Ernie Gehr (born 1941)Manohla Dargis

''The New York Times'', November 11, 2011. Retrieved 2013-05-27. is an American

experimental 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 closely associated with the

Structural film Structural film was an avant-garde experimental film movement prominent in the United States in the 1960s and which developed into the Structural/materialist films in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Overview The term was coined by P. Adams Sitn ...

movement of the 1970s. A self-taught artist, Gehr was inspired to begin making films in the 1960s after chancing upon a screening of a

Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a large ...

film. Gehr's film ''

Serene Velocity ''Serene Velocity'' is a 1970 American experimental short film directed by Ernie Gehr. Gehr filmed it in the basement hallway of a Binghamton University academic building, using a static camera position and changing only the focal length of the ...

'' (1970) has been selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...

. Gehr served as faculty at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described Gehr's work as "abstract, beautiful, mysterious, invigorating, utopian" saying he had "embraced heModernist cry, shunning mainstream narrative to make films in which bubbling grain, streaks of color and pulses of light are the main attraction." His film ''Essex Street Quartet'' (2004) was included in the exhibition "The Long Run" at

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the ...

, New York, from November 11, 2017 to November 4, 2018. His films are distributed by

Canyon Cinema Canyon Cinema is an American nonprofit organization for distributing independent, avant-garde, and artist-made films. After starting in the 1960s as an exhibition program, it grew to include a nationwide newsletter and a distribution cooperative. ...

in San Francisco.

Filmography

*''Morning'' (1968) *''Wait'' (1968) *''Reverberation'' (1969) *''Transparency'' (1969) *''Field'' (1970) *''

'' (1970) *''Still'' (1969–1971) *''Shift'' (1972–1974) *''Eureka'' (1974) *''Table'' (1976) *''Untitled'' (1977) *''Mirage'' (1981) *''Untitled: Part One'' (1981) *''Signal - Germany on the Air'' (1982–1985) *''

Side/Walk/Shuttle ''Side/Walk/Shuttle'' is a 1991 American avant-garde film directed by Ernie Gehr. It shows downtown San Francisco as seen at different angles from a moving elevator. Description The film's images are composed of 25 shots, with an average durati ...

'' (1991) *''Rear Window'' (1986/1991) *''This Side of Paradise'' (1991) *''For Daniel'' (1997) *''Glider'' (2001) *''Precarious Garden'' (2004) *''The Morse Code Operator/The Monkey Wrench'' (2006) *''Before The Olympics'' (2006) *''Whispers'' (2008) *''New York Lantern'' (2008)

References

External links

Interview with Ernie Gehr
MUBI
Ernie Gehr
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gehr, Ernie 1941 births American experimental filmmakers Living people San Francisco Art Institute faculty Artists from Milwaukee