Wendy Clarke

Shirley Clarke (1925-1997): “Dancer, filmmaker and video artist Shirley Clarke helped shape the emerging film culture of the American independent film movement in the Fifties and Sixties. Her world was that of New York City’s underground culture of jazz, beat literature, Off-Broadway theatre, modern dance, and experimental film. Early influences included avant-garde filmmakers Hans Richter, with whom she studied at City College, and the formidable Maya Deren, in whose footsteps she followed as an advocate for New York’s independent filmmakers. Clarke’s short ‘cine-dance’ films were honoured with prizes at the Zurich, Edinburgh and Venice Film Festivals, and ‘Bridges Go-Round’ (1958) was selected to represent the United States at the International Experimental Film Festival in Brussels. “In 1961, Shirley Clarke was one of twenty-four filmmakers and producers who drafted the manifesto, ‘Statement for a New American Cinema’ that called for an economic, artistic, and political alternative to Hollywood filmmaking (fellow signatories included Robert Frank, Alfred Leslie, Emile de Antonio, Jonas Mekas and Gregory J. Markopoulos). Shirley Clarke’s reputation as a film director flourished when she received rave reviews in 1961 at the Cannes Film Festival for her first feature, ‘The Connection.’ … Like fellow New Yorker Jack Smith … Clarke fought a censorship case with the U.S. government that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The obscenity charge was based on Clarke’s refusal to edit (i.e. clean up) the spoken language in ‘The Connection.’ The centre of much media attention, Clarke ultimately won her case and the film was released in the U.S. in 1962. “Drawing her inspiration from the Italian Neorealists, the French New Wave and the developing cinema-verité style in the documentary films of her peers Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker, Clarke adapted cinema-verité techniques to her dramatic feature films. Her innovative approach to filmmaking ‘heralded a new style that employed a greater cinematic realism and addressed relevant social issues’ (Rabinovitz). … Throughout the Seventies and early Eighties, Clarke worked extensively as a video artist, first in New York and then in Los Angeles where she held a teaching position at UCLA. … Sadly, Shirley Clarke suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease for the last decade of her life. …” – Susan Oxtoby, Cinematheque Ontario