Amy Halpern

Amy Halpern

Birth : , New York City, New York, USA

Death : 2022-08-17

History

Amy Halpern was the maker of nearly forty short films, almost all in 16mm, and of the feature film FALLING LESSONS (1991).  Halpern was born and raised in New York City and lived and worked in Los Angeles for more than 40 years. After completing a suite of 12 new films in June 2022 and premiering them at a festival in Spain, Halpern suddenly contracted severe leukaemia (AML) and died 6 weeks later.

Profile

Amy Halpern

Movies

My Dear Evaporant,
Director
What can I say about a private letter?
I Tremble / 8:46
Director
An opera in the public domain. A film about duration. “I tremble for my country when I think that god is just.” (Thomas Jefferson)
VERGE for my sisters
Director
A horizon like a blade.  Consistent across landscapes in California – ocean to desert and back to the ocean.
Emit a Beam, See a Light
Director
Statement and demonstration.
Hula
Director
Abstract music notation and something very obvious.
4 Fingers, 5 Toes
Director
Endangered animals on an endangered medium. A heartbeat 4/4 Slow cinema, with a sex scene.
Chabrot
Director
A private toast. Inspired by a random encounter with this Wikipedia entry, while looking up “Chabrol, Claude” for a full listing of his films: “Faire chabrot or faire chabròl is an ancient Occitanian custom whereby at the end of a or broth, one adds red wine to the bowl to dilute the remnants and brings it to the lips to drink in big gulps.” – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ginko Yellow
Director
with Indigo Cohan.
Fire Belly
Director
Ancient alchemists believed that salamanders can be reborn from fire, like the phoenix or Christ. They do not survive fire, nor extreme dryness. And they cannot be resurrected after burning. (Amy Halpern)
Ma Sewing
Director
My mother, now 94. Filmed more than 30 years ago. (Amy Halpern)
Birds in the Window
Director
“Trying to get in, trying to get out. Encounters from the plague year.”
Unowned Luxuries #3
Director
Newt Leaders
Director
Presents the physically necessary film “leaders”; at the front and back end of movies as aesthetic in themselves. (Amy Halpern)
Jane, Looking
Director
A portrait of Jane Wodening (Brakhage). “A person who was the subject of the camera for many years looks back at us with an interrogating stare.” (Amy Halpern)
Slow Fireworks
Director
My Mink (Unowned Luxuries #2)
Director
#27
Director
Vezelay Curtain
Director
The Deer's Blessing
Director
Newt Pauses
Director
My Diamond
Director
Maya Double-Bottomed Bowl
Director
Three Minute Hells
Director
with Arwa Ibrahim 1 - Detention 2 - Hollywood Hills 3 - Reptile 4 - Bestiary 5 - Abstract and Concrete 6 - Doorway Occupation 7 - Sideways
Cheshire Smile
Director
with Adnan Ibrahim "Stand up and use your ears like a man" - Charles Ives
Palm Down
Director
Two palindromes. One resurrection. No happy ending.
Injury On A Theme
Director
A short sweet film concerning torture. For Lynda Gudde.
By Halves
Director
By Halves uses appropriated footage from rejected 35mm prints that were cut in half and readjusted to be used as spacers for 16mm to sync sound tracks on film, and not meant to be projected.
Elixir
Director
With Asha Wilson and Joyce Campbell.
Shooting Women
Self
Reveals the history of camerawomen around the world, celebrating not only the survival of pioneer women in a male-dominated field, but a new generation of camerawomen's visions.
Women Behind the Camera
Self
Reveals the courageous lives of pioneer camerawomen from Hollywood to Bollywood, from war zones to children’s laughter, in a way that has never been seen before. Based on a book by Alexis Krasilovsky, the film tells the stories of camerawomen surviving the odds in Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Mexico, the U.S. and other countries, as well as exploring their individual visions.
The Decay of Fiction
Gaffer
The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles serves as the backdrop of Pat O’Neill’s artfully-crafted film. Shot in the classic Hollywood style, the movie follows various mysterious characters as they move through the haunted halls of the hotel, exploring along the way the secrets that are held within.
Access to the View
Director
with Yogi John Franzoni
Pouring Grain
Director
Falling Lessons
Director
A rhythmic montage of almost 200 faces, human and animals, that Halpern pans vertically, creating a cascade of visages suggesting that while individuals express a range of emotions they remain ultimately enigmas.
Ready-Made
Director
Grey Area
Director of Photography
The dilapidated former house/headquarters of South Central LA's Black Panthers is at the center of a clash between radical ideals of the past, and 1980s Buppie efforts to use white-owned platforms (banks, media) to uplift the community.
Invocation
Director
Gesturing hands emerge from the darkness, readying us for the cinematic experience.
Cuticle Torture
Director
1981, 16mm, b&w, silent, 2 mins. Shots of Halpern cutting her fingernails, biting them, and dunking them in water.
African Woman – USA
Lighting Artist
A woman from Nigeria seeks work in the United States while her daughter struggles with premonitions and homesickness.
Soft Fiction
Chick Strand's SOFT FICTION is a personal documentary that brilliantly portrays the survival power of female sensuality. It combines the documentary approach with a sensuous lyrical expressionism. Strand focuses her camera on people talking about their own experience, capturing subtle nuances in facial expressions and gestures that are rarely seen in cinema.
Kristallnacht
Herself
A bewitching, mysterious work of enveloping beauty, the film’s ominous title and a dedication to Anne Frank deeply inform our reading of its haunting subtext.
Pythoness
Director
Cigarette Burn
Director
Self-Portrait As A City
Director
Plausible Light Source
Director
Filament (The Hands)
Director
In the politically charged atmosphere of the early 70s, Mikis Theodorakis conducted a concert of his music in Philadelphia. His music was banned in Greece, his own country, at that time by the US-funded junta. Visiting the US on a limited visa, he was restricted to musical appearances only - no public speaking permitted. His hands, eloquent even when their gestures are deprived (by silent filming) of the music they are making, speak. Several in-camera phenomena resulted from the highly-charged nature of the shoot.
Peach Landscape
Director
Illusions of surface, abstract to pictorial. Initially the grain of the film emulsion, complete with scratches, variations in framing – the meat of film – are the most apparent elements of all. The object shown is revealed to be a bowl of canned peaches. But even with identification, the visual illusions return – e. g., a concave surface becomes convex, the flat bottom of the bowl becomes an egg.
A Glance
Director
Roll #1 For Nancy
Director
Three Preparations
Director
In three parts: Statice/frameline; Drops; The Cannonball Section. Unpopulated (except for the cheap ending on the Cannonball Section). (Previously shown as SLOW FLUSH.) –A. C. H.