Rudy Burckhardt

Scattered Showers (1999)

Made in the final year of his life, Rudy Burckhardt's Scattered Showers begins its journey in the city he so scrupulously documented in photographs and film for the greater part of his career. ...

On Aesthetics (1999)

Short film by Swiss-American film-maker and photographer Rudy Burckhardt, featuring a poem by Kenneth Koch. ...

Wayward Glimpses (1992)

With music by Elliott Carter adding drama and richness, a surreal dance by Dana Reitz and Alice Notley reading her poem "I work in a whorehouse, I seem to like it/it is dark like a cave, with pink light..." We visit briefly New York, Provincetown, Martiniq ...

Night Fantasies (1991)

Elliott Carter's composition of the same title inspired Rudy Burckhardt, in collaboration with Yvonne Jacquette, to photograph this collage-style film. Mostly shot in New York City, but also in Hong Kong and Searsmont, Maine. ...

Ostensibly (1989)

A collage film featuring dual narrations of Ashbery's eponymous poem of the same name, with both Ashbery and Burckhardt appearing in in front of the camera. ...

Zipper (1987)

"A diary or collage film, ranging from snow in the Catskills, with stop-overs in Boulder, Colorado and San Francisco, to Easter in New York, flowers and cows in Maine, a Caribbean carnival in Brooklyn, country fairs with men splitting wood and women weight ...

In Bed (1986)

To a poem by Kenneth Koch with Chopin played by Gena Raps. "Rudy's lyrical montage opens and reflects the world the way a poem does. He consistently gets to the essential fragments of an experience or a view. His perspective is that of a pedestrian god of ...

Dancers, Buildings and People in the Street (1986)

Here this display of New York textures and cross-sections is juxtaposed with the creation of a dance work, Jig Jag, by choreographer-dancer Douglas Dunn and his remarkable company. The natural humor and classically tender abruptness of their gestures and p ...

The Nude Pond (1985)

Poems by John Ashbery; with performances by Douglas Dunn and Susan Blankenson, Yoshiko Chuma. "A grand synthesis of the poetic free association films by Rudy Burckhardt has been perfecting for the past fifteen years. Democratic in its celebration of all co ...

Indelible, Inedible (1983)

Images to accompany the lines of a poem by John Ashbery. "Rudy Burckhardt's film is a brilliant extension of my poem, perhaps the film I might have made myself if I were a filmmaker. ...

Untilted (1983)

Untilted takes an intrigued look around and reports on how things appeared then and what everyone was up to. Lines from a poem by John Ashbery cross the screen at times and our grasp of his elusive language is strengthened by the accompanying images. The l ...

All Major Credit Cards (1982)

"R. B.'s new film is a magic dream, airy and clear. Everything you see is a fact, firm and distinct at the moment you are seeing it, a fact of daily life or of extraordinary dance, or of amateur acting, and you recognize each fact too, at a glance. Later, ...

Cerveza Bud (1981)

"This filmic slice of life coalesces into an ethnographic view of a possible future: the city as a constantly bubbling, delirious playground where yesterday's monuments are symbols to be triumphed over, and tomorrow never arrives. ...

Julie (1980)

A snapshot from the filmmaker's own life in rural Maine. ...

Alex Katz Painting (1978)

In this film we see Katz drawing and painting. We see his paint table (he drinks Medaglia d'Oro and eats Skippy peanut butter in the country), his studio, the green view out the door. We see his models. We see him laugh as he works. We see a fly land on hi ...

Six Days (1978)

Good Evening Everybody (1977)

"Good Evening Everybody" does not construct a world, but projects a personality. Burckhardt's camera observes life in a way characteristic of someone sensitive to irony, detail, diversity, humor, incongruity and (even) beauty, expressive of a cultivated, s ...

Sodom and Gomorrah, NY, 10036 (1976)

A documentary about the sex industry around 8th Avenue and 42nd Street. ...

Saroche (1975)

a travelogue of Peru. ...

The Bottle of the Bulge (1975)

"A funny and gorgeous little animated story of the war between coke and pepsi – the bottles come alive and form armies. The battle scenes are spectacular. ...

Default Averted (1975)

When New York was about to go bankrupt, all construction had stopped and an architect tried to become a wrecker. This is the story of the demolition of a large factory building on 23rd Street and 6th Avenue. Meanwhile daily business - grimy or funny, money ...

Landscape Bodydwelling (1974)

Burckhardt collaborates with artist Simonds to produce a portrait of the artist as a foundation. ...

City Pasture (1974)

A snow storm – Disney World – self important New York – ox-pull in Maine – a special old man – strip tease – an ant in the woods –wild 14th street – a mugging survived – the end. ...

Dwellings Winter (1974)

Since 1970 Simonds has created Dwelling places for an imaginary civilization of "Little People" who are migrating through the streets of neighborhoods in cities throughout the world; New York, Paris, Shanghai, Berlin, London, Dublin among many others. Belo ...

Body - Earth (1974)

Caterpillar (1973)

Looking down at nature's small works in the woods of Maine, then straight up at the sky, then down again at the daylong journey of an inchworm. ...

Slipperella (1972)

A fairy tale about a pair of moccasins that take off on their own, through woods and fields into the town of Belfast, Maine. They fall in love, drink beer, dream in the gutter, at last are rescued by the boy on whose feet they belong. ...

Doldrums (1972)

"The New Jersey Turnpike and downtown New York in rain and shine. Trailer trucks, overpasses and industrial wastes become natural wonders. The stream of trucks is often gay but sometimes ominous. After a thunderstorm, the pike gives way to charming and sex ...

Inside Dope (1971)

"A pseudo-educational, fictitious documentary survey of the ups, downs, ins and far-outs of Dope. Very funny and slightly sinister, like Red Skelton in the sky with diamonds. ...

Made in Maine (1970)

"A few acres in Maine. Closeup looks at a small lake in the woods, wild flowers, clouds, mosses, ants and mushrooms. The visual richness is fantastic, the objective eye is absorbing. Often cut by glimpses, the second time you see the film you see twice as ...

Summer (1970)

"A few acres of Maine, a small lake in the woods, wild flowers, clouds, mosses, and mushrooms after the rain. The visual richness is fantastic, the objective eye is absorbing. Burckhardt often cuts by glimpses, the second time you see the film you see twic ...

Tarzam (1969)

"The story of a shipwrecked baby reared by a kindly animal. See Tarzam, the beast-man, invent the art of painting. He meets his first human. His scene deepens from innocence to corruption and to final violence. Taylor is sublime, as always. The text is his ...

One Flight Up (1969)

ONE FLIGHT UP is both the name of this documentary portrait and the title of a piece by artist Alex Katz. The work-of-the-same-name figures prominently (or, more accurately, entirely) in the film-of-the-same-name. ...

Money (1968)

A silent screen-type comedy starring Edwin Denby as Hemlock Stinge, the unlovable billionaire. ...

For Life, Against the War (1967)

First shown on January 30, 1967, FOR LIFE AGAINST THE WAR was an open-call, collective statement from American independent filmmakers disparate in style and sensibility but united by their opposition to the Vietnam War. Part of the protest festival Week of ...

The Apple (1967)

Rudy Burckhardt's breezy stop-motion animation follows after a poem by his New York School compatriot Kenneth Koch. ...

Square Times (1967)

A Saturday night on 42nd Street, from dusk to dawn: the glamour, the garbage, the hot dogs, the movies, the sex, and the violence in the air. ...

Daisy (1966)

"a film that looks forward to the many collage films Burckhardt has made in the last two decades. Shot in Maine in black and white, it demonstrates Burckhardt's ability to take seemingly slight subjects -- flowers, fields, a pond -- and invest them with co ...

Lurk (1965)

"Happy with his luscious daughter Aurora in a rustic setting, Professor Borealis has devised an improved brain and is ready to transplant it. The humor is tenderly black. Burckhardt's fusion of documentary-type photography with fairytale storyline is neare ...

Miracle on the BMT (1964)

a swift tour of subways and streets while it concentrates on a threadbare romantic comedy about a lonely boy and a girl, played by Red and Mimi Grooms ...

Shoot the Moon (1962)

Artist Red Grooms and photographer Rudy Burckhardt's playful homage to George Melies' "Trip To The Moon" features exaggerated set designs, costumes and larger than life characters. ...

Millions in Business as Usual (1961)

A piano sonata by Josef Haydn and New York City. The first, allegro movement is choreographed by midtown crowds, crossing every which way, often barely avoiding collision. For the long, slow second movement we see quiet, stately buildings, their columns, c ...

Seraphina's Garden (1958)

Joseph Cornell film with input from Rudolph Burckhardt. Also the title to one of Cornell's collages. ...

Angel (1957)

Short film of a statue of an angel by an ornamental pond on a summer's day. ...

Nymphlight (1957)

A short, avant-garde movie, starring twelve-year-old ballet student Gwen Thomas, Nymphlight is a lovely blend of fact and fiction, using Bryant Park at the New York Public Library as a stage set for the fantasy inclusion of a certain nymph. A meditation on ...

Children (1957)

Slightly different version of Cornell's Mulberry Street. Scenes of Mulberry Street on New York City's Lower East Side, as seen from the point of view of a bust of Mozart sitting in a store window. ...

What Mozart Saw on Mulberry Street (1956)

Short film with sound by Rudy Burckhardt, assembled from the footage shot by Joseph Cornell for his own silent "Mulberry Street. ...

The Aviary (1955)

A collaboration between Joseph Cornell and Rudy Burckhardt, Aviary is an impression of Union Square. The location held a particular fascination for Cornell who wanted to establish a foundation for artists and art therapy there. In the film, he treats the p ...

Joanne, Union Square (1955)

Footage shot for Cornell by Rudy Burckhardt in December 1955 of a woman buying chestnuts from a street vendor and watching people and birds in a city square. ...

A Day in the Life of a Cleaning Woman (1953)

The film's title evokes a mundane slice of life but a kindhearted maid catches a lucky break when her enchanted feather duster makes it so that the house cleans itself. ...

Under the Brooklyn Bridge (1953)

"…one cannot deny its documentary value or Burckhardt's eye for detail, his unpretentiousness. There are sequences — the children swimming under the Brooklyn Bridge is one — which belong with the best footage on New York by anybody. ...

Eastside Summer (1953)

Rudy Burckhardt's color portrait of Manhattan's East Side strolls along at an easy pace befitting blue skies and Thelonious Monk's piano score. Where most city symphonies prize grandiose views of the urban organism, Burckhardt sticks to the walker's view. ...

Mounting Tension (1950)

Larry is a madly energetic, oversexed artist. Jane, a combination of palm reader and psychoanalyst, is trying to straighten him out. John is a straight boy interested in baseball who ends up an abstract painter. ...

Trinidad (1943)

Rudy Burckhardt shot plenty of film while he was stationed in Trinidad with the Signal Corps in the early 1940s. This short film compiles some of the choicest bits. ...

Montgomery, Alabama (1941)

A soldier on a weekend pass, with Kodachrome in his camera, takes a leisurely walk on both sides of the tracks. Piano by Earl Hines. ...

The Uncle's Return (1940)

Short film by Rudy Burckhardt. ...

Pursuit of Happiness (1940)

Photographer Rudy Burckhardt shows us the ebb and flow of people rushing about Manhattan. Equally exhilarating in his novel approach to snap images quickly on the run, a method he inaugurated and that continues to the present day. In film, he added slow an ...

Haiti (1938)

A travelogue of Port-au-Prince, Haiti concentrating on the daily life and rhythm of tropical island life. ...

Seeing the World: Part One - A Visit to New York, N.Y. (1937)

A sightseeing portrait of New York, with lively narration taking the viewer aboard the New York elevated and subway trains. Then the view from the windows becomes slightly abstracted, the voice of the commentator becomes uncertain. Featuring Joseph Cotten ...

Rudy Burckhardt: Man in the Woods (2003)

A detailed look at a remarkable artist who died in 1999 at age 85. Aspects of Burckhardt's work in photography, film, and painting are examined in interviews with Rudy Burckhardt, painter Yvonne Jacquette, and curators Robert Storr (former Senior Curator ...

Joseph Cornell: Worlds in a Box (1991)

This is a 1991 documentary film about the legendary artist and filmmaker, Joseph Cornell, who made those magnificent and strange collage boxes. He was also one of our great experimental filmmakers and once apparently made Salvador Dali extremely jealous at ...