Masters of the Avantgarde: Out of my Skull

Out of my Skull

Louis van Gasteren, 1965, 15 min.Experimental film with stroboscopic effects and the sound surrounding the audience. Louis van Gasteren made this film when he was visiting professor at the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University at the invitation of Robert Gardner. The film is introduced by Patricia Pisters, professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam, who is working on a book about Van Gasteren. She will be interviewing the filmmaker following the screening of his film.

Chappaqua

Conrad Rooks, 1966, 82 min.While researching Louis van Gasteren”s personal archive for her book on his work, Pisters came across documentation about the cult film Chappaqua, starring William Burroughs (of all people) as the medical director of a rehab clinic. Chappaqua was directed by Conrad Rooks, whose own experiences with drug addiction formed the basis for this film.

In addition to Burroughs” appearance there are also cameo performances by Swami Satchidananda, Allen Ginsberg, Moondog, Ornette Coleman, The Fugs and Ravi Shankar. Rooks had asked Ornette Coleman to write the music for the film, but the score he came up with was so far out that Rooks felt it was unusable, asking Ravi Shankar instead to provide new music. Coleman”s original score was independently released as the Chappaqua Suite, and used some forty years later in All Magic Sands (Andrew Lampert, 2013, 80”)