A Trip to the Moon

A continuous dissolve of 87 male and female nudes. "The film's fascination lies with the suspense of that magic moment, halfway between two persons, when the dissolve technique produces composite figures, oftentimes hermaphroditic, that inspires awe for the mystery of the human form." - B. Ruby Rich, Chicago Art Institute

A short, black and white experimental film by San Francisco bay area avant-garde filmmaker Scott Bartlett.

A graphic disintegration of paranoia, perversion and violence in Chicago. (worldcat.org)

Moon 1969 is a beautiful, eerie, haunting film, all the more wonderful for the fact we do not once see the moon: only the manifestation of its powers here on earth, the ebb and flow of the waters.. fiery rainbows into a cloudy sky... men and rockets transformed into shattering crystals... creating a picture if the cosmos in continual transformation."-- Gene Youngblood, Los Angeles Times "The interrelated convolutions and spasms of image, color, and sound that filmmaker Bartlett creates is the cumulative effect of his pioneer work using negative images, polarization, television techniques, computer-film, and electronic patterns all compressed into a visual punch that directs one where he normally would not go with a film -- on a trip in search of the human soul. -- Paul Brawley, The Booklist, American Library Association

A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of human consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from Native American shamans, he explores these altered states of cognizance and finds that memory, time, and reality itself are states of mind.

The human eye, the human form, the human face: these are the three central images of this avant-garde collage and kaleidoscope of shifting and fractured images, changing colors, and pulsing rhythms. Near the end, a tree appears briefly, and birds fly - first white, then red and blue. Celtic knots morph from one to another. The images become Rorschach tests although the mood, driven by the rapid changing images and the soundtrack, remains frantic.

During the 1970s I shot, helped to make, or commissioned about ten document films, mainly about film-makers. This film is one of them. It was made with Dan Ochiva, who acted as cameraman on about half of the footage. I shot the rest, and then edited the film. It is a record of a conference held at the State University of New York at Buffalo on March 22-25, 1973. Among the participants filmed were Gerald O'Grady (who organized the conference), Will Hindle, Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Robert Creeley, Bruce Baillie, Scott Bartlett, Hollis Frampton, Ken Jacobs, Ed Pincus, Stan Vanderbeek, Ed Emshwiller, Sally Dixon, James Cox. This footage will eventually become part of my film PEOPLE, PLACES, THE 1970S. –R. H.

An extraordinary, lucid and lyrical documentary of Morocco, unique in that it conveys both the exterior and interior values of the country. "The richest, boldest and most subtly disciplined evocation of a place that I have ever seen on film. It is as if all the impulse toward lyrical pattern had found an objective correlative in the walls, the steps, the tiles, the dense calligraphic decoration, the shaded windows and veiled eyes of the city." – Roger Greespun, New York Times

Financed by Guggenheim Fellowship. The serpent embodies the primal chaotic life force in mythic symbology. SERPENT uses natural and electronic imagery to convey this elusive creative force. An outstanding piece of art. Striking, kinetic. Its form, techniques, and texture patterns should be studied by all aspiring young filmmakers. A beautiful combination of pure visual poetry and ideas about man and the world. – Jurors, American Film Festival.

Working and playing hard at a northern California commune – fast-paced cutting to Taj Mahal's "Happy to be just like I am."

A dramatic autobiographical film that is a multiplexed portrait of the San Francisco sub-culture of the 1960's, "a lasting testament to a time we will never forget"

Financed by the National Endowment of the Arts. Prior to filming the SOUND OF ONE, Bartlett studied dance as a student enrolled at the Inner Research Institute. His teacher was Martin Inn. This student-teacher relationship evolved into a collaboration in which Barlett and Inn scripted a summer workshop course entitled The Application of T'si Chi Ch'uan to the Art of Filmmaking. SOUND OF ONE is the fruit of that program, a melding of the two disciplines. SOUND OF ONE records the short form of the T'ai Chi dance as a solo figure moves through changing landscapes – oceanside to forest to volcano peak – to represent the five elements: water, wood, fire, air and metal.

A continuous dissolve into a series of happy nude couples in various configurations: female/male, female/female, male/male, as the Rolling Stones sing 'We Love You'. –F.