Betzy Bromberg

10

Split Decision

Jan 01, 1979

Split Decision

1979 15 min 1 vues

This film is a scrambled narrative that illustrates, in soap opera fashion, life of artists in Lower Manhattan and at the same time dramatizes questions about the nature of filmic representation. Split decision is a boxing term used when the judges divide their votes in finding a winner. In this case the fight is between the two heroes of the film who are seen intermittently in a bar, negotiating a pick-up, and at home, breaking up in a domestic quarrel. The fight is also in the telling, between modes of conventional representation and modes of radical representation - between conventional continuity editing, and abstraction created through computer generated grids. The film features an appearance by Carolee Schneemann and digital imaging from before the era of personal computers.

Drama

1

A Darkness Swallowed

Jan 16, 2006

A Darkness Swallowed

2006 78 min 1 vues

“A Darkness Swallowed opens on a pair of faded photographs showing an old dented car, one with a child standing beside it and the other without. Speaking in voice-over, Bromberg references a past event, one that will forever haunt her although it occurred before her birth. The film then sinks downward, dipping below the surface of the rational world to mine the seemingly infinite layers of the past stored within the fleshy entrails, chalky bones, sinewy spider webs and gnarled ligaments of both the body and the Earth. Noises – of clanging metal, bells, heartbeats and jazz music, to name only a few – combine to create a dense sound environment, a seemingly immense, three-dimensional space for contemplation." – Holly Willis, L.A . Weekly

4.2

The Presence

Sep 20, 1992

The Presence

1992 90 min 11 vues

After their plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean after a storm a group of people scramble to a tropical island. At first the place seems home to palm trees and exotic wildlife but on the discovery of a disused military base they find out the island poses a severe threat to them

Horror

1

Ciao Bella or Fuck Me Dead

Jan 01, 1978

Ciao Bella or Fuck Me Dead

1978 9 min 1 vues

A summer-in-the-city travelogue that mixes verité of Lower East Side Bikers, Times Square topless dancers, and Coney Island crowds to achieve an atmosphere of manic exhibitionism and sexual raunch.

1

Tachycardia

Jan 01, 1977

Tachycardia

1977 80 min 1 vues

A feature-length Super-8 autobiographical Film by Betzy Bromberg. "It was personal in terms of the image and soundtrack but I edited it without ever looking at the images – a truly structural film approach and a less than successful experiment." (B.B)

1

Screaming Susan

Jan 01, 1977

Screaming Susan

1977 137 min 1 vues

An animated super-8 horror film made up of still photographs. "My friend Reynolds – also the painter in ‘Petit Mal’ – purposely cut her leg and we poured her blood onto the celluloid surface of ‘Screaming Susan’ to authenticate its horror status. I imagine the film’s surface must be very sticky now. It might not even be projectable!" (B.B)

1

You Can Practically Taste It With Your Eyes

Jan 01, 1977

You Can Practically Taste It With Your Eyes

1977 137 min 1 vues

"A precursor to the style and energy of my early 16mm films, which I tend to think of as a trilogy: comprised of ‘Petit Mal’, ‘Ciao Bella or Fuck me Dead’ [1978] and ‘Soothing the Bruise’ [1980]" (B.B)

9

Me broni ba

Feb 19, 2009

Me broni ba

2009 22 min 2 vues

Me Broni Ba is a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana. The tangled legacy of European colonialism in Africa is evoked through images of women practicing hair braiding on discarded white baby dolls from the West. The film unfolds through a series of vignettes, set against a child's story of migrating from Ghana to the United States. The film uncovers the meaning behind the Akan term of endearment, me broni ba, which means “my white baby.”

Documentary

9

Me broni ba

Feb 19, 2009

Me broni ba

2009 22 min 2 vues

Me Broni Ba is a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana. The tangled legacy of European colonialism in Africa is evoked through images of women practicing hair braiding on discarded white baby dolls from the West. The film unfolds through a series of vignettes, set against a child's story of migrating from Ghana to the United States. The film uncovers the meaning behind the Akan term of endearment, me broni ba, which means “my white baby.”

Documentary

7

水咒

Jan 01, 2007

水咒

2007 42 min 1 vues

"Sandy Ding's WATER SPELL is a bold, abstract journey that takes us into the psychic interior of our very cellular structure... and back. For me, this film is about reincarnation and transformation, on both the spiritual and sub-atomic levels. This is not an easy film, but it is a powerful one."

--Nina Menkes

7

棱镜

Jan 01, 2012

棱镜

2012 20 min 1 vues

A deep colorful abstract film about marginal light leaking through fragment of transparent structures. Within and outside the time temple, stare at mysteries in the depth of details and trapped lights, the observers went into a profound sub consciousness place, in which, the goddess, the temple and the stairs are haunted images, yet vivid in the deep black cosmos.

8.1

Terminator 2 : Le Jugement dernier

Jul 03, 1991

Terminator 2 : Le Jugement dernier

1991 137 min 12922 vues

A deep colorful abstract film about marginal light leaking through fragment of transparent structures. Within and outside the time temple, stare at mysteries in the depth of details and trapped lights, the observers went into a profound sub consciousness place, in which, the goddess, the temple and the stairs are haunted images, yet vivid in the deep black cosmos.

Action

1

Petit Mal

Jan 01, 1977

Petit Mal

1977 18 min 1 vues

"Petit Mal is a kind of double-portrait: both Bromberg and her subject insisting on moving freely, to open up space in an environment that would prefer to constrain and define”. – Vera Brunner-Sung, Millennium Film Journal Vol. No. 67 “Petit Mal is a raw, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink movie: choppy street scenes, a girl clowning, subway sequences enlivened by artless overexposures and split screens. What holds it together is the strong and unobtrusive audio track, a mélange of confessional rapping, nondescript mood music and slyly gratuitous sound effects.” – J. Hoberman, Art Forum

1

Body Politic (God Melts Bad Meat)

Jan 01, 1988

Body Politic (God Melts Bad Meat)

1988 40 min 1 vues

“The body, culture and nature are also at stake in Body Politic, a film that goes to a hospital operating room, research laboratories and a family picnic to outline the issues raised by genetic experimentation. With her typical serious humor, Bromberg explores both the claims of science (we can improve human life) and the claims of religion (God made perfect beings) and implicitly asks the question, “How do we know when we’ve gone too far?’…There’s no voice-over and the argument is made by an athletic juxtaposition of imagery and testimony.” – Helen Knode, L.A. Weekly

5

Az iz

Jan 01, 1983

Az iz

1983 37 min 1 vues

Sensuously dark and foreboding, Az Iz rouses an ancient and atavistic trance. – Kathleen Brennan-Waits In Az Iz, Bromberg builds what might be considered a jazz opera – it's all saxophone riffs, repetition and fragments, but swells to epic proportions, essaying notions of origins and archetypes. The deepest blues highlight the sky behind three people in the mountains, and later, black-and-white images of twisted and torqued trees resonate with all the mystical glory of Being. Az Iz, with its sense of grandeur and beauty, is downright breathtaking, and the effect is sublime. – Holly Willis, IFilm

1

Voluptuous Sleep

Oct 08, 2011

Voluptuous Sleep

2011 95 min 1 vues

“Betzy Bromberg’s Voluptuous Sleep is a mesmerizing two-part 16mm meditation on the nuances of light, sound and feeling as evoked through the poetic artifices of cinema. Bromberg’s close-up lens becomes a tool of infinite discovery that reveals as much about our bodily sensations as it does the natural world. Combined with intricate and perfectly matched soundtracks, Voluptuous Sleep is a rapturous, re-centring antidote to the fragmentation of modern life and offers a new experience of cinematic time and memory. It is also an emotional tour de force.” -Steve Anker, Redcat

1

Marasmus

Jan 01, 1981

Marasmus

1981 24 min 1 vues

“Although the title refers to a condition of acute malnutrition in which a child is unable to assimilate food, the film is a robust and sumptuous offering. This is no rough-edged, craft-resistant effort. Rather it is infused with a seductive glamour.” –Janis Crystal Lipzin, ARTWEEK

1

Soothing the Bruise

Jan 01, 1980

Soothing the Bruise

1980 21 min 1 vues

“A subjective assault, a kind of found cinema, in which the pieces of existence, the pablum pop of Top 40 radio, mix effortlessly with thermonuclear techno-jargon, and stoned-out kids camping around in the buff co-exist in a restless uneasy mix with Times Square strip shows, neon effluvia, lugubrious country-western ballads and Bromberg’s own visceral polemics.” –Brian Lambert, TWIN CITIES READER

1

Divinity Gratis

Jan 16, 1997

Divinity Gratis

1997 58 min 1 vues

"DIVINITY GRATIS explores time and space, starting at the beginning of the world, with molten rock and water in sequences that are exquisite in their sensuousness. Bromberg’s ability to meld ideas and images is perhaps best exemplified in this work, which is truly breathtaking in its conceptual sweep. One line seems to unify the film – a voice repeats on the soundtrack, ‘A girl, blind from birth, saw the flash.’ The flash references an atomic blast, and thus links the film’s beginning section, which is all about origins, and the film’s suggestion of apocalypse, death and the infinite sweep of time.” –Holly Willis, LA WEEKLY

1

Divinity Gratis

Jan 16, 1997

Divinity Gratis

1997 58 min 1 vues

"DIVINITY GRATIS explores time and space, starting at the beginning of the world, with molten rock and water in sequences that are exquisite in their sensuousness. Bromberg’s ability to meld ideas and images is perhaps best exemplified in this work, which is truly breathtaking in its conceptual sweep. One line seems to unify the film – a voice repeats on the soundtrack, ‘A girl, blind from birth, saw the flash.’ The flash references an atomic blast, and thus links the film’s beginning section, which is all about origins, and the film’s suggestion of apocalypse, death and the infinite sweep of time.” –Holly Willis, LA WEEKLY

6

Glide of Transparency

Dec 05, 2016

Glide of Transparency

2016 89 min 1 vues

“I am interested in making films that explore intimate places of the interior. For me, the combination of visual and aural abstraction is sublime, a means of forging pathways without a path, journeys devoid of compass bearings, invoking mysterious and unearthly transports. I am interested in making work that has no points of reference, where scale replaces structure and time is experienced rather than counted. Glide of Transparency is a film in three movements, an exploration of color and light. Ultimately, it is a film about love and transcendence.” (bb)

1

Divinity Gratis

Jan 16, 1997

Divinity Gratis

1997 58 min 1 vues

"DIVINITY GRATIS explores time and space, starting at the beginning of the world, with molten rock and water in sequences that are exquisite in their sensuousness. Bromberg’s ability to meld ideas and images is perhaps best exemplified in this work, which is truly breathtaking in its conceptual sweep. One line seems to unify the film – a voice repeats on the soundtrack, ‘A girl, blind from birth, saw the flash.’ The flash references an atomic blast, and thus links the film’s beginning section, which is all about origins, and the film’s suggestion of apocalypse, death and the infinite sweep of time.” –Holly Willis, LA WEEKLY