Dikeou Collection is excited to announce a very special edition of the Fresh Jazz and Crisp Vinyl Series in conjunction with our Video Dialogue Series on Friday, April 7 at Dikeou Collection, 1615 California St, Suite 515, from 7-9:30pm. This event will feature an exclusive screening of three works by renowned experimental film pioneer, Harry Smith accompanied by a live performance by the Brant Williams Quartet. Doors open at 7pm with music and screening starting at 8pm.
A central figure of the bohemian Beat scene in San Francisco and New York, Harry Smith(1923-1991) was a self-taught anthropologist, visual artist, and filmmaker. His varied interests and vast knowledge of Native American cultures, esotericism, music, and folk traditions among other things informed his one-of-a-kind visual language and creative processes that continue to captivate audiences today. His early encounters with jazz music, particularly musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, ignited his desire to create films that illustrate the rhythms and sounds of the music. Smith’s films Early Abstractions (1946-1952), Late Superimpositions(1964), and Mirror Animations (1979) will be presented on their original 16mm formats. Images from Smith’s films, as well as paintings and drawings, were featured in issue 24 of zingmagazine in a project titled “A Strange Dream” curated by Dikeou Collection Director, Hayley Richardson.
You can watch them for pure color enjoyment; you can watch them for motion- Harry Smith’s films never stop moving; or you can watch them for hidden symbolic meanings, alchemic signs. There are more levels in Harry Smith’s work than in any other film animator I know.
~Jonas Mekas
Music from The Brant Williams Quartet will provide the soundtrack for Smith’s three films, playing contemporary takes on jazz and modern classics. The group consists of Brant Williams on guitar, Bob Songster playing bass, drummer Jake Herman, and sax by Armando Lopez.
Dikeou Collection would like to thank the folks at Process Reversal for providing projection services for this event, and the Film-Maker’s Cooperative in New York City for preserving Smith’s filmmaking legacy and allowing it to be shared around the world.