Known For
Directing
Born
Oct 02, 1919
Died
Sep 23, 1997
Place of Birth
New York City, New York, USA
Credits
66 titles
Shirley Clarke
Biography
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/
Known For
Filmography
Home Movies #20: Dance Tests
Director
Rose and the Players – Part 2
Director
A Short Lecture and Demonstration on the Evolution of Ragtime as Presented by Jelly Roll Morton
Director
Decroux Film
Director
Outtakes for 'In Paris Parks'
Director
Bullfight: The C and D Rolls
Director
Rose and the Players – Part 1
Director
Fear Flight
Director
This Is Not 'In Paris Parks'
Director
Shirley Clarke: The Artist with the Lens
Self (archival footage)
Alien Blood
second alien mother / MIB soldier
Happy Birthday to John
Self
Birth of a Nation
Self
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Self (archive footage)
Ornette: Made in America
Director
As Kineastas
Ornette Coleman: A Jazz Video Game
Director
Tongues
Director
Savage/Love
Director
A Visual Diary
Director
The Beats: An Existential Comedy
The Modnar Machine
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Mysterium
Director
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: One Two Three
Director
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Initiation
Director
Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: Trans
Director
24 Frames per Second
Director
Sex Stars
Self
Carl Lee on Joe Franklin Show
Director
Morris at Ornette's Art Show
Director
Yoko and John Party
Director
Up Your Legs Forever
Self - Legs(uncredited)
Makeup Magic
Director
Ricky Leacock Visit, evening, April 19, 1971
Director
Ricky Leacock Visit, daytime, April 19, 1971
Director
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 17, 1971
Director
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971
Director
The Arrest
Director
Rome Is Burning: Portrait of Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke
Lions Love
Shirley
Carl Lee, Max and Friends at the Hotel Chelsea
Director
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Self
Underground New York
Self
Portrait of Jason
Self - Interviewer (voice)
For Life, Against the War
Director
Butterfly
Director
Bill's Hat
Galaxie
Self
The Cool World
Director
Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World
Director