In the Spring of 2016 I presented an evening of performance experiments built from the work of experimental filmmakers titled 4 Films as part of the Marion Kleinau Theatre Performance Studies Season. The show included a pre-show guest lecture by film scholar Dr. Arlin Haemstra, author of The Celestial Splice (1973). The films were rear-projected onto a screen that covered the stage-right half of the performance space. Each of the four films was screened simultaneously with a prepared live performance. At the end of the evening, the elderly Dr. Haemstra spontaneously burst into song, paying tribute to the recently deceased David Bowie with his rendition of “Space Oddity.” The four films and their performance collaborators were presented as follows:

Film #1: Le retour a la raison (Return to Reason) 1923—Man Ray
J. J. Ceniceros



Film #2: Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) 1929— Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
Craig Gingrich-Philbrook



Film #3: At Land 1944—Maya Deren
Lindsay Greer (with Alex Lockwood & Elise Wheaton)



Film #4: Window Water Baby Moving 1958—By Brakhage
Elise Wheaton & Matt Wickey



The video presented here is an “overlay” of the fourth film and performance from April 2nd of 2016. Window Water Baby Moving is available for viewing online, and through the Brakhage anthology DVD’s via Criterion. If you have not seen the film I suggest that you view the original short film before watching it with the overlay of our performance accompaniment. The film is an intimate and detailed vision of Jane Brakhage giving birth to their first child, Myrrena. Be warned, it is difficult to watch for some, but I hope you embrace the opportunity to see it with the same brave spirit that Stan and Jane showed in making it in 1958.

We developed this movement/dance piece to accompany Window Water Baby Moving through collaboration, through breaking down the elements and rhythms of the film, through meditating on Jane and Stan and their words. We adapted Boal’s sculpting techniques to the process, built a few borders for improvisation, and listened to each other as carefully as we could. Elise and Matt: I adore you, and I cherish the memory of collaborating on this piece. It is one of my favorite things. .

--Jason Hedrick

“By Brakhage” should be understood to mean “by way of Stan and Jane Brakhage.” It is coming to mean: “by way of Stan and Jane and the children of Brakhage” because all the discoveries which used to pass only through the instrument of myself are coming to pass through the sensibilities of those I love. Someday, it will extend thru to those I can only imagine loving.

          --Brakhage (1963)


Works Cited

Brakhage. "Metaphors on Vision." Film Culture, 1963. Print.

Haemstra, Arlin. The Celestial Splice. Ann Arbor: Wares-Bern Press, 1973. Print.

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Jason Hedrick is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Communication Studies and Technical Director of the Marion Kleinau Theatre at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He was co-director of the Greylight Theatre Collective in the late 90’s, where he produced The Big Jason Hedrick’s Tennessee Williams’ “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof Show”: The Play That Never Was, and from 2001 to 2011 was the director of the Dr. Jerry Weston Mathis Theatre at Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon, IL. He is a writer, performer and director whose work combines an interest in performance, film, and media studies. Recent Kleinau productions include: The Final Chapter of Nic Carter: The Price (2014), 4 Films (2016), and Vanya on the Plains (2017). His directorial work on Anna Wilcoxen’s In Service of Venus was featured at the Strawdog Theater as part of the Chicago Theater Marathon in the summer of 2017. He is currently writing a play titled Brigitte Answers the Door about silent film actor Brigitte Helm.