Float into COSMOGENESIS, a weekend-long journey of transcendental films, lectures, and live performances celebrating the visionary art and cosmic cinema of Jordan Belson.
Presented in partnership with SF Cinematheque and BAMPFA.
Jordan Belson (1926-2011) was a San Francisco-based artist and abstract cinematic filmmaker. Over six decades he created sublime, spiritually oriented films, referred to as “Cosmic Cinema” by theorist Gene Youngblood in his 1972 book Expanded Cinema. His films are influenced by many subjects including yoga, Buddhism, mandalas, Indian holy men, Tibetan mysticism, theosophy, Egyptology, Rosicrucianism, Kabbalah, Jung, magic, Tantra, alchemy, symbolism, astronomy, Japanese mon design, Arabic patterns, optical phenomena, and science imagery.
From 1957 – 59, Belson collaborated with electronic music pioneer Henry Jacobs on the late night series Vortex: Experiments in Sound and Light at San Francisco's Morrison Planetarium, an early antecedent of today's "immersive experiences", using 30-channels of projection and surround sound.
This program includes screenings of rarely seen, newly preserved 16mm films and selected digital preservations from the archive in collaboration with the Belson Estate and curator Raymond Foye.
Day 1: Friday, September 26
Aspects of Enchantment with Erik Davis
7:30pm
tickets here
Films and discussion with cultural critic and writer Erik Davis.
One of the most compelling writers and public speakers on the subjects of media, esotericism and visionary experiences, Erik Davis brings an appropriate sensibility to Jordan Belson’s remarkable films. Davis’ 1998 debut work TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, a groundbreaking study of the persistence of enchantment in the digital age, proved a defining work on twenty-first century consciousness. His essay “The Paisley Gate: The Tantra of Psychedelics” was included in Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics—a favorite book of Belson’s. Davis approaches Belson’s films not just as art but as inner space probes, intimate artifacts of expanded consciousness that help us creatively know our own minds. Davis holds a PhD in religious studies from Rice University. His other books include High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies; Nomad Codes and Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium. He currently covers California culture on his Burning Shore newsletter, and also co-founded the Berkeley Alembic, a center for meditation, arts and consciousness culture.
SCREENING:
RE-ENTRY (1964) (6 min)
LIGHT (1973) (8 min)
PHENOMENA (1965) (6 min)
MOMENTUM (1968) (6 min)
MEDITATION (1971) (6 min)
MUSIC OF THE SPHERES (1977) (10 min)
all films by Jordan Belson 42 mins total, all films are 16mm, color, sound
Day 2: Saturday, September 27
Listening Room
12–1:30pm
Tickets here
Belson autoharp music and sound compositions, Belson taped interviews (by Paul Fillinger), and immersive visual projections. (Note that this is a different Listening Room program from that presented Sunday.)
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Light Structures with L u m i a
2:30–4pm
Tickets here
Lecture and screenings on Belson’s major 1970s works with archivist L u m i a.
A lecture and screening focused on several of Belson’s major works from the 1970’s including World, Music of the Spheres and Infinity. L u m i a will also present an overview of and discuss the filmography of Jordan Belson. L u m i a is an independent archivist and filmmaker and an advisor to the estate of Jordan Belson. They have assisted in organizing and cataloging Belson’s papers and working materials left behind in his studio.
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The Archival Impermanence Project
5–6:30pm
Tickets here
Ross Lipman & Isabella Scaffidi on restoring Belson’s films in the digital age.
This illustrated lecture doubles as an introduction to our newly commenced project to restore and remaster the cinema of Jordan Belson in contemporary digital cinema formats and 35mm film prints, and as a Bay Area launch for Ross Lipman’s new book, The Archival Impermanence Project. In tandem with our colleagues at the Pacific Film Archive and multiple funding partners, the Jordan Belson Estate is proud to announce an ambitious restoration agenda addressing as many of his films as possible in the coming years. Isabella Scaffidi will begin with a short talk on the current state of the Belson film archive. Ross Lipman will then look at the current state of independent film restoration through the prism of his unique book, beginning with a discussion of some of the classic films he’s previously worked on that bear relevance to our project, including Bruce Conner’s CROSSROADS. From there, Lipman will present an overview of the work we’ll be undertaking.
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The VORTEX Legacy with Doug McKechnie
7:30–9:30pm
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Moog pioneer revisits Belson’s iconic VORTEX concerts with live sound and film.
Doug McKechnie is one of the last people alive who attended the VORTEX concerts (1957–59) and he later revived a version of VORTEX in 1973 with Belson’s permission and consultation. A pioneer of the Moog synthesizer, he performed on the Grateful Dead album Aoxomoxoa (1969) and appeared live with the band. Also in 1969 McKechnie used the Moog synthesizer for a performance of Terry Riley’s In C at the San Francisco Opera House. Other performances included The Family Dog concert hall, the opening of Frank Oppenheimer’s Exploratorium and the first ever concert at the Berkeley Art Museum. McKechnie will lecture, screen films and perform live soundtracks.
SCREENING (subject to change):
RAGA (1957) (7 min). Screened as digital video.
SÉANCE (1959) (3.5 min) Screened as digital video.
ALLURES (1961) (9 min) Screened as digital video.
Day 3: Sunday, September 28
Listening Room
12–1:30pm
Tickets here
Second program of Belson’s music, interviews and projections with new content.
Belson autoharp music and sound compositions, Belson taped interviews (by Paul Fillinger), and visual projections. (Content will be different from Saturday’s Listening Room.)
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Filmic Beatitudes with Brecht Andersch
2:30–4pm
Tickets here
Exploring the Beat film scene with screenings including Maclaine’s The End.
An exploration of the San Francisco Beat film scene of the 1950s centered on Jordan Belson and “madman” Christopher Maclaine, climaxing in a close examination of the first film to take the collective lunacy of the hydrogen bomb-era head-on, Maclaine’s The End, the convulsive 1953 epic photographed by Belson. The End will screen with other key representative works of its time, including a fragment documenting the Beat scene by Dion Vigne featuring Maclaine and a rare screening of a portion of Belson’s film, Autobiography(1951), which includes appearances by Harry Smith, Philip Lamantia, Gerd Stern, Christopher Maclaine and others.
SCREENING:
Jordan Belson: AUTOBIOGRAPHY (excerpt, 1951) (9 min). Screened as digital video.
Christopher Maclaine: THE END (1953) (34 min). 16mm
Dion Vigne, CHRISTOPHER MACLAINE & NORTH BEACH: FRAGMENTS (1957) (4 min) Screened as digital video.
Christopher Maclaine, THE MAN WHO INVENTED GOLD (1957) (14 min). 16mm
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The Visual Art of Jordan Belson with Raymond Foye
5–6:30pm
Tickets here
Illustrated lecture on Belson’s little-seen paintings, kinetic sculptures and drawings.
Jordan Belson was an important visual artist who earned his AB in studio art from the University of California, Berkeley, establishing a studio in Berkeley shortly after graduation. After an impressive exhibition history in his early twenties (the Pasadena Art Institute, later renamed the Norton Simon Museum; the California Palace of the Legion of Honor; the San Francisco Museum of Art; and the Museum of Non-Objective Art later renamed the Guggenheim Museum), Belson rejected the commercial art world and never again exhibited. However, he continued to create hundreds of important works. These have been the subject of three solo shows at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York, and numerous museum group exhibitions. Noted curator Raymond Foye represents the Belson estate and will discuss this fascinating career.
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Jordan Belson Film Screening
7:30–9:30pm
Tickets here
Screening new 16mm preservation prints from the collection of Pacific Film Archives, with selected digital projections:
CARAVAN (1952) (3.5 min). Screened as digital video.
MANDALA (1953) (3 min). Screened as digital video.
CHRONICLE 1955) (2 min). Screened as digital video.
RAGA (1958) (7 min). Screened as digital video.
SAMADHI (1967) (6 min).16mm
COSMOS (1970) (7 min). 16mm
CHAKRA (1972) (8 min). 16mm
CYCLES (1975) (10 min). 16mm
BARDO (2001) (13 min). Screened as digital video.
(Running time 60 minutes)
