Dominic Angerame

In CONTINUUM, the world, the workers within the world and the labor of making the film itself are equated through montage and a brilliantly concentrated filmic "painterliness." The result is an experimental film which is at the same time a document of propaganda in the sense that at its conclusion, one finds oneself closer to the science of the motion of society in its monumentality with streets, buildings, the building of them and the workers and their instruments, creating a constructivist poetry within the eyes.

"In June 1999 dear friends Agnetta Falk and Jack Hirschman were married at Matt Gonzales' place in the Mission. I was there with my 16mm Bolex and filmed part of the ceremony and crowd. After almost 30 years I finally made this footage into a finished film. It features many of our dear friends both living and deceased. In honor of Jack and Aggie's wedding anniversary I finished the film over the weekend." – Dominic Angerame.

“AEON (...) draws parallels between the earthly and the heavenly, linking the San Francisco cityscape and city dwellers to outer space (...) brings the (holy) spirit to life (...) one of Angerame’s major and most mature works to date” — Kornelia Boczkowska, author of Lost Highways, Embodied Travels: The Road Movie in American Experimental Film and Video

Inspired by the novel Flicker by Theodore Roszak, this film was intended to explore the images captured in the flickering light of multiple projector beams. By utilizing superimpositions within the camera, one could experience the pulsating light and explore hidden imagery through use of the "Sally Rand" that Roszak refers to.

A light comical film employing the technique of scratching emulsion off the film, creating illusions of color and texture.

“I've never seen light that looks or feels so dark; forward moving possibility united with so much cosmic terror.”—Marilyn Brakhage

In CONTINUUM, the world, the workers within the world and the labor of making the film itself are equated through montage and a brilliantly concentrated filmic "painterliness." The result is an experimental film which is at the same time a document of propaganda in the sense that at its conclusion, one finds oneself closer to the science of the motion of society in its monumentality with streets, buildings, the building of them and the workers and their instruments, creating a constructivist poetry within the eyes.

"In June 1999 dear friends Agnetta Falk and Jack Hirschman were married at Matt Gonzales' place in the Mission. I was there with my 16mm Bolex and filmed part of the ceremony and crowd. After almost 30 years I finally made this footage into a finished film. It features many of our dear friends both living and deceased. In honor of Jack and Aggie's wedding anniversary I finished the film over the weekend." – Dominic Angerame.

“AEON (...) draws parallels between the earthly and the heavenly, linking the San Francisco cityscape and city dwellers to outer space (...) brings the (holy) spirit to life (...) one of Angerame’s major and most mature works to date” — Kornelia Boczkowska, author of Lost Highways, Embodied Travels: The Road Movie in American Experimental Film and Video

Inspired by the novel Flicker by Theodore Roszak, this film was intended to explore the images captured in the flickering light of multiple projector beams. By utilizing superimpositions within the camera, one could experience the pulsating light and explore hidden imagery through use of the "Sally Rand" that Roszak refers to.

A light comical film employing the technique of scratching emulsion off the film, creating illusions of color and texture.

“I've never seen light that looks or feels so dark; forward moving possibility united with so much cosmic terror.”—Marilyn Brakhage

In 2006, Angerame was invited to Havana, Cuba, to present his City Symphony Series at the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, which marked the beginning of his 13-year collaboration with the festival as a programmer. HABANA is a record of that visit, tracing Havana in Fidel Castro's final year as Cuban leader and the ongoing propaganda war between the U.S. and Cuba.

“WAR ZONE (...) Angerame’s unique take on the history, geopolitics and present-day of the DMZ, which emerges as a complex site that goes well beyond its borders. (...) one of Angerame’s most original and remarkable works to day (...) revealing the intricate complexities of the area and capturing the tension that is still in the air.” — Kornelia Boczkowska, author of Lost Highways, Embodied Travels: The Road Movie in American Experimental Film and Video

Anti-war demonstration, 1968, New York City march to Sheep's Meadow, shows Vets against the war, Yippies, arrests, and flags of a half-forgotten revolution.

Starring Bruce Conner, a belly dancer, a geiger counter, and a toxic waste dump.

Voyeuristic Tendencies is not so much a film about voyeurism as it is our tendency to be voyeuristic. That tendency, nurtured by the filmmakers carefully crafted succession of visual teases and exploited by the camera's ability to become our eyes, becomes in increasingly evident as the film progresses. The camera teases the viewer, in this case, co-voyeur, not with sexual or erotic innuendo, but rather with graphic and aesthetic challenges. The partially opened window of a woman's dressing room forces us to realize our urge to see more about these hidden worlds. This type of cinematically- induced self- realization makes Voyeuristic Tendencies a powerfully human film.

REVELATIONS is a continuation of what I call my "City Symphony" series. This works includes footage that was shot from the late 90s to the present. My filmmaking is inspired by filmmakers such as Dziga Vertov, Joris Ivens, Walter Ruttman and Robert Fulton. (Dominic Angerame)

Longtime San Francisco filmmaker Dominic Angerame turns the classical city symphony on its head by focusing on demolition rather than forward​-​progress. Filmed in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake, DECONSTRUCTION SIGHT plays like an avant-garde disaster movie, an anti-spectacle in flaring black-and-white.

The San Francisco Embarcadero Freeway comes to life in this elegy for modernity. The Freeway was deemed a triumph of engineering, a monument for human inventiveness. With the 1989 earthquake, however, the freeway was severely damaged and with it all the industrial-technological promises it held. Premonition shows the situation before the crisis, a deceptive moment of industrial harmony.

A poetic black and white celluloid film depicting the city landscape (San Francisco) in a state of constant change.

Soundtrack: A rare recording of John Cale's Loop (electric bass guitar with feedback). Subconscious collage of images. Random editing surprisingly produced this personal look into my life.

"At the beginning and end of each roll of 16mm I shot a small part of the film is exposed to light because of the insertion and removal of the spool of film. Oftentimes images are obscured by light flashes. I saved many of these short segments when filming and living in Chicago. All of these are spliced together creating a visual diary of my time spent there with my wife Susan. The time period was from 1971-1979. Most of the imagery is from our Chicago days with a couple of scenes from San Francisco. Since the images are flashes and this is a look backward, I titled this short Flashbacks." --DA.

Short film by Dominic Angerame.

Anti-war demonstration, 1968, New York City march to Sheep's Meadow, shows Vets against the war, Yippies, arrests, and flags of a half-forgotten revolution.

Sambhogakaya means enjoying the wealth of the Five Certainties.

Soundtrack: Ed Sanders. Filmed in Buffalo, 1969, completed in Chicago, 1973. Acid in the park, broken images, danger symbols of the fleeting moments.

"I traveled to Albany, NY, and called Robert Fulton and stated that I wanted to come and visit him in Newtown, CT. 'You can’t get here from there, look out the window and tell me what the clouds look like,' he said. I described them the best I could and he said, 'Meet me at Butler Aviation at the Albany airport, I will fly there in my plane and pick you up.' This film is a short homage to Bob and his family during the weekend I stayed at the Fulton Estate in Newtown." — DA

Brief, impressionistic portraits of many of Angerame’s friends and acquaintances who live in San Francisco. Set to Toney Merritt’s haunting sound design and superimposed with NASA images and footage of Angerame’s coming down the elevator at the Eiffel Tower, FILM DIARY #10 EYEFULL PORTRAITS is a descent into the depths of the subconsciousness, transforming into a complex, densely layered exploration of friendship, loneliness, city dwelling and the unknown. – Kornelia Boczkowska

"Anaconda Targets , a documentation tape of aerial bombings by the American military in Afghanistan, depicts the devastating effect of smart bombs. Not often featured in media reports, the soldiers' voices form the soundtrack that accompanies these chilling images. The document has been appropriated by filmmaker Dominic Angerame as a critique of his government's military aggression." - Susan Oxtoby

"I had the pleasure of meeting Kurt Kren when he lived here in the Bay and had the chance of hanging out with him a few times. All I remember was laughing all the time, not much else since I think the alcohol was flowing quite well. In review of my old Regular 8mm films I discovered footage that I had shot outdoors while I was living in Buffalo, NY. I had covered up the lens with tin foil and poked holes in it. After seeing the footage, I was reminded of Kurt and his film ASYL." — DA

A film that seems to be partially created by the magic that only pixies can create. I went out shooting with my Bolex with the intention of shooting a series of very short one second movies. When the film was returned to me by the lab I discovered that superimposes over the images I had shot were images that I did not shoot. There appeared superimposed images of various women flexing their muscles and posing for some unknown camera person besides myself. This film is a result and a sort of homage to pixies wherever they may be.

Dedicated to Stan Brakhage "Before being introduced to 16mm filmmaking I was filming with a cheap Regular 8mm camera my sister had given me. I lived around the corner from Forest Lawn Cemetery on Main Street. This place I would often visit to either drop LSD or just for some serenity." — DA

"If you have to beg, or steal, or borrow, Welcome to Los Angeles, City of Tomorrow." - Phil Ochs, to whose memory this film is dedicated. First impressions of LA, Forest Lawn Cemetery, the Tropicana Motel, and the sandy beaches of Venice and Long Beach.

These are the waterfalls in Yosemite National Forest. The mesmerizing movement of water. Film ends with two dolphins sun bathing.

Song of the El Train in Chicago. The lab did not sync this film correctly and makes this film what it is.

“A beacon of creativity, a cauldron of experimentation and a haunted space of an (im)possible future — (...) continues Angerame's (...) collaboration with musician Kevin Barnard (...) provides a nuanced and uplifting score which projects unexpected hope into the tragedy of this film art requiem. Angerame's cine-documentation always speaks to beautiful and redemptive new forms in the face of seemingly impossible odds.” — David Sherman, filmmaker, professor

Dedicated to my dear friend Suzanne Kelliher. Sound: “Feather” by Kevin Barnard "This is a portrait of a camping trip to the Cottonwood Mountains and Joshua Tree and the Sultan Sea. It was Palm Sunday. When I went to title the film it naturally came out as Psalm Sunday, more appropriate." — DA

Memories of lovers’ past. A glimpse of the erotic emotions that linger in the mind as it changes with each moment of time passing.

"This is dedicated to Rosemary Manno, a dear friend that passed away in 2021. Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” opened theatrically one city at a time in 1988. It was met with hysterical protests from the religious right. This happened also in San Francisco at the defunct “North Point Theater”. I was there to film the protests." - DA

"In 1984 the Democrat Party Convention was held in San Francisco. The contenders included Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson against the front runner Walter Mondale. I was able to receive a guest pass as someone who supported Gary Hart. Guests were roped off in an area adjacent to the delegates. Movement was restricted for guests, and I had to capture imagery from my own vantage point." — DA

" (...) documents the beginnings of San Francisco’s radical microcinema (...) a landmark venue for showcasing the work of independent and experimental cinema (...) a group of local 'emergency filmmakers,' including Angerame, the revolutionary spirit and passion of those who organized and came to the shows. Bruce Conner, Toney Merritt, and others. " — Kornelia Boczkowska, author of Lost Highways, Embodied Travels: The Road Movie in American Experimental Film and Video

Filmed in Chicago 1978, Papa John Creach playing with Grace Slick and Hot Tuna. "I filmed from stage side one roll of Reg 8mm black and white. As the film ran out of the second side of the film, someone from security tapped me on shoulder and demanded that I give him the film. I started fast talking and told him that I would stop filming, he still demanded the film. I then opened the camera and showed him that there was no film left in the camera. That seemed to please him and he left." — DA

A parody of being a bohemian hanging out in a coffee shop all day.

Starring Zhanna. Gamaya ("Lead Us") a Sanskrit mantra performed by Zhanna, recorded and mastered by Zak May. This is a haiku and offers a prelude to CONSUME

The Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana, is a massive, flooded former open-pit copper mine, once the heart of "The Richest Hill on Earth," now a Superfund site filled with highly acidic, heavy-metal-laden water that is managed as an environmental challenge. It's a mile wide, nearly 1,800 feet deep, and serves as a site for "toxic tourism" with a viewing stand where visitors can observe the toxic lake and its ongoing water treatment