Free Exploratorium Film Night “Indelible Hallucinations” | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

By the time the Tom DeWitt graduated from San Francisco State in 1968, two of his short experimental films were in the Museum of Modern Art. He then went on to develop ever-more sophisticated media to express his life story in hallucinatory visions. Join this night for a screening of several works he’s selected for this retrospective.

During this career, his innovations have surpassed state-of-the-art technologies. Today his 1977 “Pantomation” is called “motion capture” and is commonly used in computer animation. In 1987 he began to receive patents.

For this program, Tom has selected four works contemporaneous with his three years in San Francisco, short films that presaged the emergence of music videos. First he compares his AtmosFear to Bruce Baillie’s Castro Street (both 1966). Then he pairs Pat O’Neill’s 7362 with OffOn (both 1967), made in collaboration with Scott Bartlett.

Back in New York, in 1981 Tom collaborated with Vibeke Sorensen and Dean Winkler to produce Tempest and Voyage. Their group, WTV, was commissioned by the Jimi Hendrix Estate to produce Little Wing (1982). Tom went on to create computer graphics for 2000 Light Years from Home and Paint It Black (1990), music videos commissioned by the Rolling Stones and directed by Gerald Marks. These videos are in Pulfrich 3-D, as is Forevermore (1996), made for musicians, Happy Rhodes and Kevin Bartlett. 3-D glasses will be provided.

Featuring:

• AtmosFear (Tom DeWitt, 1966, 6 min., 16mm)
• Castro Street (Bruce Baillie, 1966, 9 min., 16mm).
• 7362 (Pat O’Neill, 1967, 10 min., 16mm)
• OffOn (Scott Bartlett, Tom DeWitt, others, 1967, 9 min., 16mm)
• Little Wing (WTV (Tom DeWitt, Vibeke Sorensen, Dean Winkler), 1982, 4 min., video)
• Tempest (WTV 1981, 4 min., video)
• Voyage (WTV, 1981, 8 min., video)
• 2000 Light Years from Home (Gerald Marks, 1990, 5 min., 3D video)
• Paint it Black (Gerald Marks, 1990, 4 min., 3D video)
• Forevermore (Thomas DeWitt Ditto, 1996, 5 min., 3D video)

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.