Marjorie Keller
Encyclopedia
Marjorie Keller
was an experimental filmmaker, author, activist, film scholar, and wife of P. Adams Sitney
, the American avant-garde cinema historian. J. Hoberman
called her "an unselfish champion of the avant-garde."
. The youngest of seven children, Keller grew up in a large, upper-middle-class, Protestant family. As a girl, Keller's mother schooled her in the feminine arts of cooking, gardening and entertaining.
Keller never gave up these skills (she even used them as inspiration for her films), even though other feminists of her time frowned upon such domestic jobs. B. Ruby Rich
(a friend of Keller's and another important member of the feminist film movement), fondly remembers a Passover dinner that Keller made in this passage from her memoir:
Keller first attended Tufts University
, but finished her coursework at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
after getting expelled from Tufts for participating in a protest in 1972. She then went on to pursue her master's degree and then her doctorate in Cinema Studies at New York University in 1975. During her years at Tufts and the Art Institute of Chicago, Keller was instructed by American avant-garde filmmakers Saul Levine and Stan Brakhage
.
of the 1960s and 70's was in full swing. As a result of this movement, feminist film theory was applied to a majority of films made by women in that era. Keller openly rejected the structural rules and regulations based on feminist film theory. In a review of E. Ann Kaplan's 1983 book Women and Film Keller stated that theory "obfuscates women's film making in the name of feminism." Keller refused to work within the confines set up by film theorists, many of whom have never made a film themselves. Because of this ideology, Marjorie Keller's work was shunned by the critical feminist world.
, Gregory Markopoulos
, and Marie Menken
(all of whom are sited as being big influences. In her films, Keller used themes and images from her own life and experiences. She explored what it was like to be a feminist in the latter half of the twentieth century, in her own way. Children were also an inspiration to her. This can be seen in both her films and her writings.
Marjorie Keller made over twenty-five films in her brief lifetime.
Hell No: No Cuts!, ca. 1972 (25 min.): silent, b&w; 8 mm
Backsection, ca. 1972 (4.5 min.): silent, b&w; 8 mm
History of Art 3939, ca. 1972 (2.5 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Part IV: Green Hill, ca. 1972 (3 min.): sound, color; 8 mm
Turtle, ca. 1972 (2.5 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Untitled, ca. 1972 (7.5 min.): silent, b&w; 8 mm
Pieces of Eight, 1973 (3 min.): silent, b&w; 8 mm
Duck Fuck/Rube in Galena, 1973 (4 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
Swept, 1973 (3 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
The Outer Circle, 1973 (6.75 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
She/Va, 1973 (3 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
Objection, 1974 (18.25 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
Film Notebook: Part 1, 1975 (12.25 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Superimposition (1), 1975 (14.75 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
By Two's & Three's: Women, 1976 (7 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Film Notebook: 1969-76; Part 2, Some of Us in the Mechanical Age, 1977 (27 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Misconception, 1977 (43 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
The Web, 1977 (10 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
On the Verge of an Image of Christmas, 1978 (10.5 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Ancient Parts/Foreign Parts, 1979 (6 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
Six Windows, 1979 (7 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
Daughters of Chaos, 1980 (20 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
The Fallen World, 1983 (9.5 min.): sound, b&w, color; 16 mm
Lyrics, 1983 (9 min.): sound, color; Super 8
The Answering Furrow, 1985 (27 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
Private Parts, 1988 (12.75 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
Herein, 1991 (35 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
in New York for a period of time in the late 1980s, and was a professor of film making and film history at the University of Rhode Island
.
was an experimental filmmaker, author, activist, film scholar, and wife of 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...
, the American avant-garde cinema historian. J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman , also known as J. Hoberman, is an American film critic. He is currently the senior film critic for The Village Voice, a post he has held since 1988.-Education:...
called her "an unselfish champion of the avant-garde."
Early life and education
Keller was born in 1950 in Yorktown, New YorkYorktown, New York
Yorktown is a town in Westchester County, New York, in the suburbs of New York about north of midtown Manhattan. The town lies on the north border of Westchester County...
. The youngest of seven children, Keller grew up in a large, upper-middle-class, Protestant family. As a girl, Keller's mother schooled her in the feminine arts of cooking, gardening and entertaining.
Keller never gave up these skills (she even used them as inspiration for her films), even though other feminists of her time frowned upon such domestic jobs. B. Ruby Rich
B. Ruby Rich
B. Ruby Rich is an American scholar, critic of independent, Latin American, documentary and gay films, and a professor of Film & Digital Media and Social Documentation also known as "SocDoc" at UC Santa Cruz. She has also taught documentary film and queer studies during spring semesters at UC...
(a friend of Keller's and another important member of the feminist film movement), fondly remembers a Passover dinner that Keller made in this passage from her memoir:
"And the food was great, because Margie was already a fabulous cook: for a rebel girl of that era, she was remarkably versed in the female arts."
Keller first attended Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
, but finished her coursework at the School of 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...
after getting expelled from Tufts for participating in a protest in 1972. She then went on to pursue her master's degree and then her doctorate in Cinema Studies at New York University in 1975. During her years at Tufts and the Art Institute of Chicago, Keller was instructed by American avant-garde filmmakers Saul Levine and 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....
.
Politics
Marjorie Keller was deeply entrenched in the politics of her generation. She was arrested for participating in a protest at the White House against Nixon's price control policies, and she actively demonstrated at the Republican National Convention in 1972. Keller openly supported the issues of welfare reform, labor union rights, and AIDS awareness throughout her life. Although politically active, she only made one expressly political film, Hell No: No Cuts!, which dealt with racism and the welfare system.Feminism in Relation to Keller and Her Films
At the time Keller was making her films, the feminist movementFeminist movement
The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...
of the 1960s and 70's was in full swing. As a result of this movement, feminist film theory was applied to a majority of films made by women in that era. Keller openly rejected the structural rules and regulations based on feminist film theory. In a review of E. Ann Kaplan's 1983 book Women and Film Keller stated that theory "obfuscates women's film making in the name of feminism." Keller refused to work within the confines set up by film theorists, many of whom have never made a film themselves. Because of this ideology, Marjorie Keller's work was shunned by the critical feminist world.
Filmography
Marjorie Keller's work exists in the experimental realm of the lyrical and the "diary" film styles pioneered by Stan BrakhageStan 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....
, Gregory Markopoulos
Gregory Markopoulos
Gregory J. Markopoulos was a Greek-American experimental filmmaker. Born in Toledo, Ohio to Greek immigrant parents, Markopoulos began making 8 mm films at an early age. He attended USC Film School in the late 1940s, and went on to become a co-founder — with Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan...
, and Marie Menken
Marie Menken
Marie Menkevicius was an American experimental filmmaker and socialite.-Early life:The daughter of Catholic-Lithuanian immigrants, she grew up in Brooklyn.-Personal life:...
(all of whom are sited as being big influences. In her films, Keller used themes and images from her own life and experiences. She explored what it was like to be a feminist in the latter half of the twentieth century, in her own way. Children were also an inspiration to her. This can be seen in both her films and her writings.
Marjorie Keller made over twenty-five films in her brief lifetime.
Hell No: No Cuts!, ca. 1972 (25 min.): silent, b&w; 8 mm
Backsection, ca. 1972 (4.5 min.): silent, b&w; 8 mm
History of Art 3939, ca. 1972 (2.5 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Part IV: Green Hill, ca. 1972 (3 min.): sound, color; 8 mm
Turtle, ca. 1972 (2.5 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Untitled, ca. 1972 (7.5 min.): silent, b&w; 8 mm
Pieces of Eight, 1973 (3 min.): silent, b&w; 8 mm
Duck Fuck/Rube in Galena, 1973 (4 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
Swept, 1973 (3 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
The Outer Circle, 1973 (6.75 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
She/Va, 1973 (3 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
Objection, 1974 (18.25 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
Film Notebook: Part 1, 1975 (12.25 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Superimposition (1), 1975 (14.75 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
By Two's & Three's: Women, 1976 (7 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Film Notebook: 1969-76; Part 2, Some of Us in the Mechanical Age, 1977 (27 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Misconception, 1977 (43 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
The Web, 1977 (10 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
On the Verge of an Image of Christmas, 1978 (10.5 min.): silent, color; 8 mm
Ancient Parts/Foreign Parts, 1979 (6 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
Six Windows, 1979 (7 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
Daughters of Chaos, 1980 (20 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
The Fallen World, 1983 (9.5 min.): sound, b&w, color; 16 mm
Lyrics, 1983 (9 min.): sound, color; Super 8
The Answering Furrow, 1985 (27 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
Private Parts, 1988 (12.75 min.): silent, color; 16 mm
Herein, 1991 (35 min.): sound, color; 16 mm
Writings
Keller's dissertation, The Untutored Eye: Childhood in the Films of Cocteau, Cornell and Brakhage was published in 1986. She also published a children's pop-up book that she wrote and illustrated herself titled The Moon on the Porch. At the time of her death, she was working on a book about women experimental filmmakers, which was never completed.Other work
In addition to being a filmmaker, author, activist, and scholar, Keller also served on the board of directors of the Collective for Living Cinema and was the founding editor of their journal, Motion Picture from 1984 to 1987. She was also the head of The Film-Makers' CooperativeThe Film-Makers' Cooperative
The Film-Makers' Cooperative aka The New American Cinema Group is an artist-run, non-profit organization which was founded in 1962 in New York City by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan Brakhage, Gregory Markopoulos, Lloyd Michael Williams and other filmmakers to distribute avant-garde films through...
in New York for a period of time in the late 1980s, and was a professor of film making and film history at the University of Rhode Island
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island is the principal public research university in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Its main campus is located in Kingston. Additional campuses include the Feinstein Campus in Providence, the Narragansett Bay Campus in Narragansett, and the W. Alton Jones Campus in West...
.