http://www.ubu.com/film/
What are your ubuweb film archive reccomendations?
I went through a very brief period where I was trying to go through all of these, I went from a-c and stopped early in the c's and decided there was just too many amazing things to see. At this point, I'm looking for the absolute most insane stuff, just anything on there that has blown your mind. The weirder, the better, I'd really appreciate it. Right now, I kinda want to see weird video art stuff...
Here's some of my personal favorites, I've put a star next to the ones I HIGHLY reccomend, and a lot of the following people don't have their best work on ubu so I made a note of that too.
Mine:
-derek bailey (this is a long, and amazing, look into improvisation; Derek Bailey is one of my all time favorite guitarists)
-matthew barney (I kinda don't care for the Cremaster Cycle, but these documentaries are HILARIOUS, showing barney to be silly, ugly, ridiculous, stupid prick!)
-stan brakhage (none of the really good stuff is on ubu, but check out DOG STAR MAN if you haven't; in my top 10 favorite films ever)
-william s. burroughs (really interesting videos here)
-sophie calle (I'm not familiar with her really, but the film on ubu is really interesting, a road movie/documentary type thing.. sounds kinda boring but is really fun to watch)
-captain beefheart (This is a bit oddly-labeled on the site, as it's really Anton Corbjin's documentary about Don Van Vliet, but I had to list this, because Beefheart is my favorite musician of all time, and this documentary is insane. David Lynch is in it, btw... Lynch is a huge Beefheart fan, there is an MP3 of him reading some of Vliet's poetry floating around)
-*jack chambers ("Hart of London" is one of my all time favorite films, and it's on there in its entirety)
-salvador dali (a bit obvious but..)
-maya deren (another obvious one, I'm not sure what's on ubu as her page isn't loading at the moment, but if you haven't seen "Meshes of the Afternoon", what are you waiting for? It's an absolute masterpiece, even if most of her work doesn't do anything for me. Her ex-husband made a great documentary about the secret lives of cats)
-*toshio matsumoto (simply my favorite experimental filmmaker; his short "Phantom", in particular, is brilliant beyond words. I put homages to him in all my work. Check out "Funeral Procession of Roses", which I don't think is on the site -- it was the inspiration for Kubrick's editing in "A Clockwork Orange")
-ikue mori (love her)
-*jon moritsugu (he doesn't have much to look at on ubu, but I highly reccomend checking out his stuff that isn't on there... specifically if you're a Gregg Araki fan; Jon made Araki-like films, except they're way more surreal and trashier.. highly reccomend "Mod Fuck Explosion", "Scumrock", "Terminal USA", and "Fame Whore" if you get a chance to see them)
-phil niblock (all-time favorite drone artist, by far; too bad the clips on here are in real media format -- what the fuck?)
-oliver payne/nick ralph ("Comma, Pregnant Pause" is absolutely insane and ridiculous and.. uh.. fun, check it out)
-*shuji terayama (another one of my all-time favorite directors, period; hours and hours of amazing visuals. Again, his best stuff isn't on ubu, but the 7-volume "experimental image world" is definitely worth a few looks)
-*ryan trecartin (at the moment, this is the most insane director I've seen. I don't even know what to say about this guy. Check out "A Family Finds Entertainment". Within 5 minutes, you'll probably be blown away and simultaneously wanting to kill somebody. Easily some of the most off-the-wall, pretentious, self-indulgent, ridiculous art ever created. Is it >good<? I don't think so. In fact, a part of me hates it... Yet I highly reccomend it, and I keep coming back to it, because there's just something about it that makes it compelling. I dare you to try to make it through the 2-hour long "I-Be Area", which probably has more dialogue than any movie I've ever seen, with every single silence deleted, about a billion cuts a minute, and random video defects every few seconds. This stuff REALLY hurts my brain)
-william wegman (Okay, this guy has a lot of boring shit that involves him dressing up his dogs and making them act out stupid stories. Pass. But if you get a chance, check out the 2-disc set "Video Works", which is like 4 hours of a guy sitting around by himself, for the most part, doing random crap. Sounds boring, but look into it)
-*frans zwartjes (this is my latest find, really amazing stuff. Really reminds me of some of Andrzej Zulawski's stuff. "Living" is one of my favorite films ever now)
-zubi zuva (RUINS side project, all acapella group, great shit)