Andrew Noren (1943–May 2, 2015) was an American
avant-garde film
Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...
maker.
Biography
Andrew Noren was born 1943 in
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...
and grew up in Southern California.
Noren moved to New York in the mid 1960s, where he worked as an editor at
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
. Through his job, he was able to access a
Bolex
Bolex International S. A. is a Swiss manufacturer of motion picture cameras based in Yverdon located in Canton of Vaud. The most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. Originally Bol, the company was founded by ...
16 mm
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...
camera, with which he began making films. His first work, ''A Change of Heart'', was a narrative feature film inspired by
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Franà ...
's ''
Breathless''. After the film's premiere, Noren met
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas (; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwi ...
through a co-worker. He started working at
the Film-Makers' Cooperative
The Film-Makers' Cooperative a.k.a. legal name The New American Cinema Group, Inc. is an artist-run, non-profit organization incorporated in July 1961 in New York City by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan Brakhage, Lionel Rogosin, Gregory Markopoul ...
, where he became connected to local avant-garde filmmakers.
Noren began making more experimental works toying with different documentary approaches. For ''Say Nothing'', he recorded a single 30-minute shot in which he administers a
screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a came ...
. Inspired by the
Lumière brothers
Lumière is French for 'light'.
Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to:
*Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People
*Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV
* Institut Lumière, a ...
, his film ''The New York Miseries'' was a collection of three-minute takes documenting his own life. It, along with several other works from Noren's early period, were accidentally destroyed in 1970 and are now
lost films
A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress.
Conditions
During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...
.
Noren's next film ''Huge Pupils'' was the first entry in ''The Adventures of the Exquisite Corpse'', an ongoing film cycle continued growing for the rest of his career. The cycle came to include nine films: ''Huge Pupils'', ''False Pretenses'', ''The Phantom Enthusiast'', ''Charmed Particles'', ''The Lighted Field'', ''Imaginary Light'', ''Time Being'', ''Free to Go (Interlude)'', and ''Aberration of Starlight''.
In 1972 Noren began working at the Sherman Grinberg Film Library as a researcher and licensing agent for archived stock footage and newsreels. After Sherman Grinberg went out of business in 1998, Noren founded the Research Source, a visual research and copyright clearance company.
Noren died of lung cancer in 2015.
Filmography
* ''A Change of Heart'' (1965)
* ''Say Nothing'' (1965)
* ''The New York Miseries'' (1966)
* ''Bathing'' (1967)
* ''The Wind Variations'' (1968)
* ''Huge Pupils'' (1968)
* ''False Pretenses'' (1974)
* ''The Phantom Enthusiast'' (1975)
* ''Charmed Particles'' (1978)
* ''The Lighted Field'' (1987)
* ''Imaginary Light'' (1994)
* ''Time Being'' (2001)
* ''Free to Go (Interlude)'' (2003)
* ''Aberration of Starlight'' (2008)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noren, Andrew
1943 births
2015 deaths
American experimental filmmakers
People from Santa Fe, New Mexico