Director
Shirley Clarke
107 years · New York City, New York, USA · 41 films
A major figure of the American avant garde, Shirley Brimberg Clarke (1919-1997) was born into privilege as the daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants who made their fortune in manufacturing. Rebelling against a repressive bourgeois upbringing, Clarke turned first to dance, and later film and video, to express her distinctive vision of the world. Moving freely across genres and media throughout her career (and often within a single work), Clarke’s cinema explores the porous boundaries between narrative and documentary filmmaking, and film and other media, such as painting, dance, performance and video. Her 1960s features The Connection (1961), The Cool World (1963) and Portrait of Jason (1967), for which she is arguably best remembered, address issues of urban alienation, poverty, addiction and racism, focusing on lives lived at the margins of American society. Fearless in both her personal and creative life, Clarke produced a body of work that is as formally innovative as it is rooted in social protest. Clarke initially trained as a dancer, immersing herself in New York’s vibrant post-war avant-garde dance scene. Although her dance career never quite earned her the critical acclaim she’d hoped for, it had a lasting impact on her subsequent filmmaking and video work, informing an interest in how movement is recorded formally, while introducing her to key avant-garde dancers and choreographers. Source: https://denniscooperblog.com/shirley-clarke-day-2/
Best known for
Lions Love
1969 · Shirley
On Criterion Channel
Portrait of Jason
1967 · Self - Interviewer (voice), Director
On OVID
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968 · Self
On Kanopy
The Connection
1962 · Director, Editor
On TCM
The Cool World
1964 · Director, Writer
Bridges-Go-Round 1
1958 · Director, Cinematography
On Criterion Channel
Filmography 41
Fear Flight
2016 · Director
A Short Lecture and Demonstration on the Evolution of Ragtime as Presented by Jelly Roll Morton
2016 · Director
Home Movies #20: Dance Tests
2016 · Director
Shirley Clarke: The Artist with the Lens
2016 · Self (archival footage)
Alien Blood
1999 · second alien mother / MIB soldier
On Tubi TV
Happy Birthday to John
1997 · Self
Birth of a Nation
1997 · Self
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986 · Self (archive footage)
On DocAlliance Films
Ornette: Made in America
1986 · Director, Editor
On OVID
As Kineastas
1986 · Actor
Savage/Love
1981 · Director
On Criterion Channel
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Trans
1978 · Director
On Criterion Channel
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: One Two Three
1978 · Director
On Criterion Channel
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Initiation
1978 · Director
On Criterion Channel
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Mysterium
1978 · Director
On Criterion Channel
24 Frames per Second
1977 · Director
On Criterion Channel
Sex Stars
1976 · Self
Up Your Legs Forever
1971 · Self - Legs(uncredited)
Rome Is Burning: Portrait of Shirley Clarke
1970 · Shirley Clarke
Lions Love
1969 · Shirley
On Criterion Channel
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968 · Self
On Kanopy
Underground New York
1968 · Self
Portrait of Jason
1967 · Self - Interviewer (voice), Director
On OVID
For Life, Against the War
1967 · Director