''Schmeerguntz'' is a 1965 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 ...

Gunvor Nelson Swedish artist Gunvor Grundel Nelson was born in 1931 in Kristinehamn, Sweden, where she now resides. She has worked as an experimental filmmaker since the 1960s. Some of her most widely known works were created while she lived in the Bay Area in ...

and Dorothy Wiley. It is a

collage film Collage film is a style of film created by juxtaposing found footage from disparate sources. The term has also been applied to the physical collaging of materials onto film stock. Surrealist roots The surrealist movement played a critical role ...

that contrasts messy depictions of domestic life with the pristine images of women found in media and advertising. The film was an inspiration for the

Miss America protest The Miss America protest was a demonstration held at the Miss America 1969 contest on September 7, 1968, attended by about 200 feminists and civil rights advocates. The feminist protest was organized by New York Radical Women and included putting ...

that happened in 1968.

Production

Photography

Nelson and Wiley decided to make a film before they had a subject in mind. Nelson had the idea while looking at the sink in her house and thinking about the contrast between how she actually spent her time and how images in media suggested people spend their time. Neither had worked with a camera before, so Nelson's husband

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

spent half an hour showing them how to operate one. They shot footage of dirty or grimy objects around the house. As they were filming, they came to observe a contrast between the unpleasantness of their subjects and the appeal of seeing them documented visually. Wiley was pregnant while they were shooting, and ''Schmeerguntz'' shows her vomiting from

morning sickness Morning sickness, also called nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP), is a symptom of pregnancy that involves nausea or vomiting. Despite the name, nausea or vomiting can occur at any time during the day. Typically the symptoms occur between th ...

, struggling to fit into a

garter belt A garter is an article of clothing comprising a narrow band of fabric fastened about the leg to keep up stockings. In the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, they were tied just below the knee, where the leg is most slender, to keep the stocking f ...

, and wiping feces from her infant's behind.

Post-production

Nelson and Wiley had their footage developed and began editing ''Schmeerguntz''. Since this was their first time working on a film, they did not provide any instructions to the lab for timing the film or other work. Their editing style consisted of rapid

montage Montage may refer to: Arts and entertainment Filmmaking and films * Montage (filmmaking), a technique in film editing * ''Montage'' (2013 film), a South Korean film Music * Montage (music), or sound collage * ''Montage'' (Block B EP), 2017 ...

that combines their original footage with images from TV, movies, newsreels, and photo animations. The soundtrack is similarly busy, incorporating music, dialogue, and

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...

narration. Nelson and Wiley cut between the different sources without any

sound mixing Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aesthetic, ...

. The film's title comes from her a nonsensical Germanic-sounding language Nelson's father used. In it, ''schmeerguntz'' referred to a sandwich.

Reception and legacy

''Schmeerguntz'' premiered on New Year's Eve 1965 in

Sausalito, California Sausalito (Spanish language, Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, California, Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, California ...

. It screened at the 1966

Ann Arbor Film Festival The Ann Arbor Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Ann Arbor in the U.S. state of Michigan. Established in 1963, it is the fourth-oldest film festival in North America (after the Yorkton Film Festival, 1947; Columbus International Film ...

, where it won first prize. The

San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in in ...

also screened it and gave it an award. The 1977

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado during Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 49th edition took place on September 2 -6, 2022. History First held on 30 August 1974, th ...

included it in a program called "The Erotic Woman". The film was largely ignored by contemporary film critics. The only review from the time of its release was by

Ernest Callenbach Ernest Callenbach (April 3, 1929 – April 16, 2012) was an American author, film critic, editor, and simple living adherent. He became famous due to his internationally successful semi-utopian novel ''Ecotopia'' (1975). Life and work Born i ...

, who wrote in ''

Film Quarterly ''Film Quarterly'', a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including d ...

'' that "''Schmeerguntz'' is one long raucous belch in the face of the American Home…brash enough, brazen enough, and funny enough to purge the soul of every harried American married woman."

Carol Hanisch Carol Hanisch (born 1942) is a radical feminist activist. She was an important member of New York Radical Women and Redstockings. She is best known for popularizing the phrase "the personal is political" in a 1970 essay of the same name.https:/ ...

and members of

New York Radical Women New York Radical Women (NYRW) was an early second-wave radical feminist group that existed from 1967 to 1969. They drew nationwide media attention when they unfurled a banner inside the 1968 Miss America pageant displaying the words "Women' ...

saw the film and had the idea to target a beauty pageant. Their idea was realized as the Miss America protest of 1968.

References

External links

''Schmeerguntz''
at

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. ...

* {{IMDb title, 2594044 1960s American films 1960s avant-garde and experimental films 1960s English-language films 1960s feminist films 1965 directorial debut films 1965 short films 1965 films American short films Collage film Films directed by Gunvor Nelson Films shot in San Francisco Non-narrative films