This program celebrates the work of two of the most significant filmmakers in American and European avant-garde cinema, Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928–1992) and Robert Beavers (1949–). Markopoulos began making films in the late 1940s after enrolling at the University of Southern California and attending masterclasses by filmmakers such as Josef von Sternberg. Working within the West Coast avant-garde scene alongside figures like Maya Deren and Kenneth Anger, his subsequent films explore the poetic, symbolic, mythic and synesthetic aspects of cinema, perhaps best exemplified by the film many consider his masterpiece: Twice a Man (1963).
Beavers met Markopoulos in 1966 and they went on to form a life-long creative and personal partnership. Leaving for Europe with Markopoulos in 1967, Beavers’ subsequent film work is a model of attentiveness to film form and the medium’s capacity to reflect on the history of place. Exploring shared themes and approaches that focus on myth, environmental portraiture, the formal elements of cinema and the medium’s capacity for personal expression, their individual films provide a fascinating set of connections and variations. Markopoulos spent much of the last period of his life re-editing his work and establishing The Temenos, a film archive and projection space aimed at elevating cinema to something close to a sacred place. In the years since Markopoulos’ death, Beavers has both honoured this shared project and developed new cinematic trajectories of his own. This program presents key visionary works by the two filmmakers in their original analogue formats.
Program
Temenos: The shared visions of Gregory J. Markopoulos and Robert Beavers
Twice a Man (1975) – Wed 8 Nov, 7pm
From the Notebook of... (1971/1998) – Wed 8 Nov, 8.45pm
Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.