Jerome Hill

The life of Jerome Hill corresponded with the first formative decades of cinema and a greater part of the 20th century. Through fragments of Hill’s surrealistic, handpainted and documentary films (as well as the James J. Hill family's home movies), this autobiographical work serves as an aesthetically complete documentary of Jerome Hill as an artist and offers a personal perspective of the seventh art.

Also known as Walden, Jonas Mekas’s first diary film is a six-reel chronicle of his life in 1960s New York, interweaving moments with family, friends, lovers, and artistic idols. Blending everyday encounters with portraits of the avant-garde art scene, it forms an epic, personal meditation on community, creativity, and the passage of time.

This exhibition focuses on Jonas Mekas’ 365 Day Project, a succession of films and videos in calendar form. Every day as of January 1st, 2007 and for an entire year, as indicated in the title, a large public (the artist's friends, as well as unknowns) were invited to view a diary of short films of various lengths (from one to twenty minutes) on the Internet. A movie was posted each day, adding to the previously posted pieces, resulting altogether in nearly thirty-eight hours of moving images.

Jonas Mekas assembles 160 portraits, appearances, and fleeting sketches of underground and independent filmmakers captured between 1955 and 1996. Fast-paced and archival in spirit, the film celebrates the avant-garde as its own “nation of cinema,” a vital community existing outside the dominance of commercial film.

An "autobiographical sketch" centered around small group of vacationers to Hill's estate in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. A gorgeous and relaxing film-soirée that acted as Jerome Hill's return to cinema after a time away. Workmen construct a walkway to the open air theatre, while friends lounge and hobby, toil and swim.

Jack and Leo vie for the affections of Vera – who appears a little differently to each man – over the course of a series of energetic sketches, flashbacks and homages.

In 1950 Jerome Hill went to Zurich with the intention of making a film about Dr. Carl G. Jung. The project was abandoned when Hill decided that Jung was not a good subject. After Hill's death, Jonas Mekas edited the film which focuses on Dr. Jung as a person.

In March and April of 1966, Markopoulos created this filmic portrait of writers and artists from his New York circle, including Parker Tyler, W. H. Auden, Jasper Johns, Susan Sontag, Storm De Hirsch, Jonas Mekas, Allen Ginsberg, and George and Mike Kuchar, most observed in their homes or studios. Filmed in vibrant color, Galaxie pulses with life. It is a masterpiece of in-camera composition and editing, and stands as a vibrant response to Andy Warhol's contemporary Screen Tests. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2001.

During the summer of 1966 Jonas Mekas spent two months in Cassis, as a guest of Jerome Hill. Mekas visited him briefly again in 1967, with P. Adams Sitney. The footage of this film comes from those two visits. Later, after Jerome died, Mekas visited his Cassis home in 1974. Footage of that visit constitutes the epilogue of the film. Other people appear in the film, all friends of Jerome.

This biographical docudrama traces the life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, from his birth in Alsace, up to the age of 30 when he made the decision to go to French Equatorial Africa and build his jungle hospital. The latter half of the film encompasses a full day in the hospital-village, following the octogenarian Samaritan in his daily rounds.

This biographical docudrama traces the life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, from his birth in Alsace, up to the age of 30 when he made the decision to go to French Equatorial Africa and build his jungle hospital. The latter half of the film encompasses a full day in the hospital-village, following the octogenarian Samaritan in his daily rounds.

The life of Jerome Hill corresponded with the first formative decades of cinema and a greater part of the 20th century. Through fragments of Hill’s surrealistic, handpainted and documentary films (as well as the James J. Hill family's home movies), this autobiographical work serves as an aesthetically complete documentary of Jerome Hill as an artist and offers a personal perspective of the seventh art.

The life of Jerome Hill corresponded with the first formative decades of cinema and a greater part of the 20th century. Through fragments of Hill’s surrealistic, handpainted and documentary films (as well as the James J. Hill family's home movies), this autobiographical work serves as an aesthetically complete documentary of Jerome Hill as an artist and offers a personal perspective of the seventh art.

A magic umbrella saves a girl from a mysterious attacker. Filmed in 1927, tinted and hand-colored in the early 60s.

A magic umbrella saves a girl from a mysterious attacker. Filmed in 1927, tinted and hand-colored in the early 60s.

1950 short film portrait of the octogenarian folk artist. Nominated for an Oscar in the category "Best Short Subject, One-reel".

1950 short film portrait of the octogenarian folk artist. Nominated for an Oscar in the category "Best Short Subject, One-reel".

An "autobiographical sketch" centered around small group of vacationers to Hill's estate in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. A gorgeous and relaxing film-soirée that acted as Jerome Hill's return to cinema after a time away. Workmen construct a walkway to the open air theatre, while friends lounge and hobby, toil and swim.

In a European seaside village, a maiden takes clean sheets down from the clothesline. Carrying her basket of linens home, she stops to consult a fortune teller. The cartomancienne sees love in the cards. The young woman pauses to reflect. We then see water, swirling, and into view swims a man, as if just appearing on earth. He arrives on shore - is he just in her mind's eye, or is he real? She weaves a garland for her hair. Will they meet?

Live-action footage of canaries and beachgoers overlaid with hand-painted effects.

In 1950 Jerome Hill went to Zurich with the intention of making a film about Dr. Carl G. Jung. The project was abandoned when Hill decided that Jung was not a good subject. After Hill's death, Jonas Mekas edited the film which focuses on Dr. Jung as a person.

Based on Jerome Hill's unpublished novel, Peacock Feathers, this ensemble piece focuses on the relationship between two aging sisters.

Based on Jerome Hill's unpublished novel, Peacock Feathers, this ensemble piece focuses on the relationship between two aging sisters.

Based on Jerome Hill's unpublished novel, Peacock Feathers, this ensemble piece focuses on the relationship between two aging sisters.

Famous skier Otto Lang is featured in a short documentary filmed at Mt. Whitney and Mt. Baker, and premiered on 4 February 1938 at Radio City Music Hall with NYC screenings of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

A little boy and his sister forced to spend a day at the beach build a sand castle, to the delight and interest of others. Rich black and white photography collides with a novel fantasy sequence combining color photography, stop motion and cutout animation. Equal parts Jacques Tati, A. Lamorisse and (Hill's perrenial favorite) C. G. Jung.

A little boy and his sister forced to spend a day at the beach build a sand castle, to the delight and interest of others. Rich black and white photography collides with a novel fantasy sequence combining color photography, stop motion and cutout animation. Equal parts Jacques Tati, A. Lamorisse and (Hill's perrenial favorite) C. G. Jung.

In 1951, Jung was filmed at his Bollingen retreat by two Americans, Jerome Hill, an artist and film-maker from Minnesota, and Maud Oakes, an author and researcher, whose book Where the Two Came to Their Father was the first major publication of the Bollingen Foundation. That book described a ritual and ceremonial sequence given to Maud by and old Navajo Medicine Man, along with its accompanying sand paintings. Maud had long been interested in Jung and his new psychology of the collective unconscious. She had met him in 1937 in New York, when she, along with her friends, Paul and Mary Mellon, attended a lecture he gave there.

This film uses an experimental painting technique on documentary footage of the bustling New York streets during Christmastime: Mary, Joseph and the unborn Christ travel through the streets.

This film uses an experimental painting technique on documentary footage of the bustling New York streets during Christmastime: Mary, Joseph and the unborn Christ travel through the streets.

This film uses an experimental painting technique on documentary footage of the bustling New York streets during Christmastime: Mary, Joseph and the unborn Christ travel through the streets.

Albert Schweitzer plays phrases and explains to a friend how he thinks Bach should be played.

Footage of a bullfight, shot by Hill in 1934, hand-painted by the artist three decades later.