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SEESAW Pictures is an independent film enterprise with international experience writing, directing, and producing films.
Making the Lost and Unmade: The Films of Bruce Checefsky
LOST AND UNMADE EXPERIMENTAL FILMS examines the lost and unmade works of four important avant-garde experimental Polish filmmakers: STEFAN THEMERSON, (Plock, Poland 1910 – London 1988), FRANCISZKA THEMERSON (Warsaw 1907 – London 1988), JAN BRZEKOWSKI (1903 – 1983), and ANDRZEJ PAWLOWSKI (1925 – 1986). The presentation includes a brief history and critical analysis of their films, and a special screening of recent remakes based on the originals. The screened films include Pharmacy (2001), A Woman and Circles (2003), INNI [OTHERS] (2005), and MOMENT MUSICAL (2006), Stefan and Francizska Themersons significant first sound experimental film.
For more information or schedule a screening contact: bruce@seesawpictures.com
Moment Musical/2006/16mm black & white/sound/6:00 min.
Stefan Themerson (1910-1988) and Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988) first sound film, "Moment Musical' (1933), was a three-minute commercial in which photograms of light-pierced jewelry, porcelain and glass were animated to music by Ravel.
Their experimental techniques involved moving lights and shadows on objects. They evolved out of the Themerson’s improvisations with the photogram, 1928-35. Most of the images were made on a "trick-table" improvised by Stefan Themerson. He placed various objects on a piece of translucent paper over a sheet of glass. The lights were above, and he photographed the images from below frame by frame.
IN NI (Others) /2005/Betacam/color, black & white/Polish with English subtitles/ 20:43 min.
In 1958, internationally recognized Polish experimental filmmaker Andrzej Pawlowski (1925-1986) developed a script based on a 1941 diary written by a patient at a psychiatric hospital near Krakow. The original diary was found stashed between two walls following the close of WWII and given to Pawlowski by the director of the asylum. The pages of the diary chronicle daily atrocities committed by the Nazi during the occupation of Poland. Pawlowski's script was submitted to the national film board in Warsaw but they failed to produce it before Pawlowski died. IN NI (Others) is based on Pawlowski's 1958 script. Filmed in Warsaw.
A Woman and Circles/2003-2004/35mm/black & white/sound/ 9:38 min.
In 1930 while living in Paris, avant-garde poet Jan Brzekowski (1903-1983) wrote a short non-narrative film script titled "A Woman and Circles" in the French magazine "Cercle et Carree" (The script was later translated into Polish and published in "Linia.").
This non-narrative film reveals a random succession of negative and positive images preceded by a glowing circle that overtakes the film frame then reduces to two smaller bouncing balls that later become minuet dancers. While some of the film uses found footage from 1960's instructional films like "What is Water?” the film is not considered a remake or reconstruction - Brzekowski never produced his film.
Pharmacy/2001/35mm/black & white abstract photogram film/silent/4:36 min.
PHARMACY is based on Stefan and Francizska Themerson’s influential 1930 abstract photogram film APTEKA. The Themerson’s are considered the most influential filmmakers of the Polish avant-garde of pre-WWII Europe.
A stunning black and white abstract film, Pharmacy is a chaotic, anarchic assemblage of chemistry lab measuring cups and spoons, various size test tubes, tweezers, eyeglass lens and a cornucopia of mostly transparent glass pharmaceutical equipment seen as shadows only.
Stefan Themerson (1910-1988) and Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988) first sound film, "Moment Musical' (1933), was a three-minute commercial in which photograms of light-pierced jewelry, porcelain and glass were animated to music by Ravel.
Their experimental techniques involved moving lights and shadows on objects. They evolved out of the Themerson’s improvisations with the photogram, 1928-35. Most of the images were made on a "trick-table" improvised by Stefan Themerson. He placed various objects on a piece of translucent paper over a sheet of glass. The lights were above, and he photographed the images from below frame by frame.
IN NI (Others) /2005/Betacam/color, black & white/Polish with English subtitles/ 20:43 min.
In 1958, internationally recognized Polish experimental filmmaker Andrzej Pawlowski (1925-1986) developed a script based on a 1941 diary written by a patient at a psychiatric hospital near Krakow. The original diary was found stashed between two walls following the close of WWII and given to Pawlowski by the director of the asylum. The pages of the diary chronicle daily atrocities committed by the Nazi during the occupation of Poland. Pawlowski's script was submitted to the national film board in Warsaw but they failed to produce it before Pawlowski died. IN NI (Others) is based on Pawlowski's 1958 script. Filmed in Warsaw.
A Woman and Circles/2003-2004/35mm/black & white/sound/ 9:38 min.
In 1930 while living in Paris, avant-garde poet Jan Brzekowski (1903-1983) wrote a short non-narrative film script titled "A Woman and Circles" in the French magazine "Cercle et Carree" (The script was later translated into Polish and published in "Linia.").
This non-narrative film reveals a random succession of negative and positive images preceded by a glowing circle that overtakes the film frame then reduces to two smaller bouncing balls that later become minuet dancers. While some of the film uses found footage from 1960's instructional films like "What is Water?” the film is not considered a remake or reconstruction - Brzekowski never produced his film.
Pharmacy/2001/35mm/black & white abstract photogram film/silent/4:36 min.
PHARMACY is based on Stefan and Francizska Themerson’s influential 1930 abstract photogram film APTEKA. The Themerson’s are considered the most influential filmmakers of the Polish avant-garde of pre-WWII Europe.
A stunning black and white abstract film, Pharmacy is a chaotic, anarchic assemblage of chemistry lab measuring cups and spoons, various size test tubes, tweezers, eyeglass lens and a cornucopia of mostly transparent glass pharmaceutical equipment seen as shadows only.
