Stan Brakhage Essential Cinema at Anthology Film Archives
February 19, 2015 by Matthew Klassen 
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–01. AFA facade.
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In 1970, the Anthology Film Archives began a project to define the breadth of art in cinema. Although it was never completed, their Film Selection Committee did put together 110 programs comprising 330 films and these form the Essential Cinema Repertory collection. These programs are now regularly shown at the NYC film museum and prove to be quite a rare treat, chronicling the work of acknowledged classic filmmakers next to legends of the avant-garde, such as Kenneth Anger, Jordan Belson, Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage. Starting this weekend, Brakhage is the subject of a retrospective which includes a number of his '50s and '60s films and the program will be a welcome exhibition of one of the 20th centuries most innovative artists in the medium of celluloid.
