Jon Behrens
History
Jon Behrens is a Seattle based filmmaker/composer. His films have been screened at film festivals, colleges and museums through out the world since the early 1980’s including screenings at Antimatter Film Festival Canada, Seattle International Film Festival, TIE Film Festival Colorado, London Underground Film Festival, Crossroads Film Festival San Francisco,
Festival International des Cinemas Differents et Experimentaux in Paris, Alternative Film and Video festival in Novi Beograd Serbia, Sydney Underground Film Festival, Festival des Cinémas Différents de Paris and many many others. His work ranges from personal film diary’s to abstract hand painted optically printed works. In addition to filmmaking Jon Behrens is also a composer and has created sound designs for most of his own films starting about 10 years ago, as well as non film related compositions.
Jon Behrens is also the co-founder co-director of the Interbay Cinema Society which also produces the Engauge Experimental Film Festival.
Director
A hand painted/manipulated 35mm found footage film.
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Shot during the summer months around my neighborhood and manipulated on my Optical Printer.
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A 2020 short film directed by Jon Behrens.
Director
"I wanted to capture the beautiful snow as it fell onto the trees on Christmas morning. Shot it one long take on my Arriflex camera from the deck of my home, in homage to the late great Peter Hutton."
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This film was made from optically printed fragments of footage that I shot during the winter months in Seattle. -JB
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I made this film from manipulated and hand painted 35mm trailers of main stream Hollywood films from the 1990's. -JB
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Made from sections of random family photos that I acquired while working at a film lab in the early 1990's. -JB
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Optically printed fragments of film I shot in the autumn months in Seattle. -JB
This film was made in response to seeing some of Caryn Clines films. Caryn re introduced me to shooting my films outside. -JB
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I fixed my camera onto the trees around my lower Queen Anne area home in Seattle from my deck. I then backed up the film to beginning and re-exposed the film from another angle. I passed my hand in front of the lens during the second exposure to blend the two images together. The sound for this film was created from industrial sounds I recorded also in the same area and manipulated with effects.
Director
"This film is a collaboration between myself, Caryn Cline and Luke Sieczek. We made this film using a matte box. We used three different coin sized mattes, and we took turns exposing them."
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"This was film was shot on a train trip down to Portland Oregon in the Summer of 2016 with one of my Bolex’s . I was using film from a large supply of 7222 double X negative donated to me from a friend that became outdated in 1972. I shot the film normal and processed it normal, the film turned out to be very grainy which worked well. I then rephotographed everything on my optical printer. The sound for the film was made of sound I recorded of the train."
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I made this film from found footage of a family vacation to Oyster Bay in 1922, the footage was hand painted and optically printed. -JB
Director
I made this film from a 100ft roll of film shot entirely in one take taken on my Arriflex S camera. I trained my lens on to the city skyline and began shooting. At the end of the 100ft roll, I back winded the film to the beginning of the roll. I then re photographed the skyline from a slightly different angle and blended the two exposures with my hand. I then printed the section 4 times and gave each section its own treatment , each section becomes its own part. a portrait of a city – a City in Four Parts. -JB
Director
"Kirsten McCory is the mending woman who is meandering through this hand painted and optically printed film."
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"in the summer of 1997 I went to Boulder Colorado for a holiday. During this time we attended some poetry things at Naropa and and some cinematic things at the University of Colorado. I had my bolex with me the whole time and I shot little bursts of images along the way. The film sat in its can on a shelf in my studio until the early part of 2014 when I began to experiment with the images on my optical printer."
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"Reconstituted found footage hand painted optically printed wonder, with a beginning a middle and an end."
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"In this film I began to experiment more with creating mats with liquid latex directly on the film emulsion then bleaching of all the excess image around the latex and using the clear bleached sections of film as a canvas to paint my film poem I used special inks that were custom made just for me called Keneville Dyes I then to re-photographed it all on my beloved JK optical printer. I also created this films sound design."
Director
"I did this collaboration with filmmaker Caryn Cline. Two filmmakers, two direct animation technics, two optical printers one roll of 16mm film."
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Is the third film in a series that is being called the Anomalies cycle. It is mostly a hand painted and step printed film. This time I used stained glass dyes and also experimented with photographing growing crystals with time laps cinematograhy. I also created the sound design for this film.
Director
"I was asked to participate in a film program were filmmakers were asked to each shoot a 100ft roll of film in the style of legendary filmmaker Jonas Mekas. This short burst cinematic film diary was shot on a nice Saturday Afternoon at my favorite Pub The Six Arms, I documented my afternoon as it happened. Their was no editing at all on this film it was all done in Camera. I liked the film so much that I decided to add a sound track and released it."
Sound
"This is the second film of the Anomalies Cycle. It is a hand Painted and manipulated film. I also used the technique of bleaching and batiking of the film emulsion. The footage was then step printed on a J-K Optical Printer. Although similar in style to The Flickering of the Minds Eye I began to experiment more with other colors and different textures such as dried leaves and flowers, hair, insect parts, and a variety of different types of inks and paints. The sound track for this film was preformed by NEGATIVLAND."
Director
“The second collaboration I did with R.K. Adams, we proceeded to experiment with the Idea of using panels in our films. When we talked about doing this we decided that we wanted to pay homage to the upcoming spring, the result was this film"
Director
"This is the second film of the Anomalies Cycle. It is a hand Painted and manipulated film. I also used the technique of bleaching and batiking of the film emulsion. The footage was then step printed on a J-K Optical Printer. Although similar in style to The Flickering of the Minds Eye I began to experiment more with other colors and different textures such as dried leaves and flowers, hair, insect parts, and a variety of different types of inks and paints. The sound track for this film was preformed by NEGATIVLAND."
Director
A collaboration between filmmakers Jon Behrens in Seattle, Washington, and Joel Schlemowitz in Brooklyn, New York, shot on ALL SAINTS DAY, November 1, 2000. They each shot 100 feet of film at the same time of the day 3,000 miles apart, and they did not tell each other what they shot. The film was hand-processed, cut up into two-foot lengths and then cut back together, alternating between Joel's footage and Jon's footage. The soundtrack for this film was done the same way.
Director
This film is made up of hand painted and batik sections of film that I then step printed on an optical printer. I also used fingers, potatoes, sponges to print textures and patterns. The film was then cut into a rhythmic pattern that may play a few tricks on your brain.
Director
This film is a collaboration with filmmaker Joel Schlemowitz, on ALL SAINTS DAY 2001 we each shot 100 ft of film, at the same time of the day, 3000 miles apart, and we did not tell each other what we shot. The film was hand processed and cut up into 2ft length’s and then cut back together alternating from Joel’s footage to Jon’s until all the film was gone. This film is the follow up to ALL SAINTS DAY which was done using the same techniques the year prior soundtrack for this film was done the same way.
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Film by Jon Behrens
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"This film is a collaboration with friend-filmmaker, Mia Roozen Separately filming footage, unknown to the other, and splicing it together to create an abstract prosaic, a symphony of sight and sound, a subconscious exploration of neurotic origins"
Director
This is sort of a film poem it is the story of the week in the life of an eyeball. The viewer sees the eyeball darting around and also sees what the eyeball sees as well. The week has been condensed down to 9 min. This film was an experiment that worked. I shot all the eyeshots using my friend Letitia Tyler on 200ft of film and shot all the other shots on another 200ft. I then cut the negative together without ever seeing what the film looked like projected. I just wanted the editing process to be all part of the eye theme. I was hoping that it would all say something, and it does.
Director
I was in Boulder Col. on a film shoot when I attended one of Stan Brakhage’s film salons that he hosted. I saw some very incredible images that night and got to meet the grand master himself. I was so inspired by what I saw and the people that I met that the moment that I returned home to Seattle I made this film. My first fully hand painted motion picture, and the techniques that I used in this film are the beginning of an entirely new faze of my filmmaking and I hope to master this technique some day.
Director
"This is a film that I had wanted to make for many years. It was not until the summer of 1996 that I actually got it together and shot it. Again with the help of Steve Creson we packed up all our equipment and loaded on to a plane and flew to Arizona were we rented a car and drove around the desert for week and filmed everything that we thought looked interesting. This film is similar to the films in my urban landscapes series, only this film was shot in eye popping full color and there are no man made elements in this film at all. Lots of rock formations, colors, and shapes only things made my mother nature. This film also has a film score by RUBATO."
Director
This was the first film that I collaborated with fellow filmmaker and friend Steve Creson. We each shot a 100ft roll of film and we did not know what each other were shooting. The only thing that our footage had in common was the fact that it was all shot in color and at night. At the time that we did this we were each experimenting with new techniques of our own. This took place on a nice summer evening in July of 1996. This film sparked the beginning of a very prolific partnership. Film score by RUBATO.
Director
This film was made in collaboration with fellow filmmaker and friend Rasha Refaie.The film was inspired by a dream that Rasha had about a girl and a bicycle and a silver colored egg. The viewer sees Rasha peddling all over Seattle through city streets, parks, all over and ultimately ending up a graveyard were she begins to experience the nosebleed of her life. This film was going to be the first in a series of films based on Rasha's dreams; however, shortly after this film was completed Rasha moved to New York City and this was the only film that was made. Rubato composed the films sound track.
Director
There was once a wonderful cinema in Seattle Wash called the Pike St. Cinema. It was owned and operated by Dennis Nyback for about 3 1/2 years this cinema played the best films no one else would show. This film is just a little splinter of time captured on film–a very special place in my life that will never be forgotten. I simply documented the cinema as it was including Nick the theater Cat.
Director
"This film was the third and final installment of my Urban Landscape Series and is my personal favorite of the three. In this film I utilized all the techniques that I had learned over the years and put them all into this film. I finally felt that my mission was complete regarding structures and that I could move forward and try other ideas. RUBATO provided the films sound track."
Director
I made this film with the help of friend Timmi Harrop she graced the screen in this liquid like atmospheric industrial performance piece. Multiple exposures, water, and weird underwater cinematography shots that create the environment drowning the viewer in a symphony of sight and sound.
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This film was the second installment of what I call the URBAN LANDSCAPE SERIES. The film is more like an extension my earlier film Exposures, but this time I made a much more valiant attempt to say what I wanted to say. By the time I made this film I felt that I had mastered the art of cinematography.
Director
Symmetry was a film I made in 1990 at that time I wanted to experiment more with narrative elements in my films. Looking back on this film I see Ernie Steeles, O.K. Hotel, Virginia Inn, The Viaduct and James Carbo’s eastlake silver house all gone now. This film is different from the films I made before .. and the films I have made after. I was grateful to Pony Mourice for agreeing to be in this picture, if it wasn't for her the film never would have been made because she was the only one I could picture in my mind to be in my film.
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Short film by Jon Behrens
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I made this film by shooting around 180 rolls of 35mm slide film. I then hand processed the film in a very sloppy manner. I never mounted the film into slides I simply took the 35mm strips of film and spliced them together. Some of the rolls used in this film were shot by random people I sent a roll of film to that they shot and sent back to me.
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Kaleidoscopic images in and about an apartment as the sun sets on a clear, late-summer day.
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"This film was made up of Color Abstractions parts 1-7 superimposed on to each other. This version is the only version that has been released. The film is a study of color and patterns which is also silent."
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2014, 16mm/35mm/HD
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"In my latest film I have began to experiment with incorporating found footage into my hand painted and optical printing filmmaking. I also experimented with using jelled light using a variety of different colours . I also created this films sound design."
