Phill Niblock

Combat Shock

A dangerously disturbed Vietnam veteran struggles with life 15 years after his return home, and slowly falls into insanity from his gritty urban lifestyle.

Trio Film

Two nudes, a man and a woman, interact with each other and a large balloon in a white living room. Performed by Steve Paxton and Becky Arnold. Camerawork by Phill Niblock.

Annie

Niblock's portrait of the dancer Ann Danoff set to the soundtrack of a concrète collage by Max Neuhaus.

Dog Track

Dog Track (1969) : For Dogtrack a deeply unsettling, bestiality-themed found text is read aloud with alarming detachment by Barbara Porte while Niblock intercuts between static location shots of urban and natural locations.

Children

Children play. First shown normally, then shown in reverse.

The Magic Sun

Multi-faceted artist Phil Niblock captures a brief moment of an interstellar communication by the Arkestra in their prime. Black turns white in a so-called negative post-process, while Niblock's camera focuses on microscopic details of hands, bodies and instruments. A brilliant tribute to the Sun King by another brilliant supra-planetary sovereign. (Eye of Sound)

Hannah Weiner

Another short film by Niblock which consists simply of Hannah Weiner reading from one of her texts, initially in close-up and then over footage of her in her office and then in her armchair..

The Movement of People Working

A compilation of non-narrative films shot in the 1970s and 1980s by Phill Niblock concerned with the movement people make when they do menial tasks.

Some Imaginary Far Away Type Things a.k.a. Lost in the Meshes

Unedited concert footage of Arthur Russell playing at Experimental Intermedia Foundation on September 22 and October 27, 1985.

Line

A blond woman (Susan Marshall) in white pants and shirt interacts with a moving round object and the camera. Camerawork by Phill Niblock.

Mozart in Love

An irreverent take on Mozart's relations with the three Weber sisters: Louisa, whom he loved, but who didn't love him; Constanza, whom he loved and married; and Sophie, who loved him but whom he didn't love. An anthology of arias from Mozart's operas, in which art comments on life through a cheeky use of back-projection and miming to records.

Morning

Morning begins with performers dressing and preparing for their day to the accompaniment of clashing male and female internal monologues, and subsequently depicts various characters going about their daily business while we listen in on their thoughts and anxieties.

China

Original 16mm footage was filmed on location in China, mostly in the mountains around the city of Luding. At 33:15, the locale switches to the environs of Shanghai, the area around the delta of the Yangtze River. At 38:00, the location is the vicinity of Ningbo, along the East China Sea. Converted to NTSC video using a Rank Cintel scanner.

T H I R

T H I R is taken from "Ten Hundred Inch Radii" an intermedia performance of film and music (1972-1975). Filmed with a Beaulieu 16 mm around Keene Valley, New York in the Adirondak Mountains in 1971-1972. T H I R original soundtrack recorded in 1972. T H I R new soundtrack "One Large Rose" (T H I R edit 2015) recorded in 2008. Recorded in Christianskirsche (Hamburg, Deutschland), May 16 and 18, 2008. Final mix at Experimental Intermedia October 13, 2008. One Large Rose edited at Experimental Intermedia, February 1, 2015.

Sunsets

Original 16mm footage was shot on location in central New York within a 100 mile radius of the town of Clinton. Converted to NTSC video using a Rank Cintel scanner.

Terrace of Unintelligibility

Unedited concert footage of Arthur Russell playing at Experimental Intermedia Foundation on September 22 and October 27, 1985.

Max

Speaking of Neuhaus, he's the subject of the next film, 'Max', which pairs another of his soundscapes against a succession of processed images and heavily edited, percussion-based performance footage.

Raoul

Rounding off the collection is 'Raoul', whose subject is the painter Raoul Middleman, captured at work in the studio using time lapse photography while an improvised soundtrack (performed by the filmmaker and subject in collaboration) accompanies the rapid influx of images.

Brazil 84

"In 1984, I returned to Brazil, deciding to travel the coast, closest to the ocean, from Salvador, Bahia, to as far north as I could get in the time I had. That turned out to be Natal, 1000km away. I was the sole film crew, carrying the camera bag and tripod, loading the film, reading the light and occasionally applying sun screen. The film from that trip is the material on this DVD. And it was beautiful to see that country and those people.” ⁠—Phill Niblock