Obmaru

1953

Dir. Patricia Marx, 16mm Color Sound 00:04:00

Page Contents

Description

A mystical, surreal abstract film recreating a psychedelic experience produced under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, accompanied by a voodoo score. 'Patricia Marx was born in Queensland, Australia, and was a landscape painter and model there before moving to San Francisco. However, when she arrived, she found herself in the midst of fascinating non-objective painting and filmmaking activity. She was greatly influenced by the work of Harry Smith and Jordan Belson, and changed her own style to non-objective, receiving graphic inspiration from Jungian brain drawings, symbols in the occult sciences, and the design used by Eastern cultures, all of which being important elements in the San Francisco school mystical school of non-objective art.' -- Robert Pike "A Critical Study of the West Coast Experimental Film Movement"
Presented at' 1953 Art in Cinema Festival, IX International Design Conference in Aspen, 1961 Montreal and Melbourne Film Festivals.

Note: In addition to this being an excellent example of the San Francisco style of surreal, mystical abstract animations, this films is also the closest available comparison to the films of Jordan Belson produced during the same period: MAMBO and CARAVAN. These films have have been removed from distribution by Belson.

[Source: Creative Film Society Catalog, 1975]

Other Credits

Improvised music score by Kaye Dunham