Fragment of Seeking (1946) by Curtis Harrington
Sunday, October 9, 1988, 8:00 pm
Madness as Psychodrama
During the 1940s and ‘50s, a kind of film emerged which directly expressed emotional/psychological turmoil and the unconscious state. Initially drawing upon the earlier work of Buñuel, Watson and Weber, and Cocteau, American filmmakers broke through Hollywood’s hegemony with a stream of underground “closet dramas” that challenged and outraged audiences. Program: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid; Fragment of Seeking (1946) by Curtis Harrington; The Lead Shoes (1949) by Sidney Peterson; Desistfilm (1954) by Stan Brakhage; and Image in the Snow (1950s) by Willard Maas.