Film historian Anthony Slide, while writing an appraisal letter for the film collection of late 1960’s film distributor Creative Film Society, stated that “Any student researching the rise of the independent and experimental American film in the 1960s and 1970s would find this collection invaluable, and it is unlikely that a collection of this scope exists elsewhere. It is in many ways a tribute to a filmmaking experience that has disappeared.”

Organized by Robert Pike, the first person to write a dissertation on avant-garde films from the West Coast, and later by his wife Angie Pike, the Creative Film Society collection was a wide-ranging, idiosyncratic assortment of non-commerical films and comic and animated shorts. Tonight we feature selections from the CFS collection, a mix of visionary student work, rarities and more canonical films made in Los Angeles, ranging from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Tickets are FREE for all, but please make a reservation at Brown Paper Tickets:

Brown Paper Tickets

Films to be Screened

• The Critic (1963, 35mm, color, sound, 4min.)
  Directed by Ernie Pintoff and Mel Brooks

  Restored print courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment!

• God is Dog Spelled Backwards (1963, 16mm, color, sound, 3.5min.)
  Directed by Dan McLaughlin

• Mobile Static (1969, 16mm, color, sound, 6min.)
  Directed by Helmut Schulitz

  Print courtesy of The iotaCenter Collection at the Academy Film Archive.

• Carnival (ca.1955, 16mm, color, sound, 8min.)
  Directed by Donald Bevis, Jim May and Herb Hertel

  Print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.

• The Unicycle Race (1966, 35mm, color, sound, 7.5min.)
  Directed by Robert Swarthe

  New preservation print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive!

• The Further Adventures of Uncle Sam (1970, 35mm, color, sound, 12min.)
  Directed by Dale Case and Robert Mitchell

  New preservation print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive!

• Furies (1977, 35mm (orig. 16mm), color, sound, 3min.)
  Directed by Sara Petty

  New print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive!
  

• One Hundred and Eight Movements (1972, 16mm, color, sound, 7min.)
  Directed by Peggy Wolff

  Print courtesy of The iotaCenter Collection at the Academy Film Archive.

• Waiting (1952, digital (orig. 16mm), color, sound, 12min.)
  Directed by Flora Mock

• The Towers (1955/2011, digital (orig. 16mm), color, sound, 13min.)
  Directed by William Hale

  Revised 2011 version thanks to Billy Hale and Paul Rabwin.

• Microsecond (1970, 16mm, color, sound, 5min.)
  Directed by Dan McLaughlin

  New print!

• Wu Ming (1977, 16mm, color, silent 24fps, 17min.)
  Directed by James Whitney

  Print courtesy of the Whitney Collection at the Academy Film Archive.