Gregory J. Markopoulos was a Greek-American experimental film

Experimental film

Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...

maker. Born in Toledo, Ohio

Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

 to Greek immigrant parents, Markopoulos began making 8 mm film

8 mm film

8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...

s at an early age. He attended USC Film School in the late 1940s, and went on to become a co-founder — with Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...

, Shirley Clarke

Shirley Clarke

Shirley Clarke was an American independent filmmaker.-Early life:Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, Shirley Clarke was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her...

, Stan Brakhage

Stan Brakhage

James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....

 and others — of the New American Cinema movement. He was as well a contributor to Film Culture

Film Culture

Film Culture was an American film magazine started by Adolfas Mekas and his brother Jonas Mekas in 1954, and is now defunct. It is best known for exploring the avant-garde cinema in depth, but also published articles on all aspects of cinema, including Hollywood films.Past contributors include...

magazine, and an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

.

In 1967, he and his partner Robert Beavers

Robert Beavers

Robert Beavers is an American experimental filmmaker. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he attended Deerfield Academy which he left before graduating to move to New York in 1965 to pursue filmmaking...

 left the United States for permanent residence in Europe. Once ensconced in self-imposed exile, Markopoulos withdrew his films from circulation, refused any interviews, and insisted that a chapter about him be removed from the second edition of Visionary Film, P. Adams Sitney

P. Adams Sitney

P. Adams Sitney , is a historian of American avant-garde cinema.-Life:He was educated in his hometown, at Yale University...

's seminal study of American avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

cinema. While he continued to make films, his work went largely unseen for almost 30 years.

Selected filmography

• Du sang, de la volupté et de la mort (1947-48); 3 parts: Psyche, Lysis, Charmides
• The Dead Ones (1949, unfinished)
• Christmas, U.S.A. (1949); 13 min.
• Swain (1950)
• Flowers of Asphalt (1951)
• Serenity (1961)
• Twice a Man (1963)
• Galaxie (1966)
• Ming Green (1966)
• Bliss (1967)
• Eros, O Basileus (1967)
• Himself As Herself (1967)
• The Illiac Passion (1964-67)
• Through a Lens Brightly: Mark Turbyfill (1967)
• The Divine Damnation (1968)
• Gammelion (1968)
• The Mysteries (1968)
• Index - Hans Richter (1969)
• The Olympian (1969)
• Political Portraits (1969)
• Sorrows (1969)
• Alph (1970)
• Genius (1970)
• Hagiographia (1970, first version)
• Moment (1970)
• Cimabue! Cimabue! (1971)
• Doldertal 7 (1971)
• Saint Actaeon (1971)
• 35, Boulevard General Koenig (1971)
• Hagiographia (1973, second version)
• Heracles (1973)
• Meta (1973)
• Prosopographia (1976)
• Eniaios (1948-c.1990, 22 film cycles)

External links

• Biography
• Arcadians - Arcades esmen
• The Temenos Association
• Millennium Film Journal no. 32/33 Devoted to Markopoulos and Robert Beavers
• Gregory Markopoulos: Seconds in Eternity from Bright Lights Film Journal