We Can't Go Home Again is an
experimentalExperimental 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...
feature film directed by
Nicholas RayNicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
in collaboration with his film students at SUNY Binghamton. Ray and the students play fictionalized versions of themselves.
The film was the major project of the last decade of Ray's life, and he and his collaborators continuously re-edited it.
Rough versionsIn filmmaking, the rough cut is the second of three stages of offline editing. The rough cut is the first stage in which the film begins to resemble its final product...
of the film were screened at
festivalsA film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
as early as 1972 (including a
CannesThe 26th Cannes Film Festival was held on May 10–25, 1973. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were added: 'Étude et documents' and 'Perspectives du Cinéma Français' ....
premiere in 1973), and the most well-known cut was completed in 1976.
Ray was still making alterations to it at the time of his death in 1979.
Production
In 1971, Nicolas Ray received an invitation to lecture at SUNY Binghamton's Harpur College, which had at the time just established a
film departmentThe term film school is used to describe any educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training are usually incorporated into...
. This led to Ray being offered two-year teaching position at the department, which had been founded by Larry Gottheim and the experimental filmmaker
Ken JacobsKen Jacobs is an American experimental filmmaker. He is the director of Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son , which was admitted to the National Film Registry in 2007, and Star Spangled to Death , a nearly seven hour film consisting largely of found footage.He coined the term paracinema in the early 1970s,...
. Ray became close with his students, and together with them moved into a house off-campus where the group creating a filmmaking
communeCommune may refer to:In society:* Commune, a human community in which resources are shared* Commune , a township or municipality* One of the Communes of France* An Italian Comune...
. There they began work on
We Can't Go Home Again, sharing all filmmaking duties.
The film was made using a wide variety of equipment and shooting formats, including
Super 8-Media and entertainment:* Super 8 mm film, a motion picture film format* Super 8 , a 2011 science fiction film* Super 8 , by Züri West* Super 8 * super8 * Super8, a DJ of the duo Super8 & Tab...
, 16mm, 35mm and a
video synthesizerA Video Synthesizer is a device that electronically creates a video signal.A video synthesizer is able to generate a variety of visual material without camera input through the use of internal video pattern generators, as seen in the stillframes of motion sequences shown above. It can also accept...
which had been donated to the project by
Nam June PaikNam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
.
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