Pollock-Krasner House Announces September Film Series

With Labor Day around the corner, the  in Springs has announced its September film series.

"Artists on Film: Motion and Emotion" will be held on Fridays beginning Sept. 7, and celebrates Jackson Pollock and his role as an action painter. Cinema historian and art critic Marion Wolberg Weis organized the series and will lead discussions after the screenings that all start at 7 p.m.

All of the films, except one, were made between 1935 and 1961.

On the first date, two short films will be shown. Photographer Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg's film "Jackson Pollock" captured Pollock at his home in Springs, now the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. The film includes an original score by avant-garde composer Morton Feldman which are said to complements Pollock's rhythmic gestures. The second film is Robert P. Davis, "Day of the Painter," won an Oscar in 1961 for best short subject in 1961. It is "a whimsical day-in-the-life of an artist who parodies Pollock's painting technique," the description said.

On Sept. 14, surrealist photographer, filmmaker, and sculptor Val Telberg's "Montage Haitien" and "Themes from "Widow's Walk" will be shown, followed by dancer Maya Deren's "At Land," which "also brings her surrealist style to the Amagansett beach when she explores a series of ambiguous events and places," the description said. Telberg's films are a nod to his wife, choreographer Leila Katayen, who joins native dancers in Haiti and "cavorts on the beach in Amagansett."

In "Works of Calder," to be shown on Sept. 21, photographer and graphic artist Herbert Matter is featured working on mobiles in his workshop, "while his motion-centered art is visually related to the changing Montauk environment, where early segments were filmed." Pollock was actually the production assistant.

Lastly, on Sept. 28, six very short films ranging from one to four minutes will be shown. They include Len Lye's "A Colour Box," "Trade Tattoo," "Color Cry," "Rhythm," "Free Radicals," and "Particles in Space," made in 1979. Lye, a photographer, painter and animation pioneer, was friends with Pollock, who influenced his style during the 1940s.

Admission is $5, free for members. No reservations are required.