TamTam Books News Sunday, August 08, 2004: It is the quiet moments one realizes that we are missing the giants of an era. For instance the recent passing of Alexander Hannid: Here from the New York Times: Alexander Hammid, 96, Filmmaker Known for Many Styles, Dies By KATHRYN L. SHATTUCK Published: August 8, 2004 Alexander Hammid, a filmmaker whose body of work spanned the genesis of the experimental movement in Czechoslovakia, early anti-Nazi documentaries and soaring modern Imax spectacles, died on July 26 at his home in Manhattan. He was 96. Mr. Hammid, whose original name was Alexandr Hackenschmied, was born in 1907 in Linz, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. His fascinaton with cinema, particularly the work of experimenters like Germaine Dulac, Joris Ivens, Walter Ruttman, Man Ray and Luis Buñuel, was piqued while he was studying architecture and exploring photography in Prague. Influenced by the Bauhaus and constructivism, in 1930 he made his own experimental film, "An Aimless Walk," its subjects desolate suburban streets and waterfronts, puzzling reflections and a man on a streetcar. He used a borrowed hand-held camera and scraps of raw film and had a budget of about $5. His second work, "The Prague Castle" (1932), used shifting camerawork to make the stones of the castle and its Gothic cathedral dance to music. His "poetic camera lay dormant for some 10 years," he wrote, as he got caught up in the mill of utilitarian and commercial filmmaking, including a partnership with the American independent producer and director Herbert Kline. Their political documentaries "Crisis," named by the National Board of Review as one of the 10 best films of 1939, and "Lights Out in Europe" remain classic depictions of the rise of Nazism. Mr. Hammid fled Czechoslovakia one month before Hitler's troops marched in, emigrating to Hollywood, where he teamed up with Kline and filmed John Steinbeck's book "Forgotten Village" in Mexico. In 1943 he married Elenora Deren, a dancer and poet, and together they made one of the first American avant-garde films, "Meshes of the Afternoon," under their new names, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. A merger of her ideas with his camerawork, "Meshes," a silent black-and-white short dense with visual metaphors, became the best-known experimental work of the decade, helping promote a filmmaking method and an aesthetic vastly different from the Hollywood standard. The couple created four more films, with Mr. Hammid providing the technical expertise that Miss Deren, billed as director, needed to execute the detailed instructions on her shooting scripts. In 1948, after divorcing Miss Deren and producing films for the United States government's Office of War Information and the United Nations, Mr. Hammid married Hella Heyman, a still photographer. His work in the 1950's and early 60's involved his passion for the arts, from a collaboration on Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "The Medium" and a documentary series of master classes by the cellist Pablo Casals and the violinist Jascha Heifetz to the filming of the choreographer Martha Graham's "Night Journey" (1960). From 1962 to 1988, Mr. Hammid joined forces with Francis Thompson to create the Academy Award-winning three-screen documentary "To Be Alive!," shown at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, and "To Fly," one of the earliest Imax films, which remains on view at the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum after nearly 30 years. Mr. Hammid is survived by a son, Tino, of Los Angeles; a daughter, Julia, of Baltimore; and two grandchildren. Tosh // 9:43 PM ______________________ Comments: Post a Comment
It is the quiet moments one realizes that we are missing the giants of an era. For instance the recent passing of Alexander Hannid: Here from the New York Times: Alexander Hammid, 96, Filmmaker Known for Many Styles, Dies By KATHRYN L. SHATTUCK Published: August 8, 2004 Alexander Hammid, a filmmaker whose body of work spanned the genesis of the experimental movement in Czechoslovakia, early anti-Nazi documentaries and soaring modern Imax spectacles, died on July 26 at his home in Manhattan. He was 96. Mr. Hammid, whose original name was Alexandr Hackenschmied, was born in 1907 in Linz, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. His fascinaton with cinema, particularly the work of experimenters like Germaine Dulac, Joris Ivens, Walter Ruttman, Man Ray and Luis Buñuel, was piqued while he was studying architecture and exploring photography in Prague. Influenced by the Bauhaus and constructivism, in 1930 he made his own experimental film, "An Aimless Walk," its subjects desolate suburban streets and waterfronts, puzzling reflections and a man on a streetcar. He used a borrowed hand-held camera and scraps of raw film and had a budget of about $5. His second work, "The Prague Castle" (1932), used shifting camerawork to make the stones of the castle and its Gothic cathedral dance to music. His "poetic camera lay dormant for some 10 years," he wrote, as he got caught up in the mill of utilitarian and commercial filmmaking, including a partnership with the American independent producer and director Herbert Kline. Their political documentaries "Crisis," named by the National Board of Review as one of the 10 best films of 1939, and "Lights Out in Europe" remain classic depictions of the rise of Nazism. Mr. Hammid fled Czechoslovakia one month before Hitler's troops marched in, emigrating to Hollywood, where he teamed up with Kline and filmed John Steinbeck's book "Forgotten Village" in Mexico. In 1943 he married Elenora Deren, a dancer and poet, and together they made one of the first American avant-garde films, "Meshes of the Afternoon," under their new names, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. A merger of her ideas with his camerawork, "Meshes," a silent black-and-white short dense with visual metaphors, became the best-known experimental work of the decade, helping promote a filmmaking method and an aesthetic vastly different from the Hollywood standard. The couple created four more films, with Mr. Hammid providing the technical expertise that Miss Deren, billed as director, needed to execute the detailed instructions on her shooting scripts. In 1948, after divorcing Miss Deren and producing films for the United States government's Office of War Information and the United Nations, Mr. Hammid married Hella Heyman, a still photographer. His work in the 1950's and early 60's involved his passion for the arts, from a collaboration on Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "The Medium" and a documentary series of master classes by the cellist Pablo Casals and the violinist Jascha Heifetz to the filming of the choreographer Martha Graham's "Night Journey" (1960). From 1962 to 1988, Mr. Hammid joined forces with Francis Thompson to create the Academy Award-winning three-screen documentary "To Be Alive!," shown at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, and "To Fly," one of the earliest Imax films, which remains on view at the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum after nearly 30 years. Mr. Hammid is survived by a son, Tino, of Los Angeles; a daughter, Julia, of Baltimore; and two grandchildren. Tosh // 9:43 PM
