It's been said that MTV owes Bruce Conner a paycheck. Decades before music videos pervaded popular culture, the experimental filmmaker pioneered techniques of non-narrative montage and high-speed editing by cutting thousands of images to a pop music soundtrack. THREE SCREEN RAY (2006) is a reimagined and expanded version of his seminal COSMIC RAY (1961), a literal cinematic slot machine where three reels of images meet and diverge and meet again. Influenced as much by his methodologies of assemblage as the kineticism of abstract expressionism, Conner cuts together images of sex, war, dancing, and cinema itself before abrading and abusing the reel. What results is an explosive collage and a reflexive comment on the power of film and media.

 

Director: Chris Green. 

Producer: Matthew Shattuck. 

Executive Producer: Chris Green, Noah Khoshbin, Emma Reeves, John Toba. 

Editor: Curtis Tamm. 

Director of Photography: Curtis Tamm, Peter Kirby, Kaitlin Dixon, Kevin Southworth. 

Assistant Camera: Eugenia Barbuc, Morgan Kessler. 

Music Clearances: Colby Trane. 

 

Interviews: Toni Basil, Gerald Casale, David James, Bruce Jenkins, Michael Kohn, Michelle Silva. 

 

Films Courtesy and Copyright Conner Family Trust:

 

A MOVIE

(1958, 16mm, b&w/sound, 12 minutes)

COSMIC RAY 

(1961, 16mm, b&w/sound, 4 minutes)

TEN SECOND FILM

(1965, b&w/silent, 10 seconds)

BREAKAWAY

(1966, 16mm, b&w/sound, 5 minutes)

REPORT

(1967, 16mm, b&w/sound, 13 minutes)

CROSSROADS 

(1976, 35mm, b&w/sound, 36 minutes)

MONGOLOID

(1978, 16mm, b&w/sound, 3: 30 minutes)

MEA CULPA

(1981, 16mm, b&w/sound, 5 minutes)

THREE SCREEN RAY 

(2006, video installation/sound, 5: 14 minutes)

PAS DE TROIS

(1964, 16mm, b&w/sound, 8 minutes)

Director: Dean Stockwell

Editor: Bruce Conner

Courtesy of Dean Stockwell 

 

Audio: Dennis Hopper Interview, Courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.

 

Artworks: Courtesy and Copyright Conner Family Trust.

 

Photography: Copyright 2013 Conner Family Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

Music: "Descending Moonshine Dervishes." Written and Performed by Terry Riley. Published by Associated Music Publishers (BMI). (c) 1982 Kuckuck Schallplatten. Used Courtesy of Celestial Harmonies. "What'd I Say (Live at Herdon Stadium)." Written and Performed by Ray Charles. Published by Unichappell Music, Inc. and Mijac Music. Administered by Sony/ATV Songs LLC. Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing. 

 

Special Thanks: Conner Family Trust, MOCAtv, Emma Reeves, John Toba, Jean Conner, Michelle Silva, Toni Basil, Gerald Casale, David James, Bruce Jenkins, Michael Kohn, Todd Wiener, Terry Riley, Dean Stockwell, Robert Matheu, Hugh Brown, Mills Moran, Karl Puchlik, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, UCLA Film & Television Archive, USC School of Cinematic Arts, The Dennis Hopper Art Trust, The Getty Research Institute, Michael Kohn Gallery, Artists Rights Society, OHWOW Gallery. 

 

Dedicated to Bruce Conner, November 18, 1933 - July 7, 2008. 

 

Produced by Dissident Industries Inc. 

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