Film Works by Peter Mays

I have sacrificed certain things in life-- a career, raising a family, a house-- in order to make the body of work contained in the DVD case you have in your hands (A SIXTIES TRILOGY). These works are experimental films, most-ly made in the amateur media of 8 and 16mm, without following the usual rules or having hope of commercial play. They are arranged chronologically in three DVDs, spanning the years 1960 to 2006. The three most impor-tant were shot in 1966-1968 (hence the title A SIXTIES TRILOGY); the earlier works build up to that period, and the later ones ease off from it, until the 21 century. For non-specialists I recommend the fol-lowing for initial viewing: LIGHT SHOW, SISTER MIDNIGHT TRAILER, DEATH OF THE GORILLA, and THE TIME BE-YOND THOUGHT.

I was initially an artist (or really an art student), at UCLA in the early 60s. During my graduate years I produced my first experi-mental film, using a printer and developing tanks of my own making. (Pat O’Neill and Bob Abel were doing the same thing in the design area.)

VISION 8mm,black&white silent1960-62 26minutesPartI:Threesurrealistdreamsareenactedinastrangenight.Inthefollowingday,theworldissetonfirebylight-ning;thefiresareputoutbyoceanwaves.Part2:Thedeadareraisedfromtheirgraves.Theyas-cendupward,pulledbyapulsatinglight.Theyarejudged,chastenedhorribly,andresurrectedintothebodyofChrist.VISIONisheavilyinfluencedbyCocteau,Anger,Eisen-stein,andespeciallyCarlDreyer.VISIONisanimaginaryadaptationoftheBookofRevelation.

In the DVD, VISION is divided into the two parts. A severe film, it has suffered deteriora-tion through time, like a fresco from a third century Roman catacomb. VISION caused a near riot at its only screen-ing (to film students), and my next film, shot with three fellow art students, was more contemporary, almost an homage to Truffault.

THEONEBEDROOMAPARTMENT16mm,black&white cast: JudithBatton WilliamAlpert MarvinHarden1963 25minutesAyoungcouplewithsexualproblemsisvisitedbyafriend.Theeveningendswithastartlingrevelation.InspiredbytheNewWave,thisshortstory,lyricandvulnerable,istoldwithoutdialoguebutaccompaniedbymusic.

STREAM8mm,silent1964 15minutesThemeanderingsofamountainstreamarefollowedforafewmiles.Recordedon8mmKodachromeand“cluster”editedtocreateahighlyformal,fugalexperience.

I married my star and we spent the summer in the Sierras, where we discovered a moun-tain stream better than any art. I recorded it in 8mm Kodachrome.

When we got back to the city I started a film society to see the films I had read about. They were played in greater numbers at the Movies ’Round Midnight, which became the center of the emerging “underground” film in Los Angeles. I edited STREAM under the influence of Stan Brakhage. I began shooting a long epic around the house which gave rise to my next movie.

DEATHOFTHEGORILLA 16mm1965-66 16minutes Asight/soundcombineofexoticimagryshotsemi-randomlyinsuperimpositionoffaTVandthencuttomake a fastmovingbut extremely ambiguous “story.”GORILLAmoves throughmodernman’smythmindlikearunawaytrainburstingattheseams.PrizeatAnnArborFilmFestival,1967.

GORILLA would become my best known film, distributed by Bob Pike’s Creative Film Society. Another film emerged, initially shot by projecting painted footage on my wife’s body. It received extensive screenings at the new Cinematheque-16 on the Sunset Strip where the hippies were swarming.

THESTARCURTAINTANTRA16mm1965-69 18minutesAtrancefilmoriginallyreleasedin1966asTHESTARCURTAIN,aboutthesettlingandrelaxationofthesensesafteraclimax.“Sentences”ofcosmicimagrywereaddedin1969toformthevisionglimpsedinthetrance.Dialecticoppositionofpictureandsound.TANTRAplayedattheSanFranciscoFilmFestivalof1970.

This was the classic period of the under-ground film. I remember a screening for Peter Kubelka at our apartment, with Pat O’Neill, Bruce Lane, and Jerry Katz showing current work. Bruce introduced me to an epoxy sculptor named Herb Elsky and his two girl friends, Susan and Kirsten. I began to imagine a kind of youth dream epic, enacted within the skin of a vampire film.

THETIMEBEYONDTHOUGHT16mm cast: HerbElsky KirstenWeimann SusanAtkins PatO’Neill JudithBattonMays LouiseLeak andotherartistsandmodels1966-2000 23minutesThesixtieskidsarehangingout.AnAngelappearswhostopstime.Thekidsfollowhimintoanundergroundfantasy.Theygothroughnumerousadventures(onlyoneshot),andwindupatthecenteroftheearth.HeretheAngelsedateseachkidandkillshimself.FromtheAngel’sbloodarisesanakedvampiregirlwhodrinkseachkid’sblood.Thegodoftheunderworldchangesthekidsintozombiespreparatorytoeatingthem.Onegirlescapestotellthetale.Rated R for nudity.

This epic (the first film in the Trilogy) was unfinished at the time, with the fragments combined only in 2000. However, it led me to quit my job at TRW and write a more com-posed film related to the emerging social cul-ture chronicled by Bob Dylan and the Stones, as well as portrayed by Antonioni in BLOW UP and Warhol in CHELSEA GIRLS. Originally titled FUCKIN’ AROUND IN SANTA MONICA, the movie would have extensive color lighting and fantisized sets which would “bend” to reflect the emotions of the participants--like expressionism in modern art--or the psychedelic experience.

SISTERMIDNIGHT16mm cast: KirstenWeimann LanceRichbourg VictoriaBond JeffreyPerkins SusanAtkins1967-74 65minutesFiveyoungadultsmeetonarainynightinLosAngeles,smokesomething,andenterasagroupintoaseriesofmulti-plexeddreams.Oneofthegirlsstartsgoingaroundnakedandprettysoontheyallgetintosex.SisterMidnightallowsoneoftheguystoenterhermind.Asaresultofthisinvasionsheisreborn.Rated X for nudity and sex.

SISTER MIDNIGHT was shot in the spring and summer of love. Sergeant Pepper was our anthem. As shooting was concluding my wife left me. Within a few weeks I flipped out on Sunset Plaza Drive. I moved from Inglewood to Laurel Canyon and entered the movie. Jeff and I and Burt Gershfield and Bruce moved to a house on Cresthill Drive between Queens and Kings roads just above the Strip.We were soon joined by Terry Forgette.

ASTRALMAN16mm1968-2000 46minutes Thepast isrecaptured inthismemoryfilmofthesix-ties.AhouseinHollywoodofftheSunsetStripservesasametaphorforareconstructionoftimebasedoncycles.Thefilm-makerlivesinacell-likeroomjustoffthelivingroom.Fragmentsofthisexistencerecurandbuildandareconfusedwithanaffairwithawitch inTopanga in 1970.Anarchetypeemergesintheformofamountain.Theacidexperiencecongealsthereptilianself,andthefilm-makerrepairstothebeachinVenicetorecover.

The Cresthill house was a center for UCLA and USC film students. Charles Lippincott, later of Star Wars, organized us and hippies from the Hog Farm and others into a light show for huge rock concerts put on by Pin-nacle at the Shrine Exhibition Hall.

LIGHTSHOWfootageforfeature35mm1970 4minuresTheSINGLEWINGTURQUOISEBIRDwasactiveinLosAngelesfrom1968-73.InitiallythehouselightshowforrockconcertsattheShrine,wedevelopeditfurtherour-selves(backedbySamFrancis),inwhichperiodthisrecordwasmade.In2005thefilmwasintheVisualMusicexhibi-tionsatMOCAinLosAngelesandtheHirshhornMuseuminWashingtonDC.In2009theshowbeganworkingagain.

Members of the original light show include Sam Francis, Jon Greene, Larry Janss, Alan Keesling, Helena Hartshorn Lebrun, David Lebrun, Scott Hardy, Charles Lippincott, Bobby Maestri, Peter Mays, Rol Murrow, Jeff Perkins, Michael Scroggins. The light show was a continuing feature of my life in Venice and Topanga after leaving Cresthill. Slide shows in the DVD illustrate this history. The final resting place was in a loft above the Fox Venice theater. We performed for three years there; at the same time I edited and re-edited SISTER MIDNIGHT, playing her to the same audiences. Members of the show took over the theater in 1973. I worked there as a projectionist and opened SISTER in 1975, with an extensive PROMO campaign illustrated in the DVD. SISTER didn’t go anywhere and by the early 80s I had settled into a long educational production on World War I using map anima-tion. I lived in a house in Topanga.

THEWARSOFTHEROSESslides&tapetovideo1988-92 90minutesThisGoetheannovel,shotinTopanga,California,attemptstobalanceandequatetherealmsofhumanbeings,plants,theskyandlight.Thebirth,blossoming,decayanddeathofplantsisseenasaparallelofourownexistence.Theroses,redandwhite,intertwineandmayormaynotmate;theymayaslikelybeatwarasatpeace.ThethemeisMahler’s“TheSongoftheEarth.” ROSES was the closest I got to making an-

other feature. I intended it to be a Godardian experience. In the slide medium the content comes to the fore, and the ease of “editing” al-lows for almost continuous happy accidents, as in a light show. In the 90s I quit UCLA where I had been a projectionist for twelve years. After an unemployed period I entered the third act of my film projectionist career, at CAA. Here I was finally in the heart of the industry. I re-mained there four years, got some money and quit and continued the history shows, living in Venice and Santa Monica. My later work is usually based on artifacts from ancient civilizations and animated in After Effects.

ARRIVALOFTHEPURPLELEGIONSDV2003-5 8minutesThisshortstoryisametaphor,basedonadream,aboutdeath. It isbasedonVikingartifacts.DedicatedtoJonGreene.

CLEOPATRADV2005-6 18minutesThiscomputergeneratedexperimentexpressesthein-terplayoftheancientculturesofEgypt,GreeceandRomeinthestoryofCleopatraandhertwoRomanlovers,JuliusCaesarandMarkAntony.Magicandmytharetherealplay-ersinthisinvestigationintotheGoldenAge.

DARKISLANDHD2006-2009 24minutesThisfilmisanexplorationofanimaginarydarkislandofthemind.Madeasunconsciouslyaspossible,itmightbeaboutreligiousactivityinthejungle. FeaturingKingKong(astheGORILLA),theBuddha,SivaandShakti,andatreespirit.

DARK ISLAND was a major montage pro-duction made on After Effects using footage and sound mainly from YouTube. It was made shot by shot in HD for release also in DV. The spiritual source is jungle dancing and Vedanta.

ARRIVAL was originally made in Flash for my website Hallucinograms.com.

YOGA-SUTRASHD2010 16minutesThisfilmisamixbetweenwesternmagicandeasternyantras.IthasastrongABAstructure.ThesectioninthemiddlehasAleisterCrowleyinvokeathrowingofTarotcardstoprepareusfortravelontheTreeofLifetoauniversalchurchwheretheAgesaretransformed.Animatedyantrasexpressthenewenergies.

ALEPHHD2012 16minutesALEPHisanalchemicalfilm.Itwasproducedveryrandomly.Itusesmaterialfromthe20’savant-garde,EricSatieandManRay,andmedievalalchemicalandmagicalprocesses.Thebackstoryistheromanceoftwospheres,whiteandblack.Theirunionopensthesecondact,ruledbyJupiter,withanuncuttrackbyJohnCage.

The animated yantras in YOGA-SUTRAS were originally made for the reborn SWTB light show. This film was premiered at the Al-ternate Projections seminar at USC in 2010.

Copyright2007,2013byPeterMays.Allrightsreserved.