Robert Nelson Trailers
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Born in 1930 to a family of Swedish immigrants, Robert Nelson studied painting until changing his focus to concentrate on filmmaking in the early 1960s. Strong influences included the Bay Area bohemian Beat scene and the improvisatory theatre of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, with which he would ultimately collaborate on several films. His marriage to experimental filmmaker Gunvor Nelson also helped jumpstart his early filmmaking impulse and instigated many films.
Most Popular Robert Nelson Trailers
Total trailers found: 31
01 March 1963
"Dada-inspired performance in which absurd actions take place in an environment of strange symbols and graphic forms.
05 June 1974
A ‘film wake’. Though celebratory in mood, it has a mournful subtext… death and dying. We dedicated it to Dr.
08 April 1973
“When Picasso died I wanted to make the first post-mortem documentary, as I knew would happen anyway, and cheaply.
01 January 1967
Nelson sets minimal, repetitive imagery against a looping recording of his daughter Oona, which goes gradually from sweet to curious to mysterious to cacophonous as the loops overlap each other.
01 January 1967
A kinetic film sketch designed to involve the viewers muscles. The rocky seaside cliffs near Stinson Beach, California, hold the wrecked carcass of a #52 pickup that is a rusting monument to Hot Leatherette.
13 August 1965
Commissioned by the San Francisco Mime Troupe as a short to be screened during intermission for its rather infamous 1965 Minstrel Show (Civil Rights from the Cracker Barrel), which assaulted racial stereotypes by wildly exaggerating them.
11 March 1970
A continuous dissolve of 87 male and female nudes. "The film's fascination lies with the suspense of that magic moment, halfway between two persons, when the dissolve technique produces composite figures, oftentimes hermaphroditic, that inspires awe for the mystery of the human form.
01 January 1967
The Off-Handed Jape is an afternoon’s lark made by Nelson and his artist friend William Wiley. The two men perform whimsical actions and poses for the camera, then recontextualize this imagery by improvising their own commentary on the action at a later time.
22 March 1998
Hauling Toto Big is a dense and ecstatic work of fragmented narratives, dream states, chaos and serenity… a culmination of Nelson’s cinematic interests.
05 May 1965
A film by Robert Nelson
12 March 1970
[1970/2003, color, 7.5 min] Experimental short film preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.
05 May 1965
A film by Robert Nelson
11 November 1971
A feature-length documentary directed by Dorothy Wiley and Gunvor Nelson about five working San Francisco artists: William T.
13 August 1967
“In their starkly minimal film, The Awful Backlash, directors Robert Nelson and William Allan, focus solely on a pair of hands as they begin to unravel what appears to be a tangled fishing line.
06 June 1967
A film by Robert Nelson
13 April 1967
Shooting in 1966 without script, story, or any narrative preconception, Nelson and Wiley created a masterwork of ‘60s independent cinema.
07 July 1967
A film by Robert Nelson
13 August 1965
Recurrent themes of violence, sex and TV commercials. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004.
06 June 1965
A film by Robert Nelson
01 January 1976
The first part of what was intended to be a three-part experimental travelog for Nelson’s home state of California, this film covers the Mexican border, Death Valley, and Hollywood/Los Angeles.
07 July 1967
A film by Robert Nelson
01 January 1969
A black-and-white travel journal, in which the themes of memories and their relationship to the past suddenly catch up and rush away from us.
28 December 1967
A chaotic film featuring the Grateful Dead. The songs that are included are Sitting on Top of the World, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Cold Rain and Snow, and something that might be Viola Lee Blues.
20 March 1970
"Even when we know the game is an illusion, the experience of Bleu Shut is entirely a pleasure: the ‘game’ is fun, the Nelson/Wiley debates, infectiously funny; and Nelson’s choice of imagery, quirky and amusing.
16 February 1982
Experimental filmmaker Robert Nelson brings his characteristic wit to this restaging of the famous “play rehearsal” scene from Hamlet, breaking down the barriers between film, theatre, performance, and creation.
01 January 1968
Made by Robert Nelson and William Allan in cooperation with KQED-TV San Francisco. Starring an ensemble cast that includes Bill Gourley, Bruce Nauman, Nelson, Allan, and a host of others.
01 January 1978
"I'm definitely not interested in passing along intellectual information about California. There's plenty of that everywhere.
01 January 1998
"Special Warning is like a poem more than a narrative or story. It suggests states of isolation, barrenness, sexual guilt and sin, but even these punishing afflictions can have a humorous aspect when accompanied by horns.
01 January 1988
"Nelson experiments with presenting his viewer with the two sides of every subject in a dense visual masterwork of stark superimpositions.
01 January 1988
George visits underground filmmaker Robert Nelson in Milwaukee, and they brave the cold on Lake Michigan.
05 May 1965
A film by Robert Nelson. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2011.
