Steve Gallagher: Brandon Harris reviews Francois Mirons documentary about Paul Sharits for Filmmaker magazine: Things began to improve here in Rotterdam the next night when I caught the international premiere of Francoise Miron’s Sharits, a terrific talking-heads-and-archival bio of the great experimental filmmaker, Paul Sharits, whose T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G, (1969) and Razor Blades (1968) remain hallmarks of experimental film. Sharits, a life long depressive who killed himself, as his mother before him, on the 4th of July, was a true American original. Born in Denver, he struck up a friendship in his late teens with Stan Brakhage, who remained a mentor throughout his life. Their correspondence plays a major role in this oddly inventive interview-based doc portrait. In between making films and teaching college at Antioch and SUNY Buffalo, Sharits was stabbed in a mugging, shot coming out of a bar, and known to chase romantic rivals with knives through nighttime streets. His infamously violent and oddly personal flicker films induced seizures and changed the direction of art history and film aesthetics. He deserves to be better known.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 18:58:24 +0000
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