Known For
Directing
Born
Jan 30, 1934
Place of Birth
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Credits
33 titles
Raphael Montañez Ortíz
Biography
Raphael Montañez Ortíz (b. 1934, New York) is a multidisciplinary artist perhaps best known for his radical performances of the 1960s as part of the Destructivist movement which he helped to articulate. Not many know that he is also a pioneer of found footage cinema who deserves greater recognition within the American filmic avant-garde. Starting in 1957, he produced a number of singular works by subjecting 16mm prints of commercially- or institutionally-produced films to a cut-up method inspired by Yaqui shamanic practices, a kind of ritualistic chance operation intended to break down their structure and thoroughly undermine their discursive power. In the mid-1980s, Montañez Ortiz continued his critical deconstructions of commercial cinema, this time exploring a novel format: the laser disc. Having created a special interactive setup at the computer lab of Rutgers University, the artist transformed micro-moments from classic films into looping, stuttering choreographies that, through obsessive repetition, reveal the tacit gestualities and subconscious inner dynamics of these seemingly innocent Hollywood scenes.
Known For
Filmography
Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy
Couch Destruction: Angel Release
Piano Destruction Concert: Dada con Mama
Busy Bodies
Director
It's Coming Up
Director
The Conversation
Director
Introspective: Ortiz Art-Work Late 1950s - Late 1980s
Director
Ring Ring Rag Time
Director
That's Too Much
Director
Piano Destruction Concert: Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall
Director
Dance Number 22
Director
Our Thoughts Are Made of Clay: The Horsewomyn of the Apocalypse
Editor
Here's Looking At You Kid
Director
Gonna Get Me a Gal
Director
If You Don't Want It Anymore
Director
Man Has Man Has Always
Director
Pushann Pushann
Director
Good and Evil
Director
I Spent My Last Breathe At Thee
Director
Couplett
Director
Stop Stop Stop Stop
Director
The First Born Female Child
Director
You Bust Your Bunns
Director
Welcome
Director
The Kiss
Editor
Beach Umbrella
Director
Dance Number
Director
What Is This
Editor
Newsreel
Editor
Cowboy and "Indian" Film
Director
Henny Penny: The Sky Is Falling
Editor
Golf
Director
Ritual Destruction of "Follow Through"
Director