes, 16mm, black and white, silent
with Mikis Theodorakis
PEACH LANDSCAPE
1973 5 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
A rapture of film grain and light, an expanse of flesh, and the fruit of the universe.
Literally, a rhapsody on a slice of canned peach in a bowl.
A GLANCE
1972 1 minute, 16mm, color, silent
2 seconds of image. Essential: the looking.
THREE PREPARATIONS
1972 6 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
– Drops
– Statice / Frameline
– Cannonball Section
Considerations of the frame. The grain as it holds colored light. Glass as it holds colored light. Loud silent music (especially The Cannonball Section, the last movement)
ROLL #1 FOR NANCY
1972 3 minutes, 16mm, color, silent
Some of these films are available from the New York Filmmakers Cooperative and from Canyon Cinema.
For further information or to arrange screenings, see About / Contact