If there’s one central element that would seem to be intrinsic and indispensable to any reasonable definition of the cinema it would be the presence of imagery, whether photographed, animated, or generated through more experimental methods such as hand-painting, scratching, collaging, and so on.

Born in 1944 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, David Brooks entered Columbia University in the early 1960s, where he immersed himself in the study of philosophy and psychology, with a particular interest in psychoanalysis and the work of Freud. During this time Brooks met critic and filmmaker Jonas Mekas and immediately got involved in New York’s burgeoning independent and experimental film scene. By 1962 Mekas had personally enlisted Brooks, then only 18 years old, to be the first Executive Director of the newly established Film-Makers’ Cooperative.