SCATTERED REMAINS (US, 1988, James Broughton and Joel Singer)

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SCATTERED REMAINS (US, 1988, James Broughton and Joel Singer)

Described as “a cheerfully death-obsessed tribute to James Broughton’s poetry and filmmaking,” SCATTERED REMAINS is a cinematic performance piece enlivened by its experiments in poetic speech and poetic vision. Joel Singer creates a multi-faceted portrait of Broughton, who acts out his poetic verses within unlikely situations and surprising camera inventions. In the course of this divertissement, Broughton probes the puzzlements of mortality, destiny, and the magic of language.

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DEVOTIONS (US, 1983, James Broughton and Joel Singer)

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DEVOTIONS (US, 1983, James Broughton and Joel Singer)

As described by James Broughton and Joel Singer, “DEVOTIONS is the vision of a world where men have forsaken rivalry and taken up affection, thereby creating a society that relishes a variety of comradely devotions. The film takes delight in observing the friendly things men can do together, from the odd to the rapturous, from the playful to the passionate. These events appear in a series of cameo duets performed by men of all ages and appetites.

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THE PLEASURE GARDEN (US, 1953, James Broughton)

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THE PLEASURE GARDEN (US, 1953, James Broughton)

A joyous musical fantasy celebrating “Love in the Park” and “the victory of the pleasure principle over all prudes and killjoys,” THE PLEASURE GARDEN was made in London and shot in the ruined gardens of the Crystal Palace. Winner of the Prix de Fantasie Poetique at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival, it is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of James Broughton’s early film career.

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FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON (US, 1951, James Broughton)

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FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON (US, 1951, James Broughton)

FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON depicts four poetic variations on the search for love featuring four oddball characters — Game Little Gladys, The Gardener’s Son, Princess Printemps, and The Aging Balletomane — living out their daydreams. Willard Maas dubbed FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON “the best poetry film ever made.”

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MOTHER'S DAY (US, 1948, James Broughton)

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MOTHER'S DAY (US, 1948, James Broughton)

One of the first major works of the San Francisco film movement, MOTHER’S DAY is a painfully humorous recollection of childhood in which a family of singular adults recreate their infancy by behaving as they did when growing up. Peter Kubelka once remarked, “MOTHER’S DAY, for me is one of the great films in film history.”

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