Bruce Conner

Bruce Conner

Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 - July 7, 2008) was an American artist renowned for his work in film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines. He first attracted public attention in the 1950s with his nylon-shrouded assemblages—complex sculptures of found objects such as women's stockings, costume jewelry, bicycle wheels, and broken dolls, often combined with collaged or painted surfaces. Simultaneously during the late 1950s, he began making short movies in a singular style that has since established him as one of the most important figures in postwar independent filmmaking. He used an innovative technique that can best be seen in his first film, "A MOVIE" (1958), which was created by piecing together scraps of B-movies, newsreels, novelty shorts, and other preexisting footage. His subsequent films are most often fast-paced collages of found and new footage, and he was among the first to use pop music for film sound tracks. His films have inspired generations of filmmakers and are now considered to be the precursors of the music video genre.

  • Title: Bruce Conner
  • Popularity: 1.333
  • Known For: Directing
  • Birthday: 1933-11-18
  • Place of Birth: McPherson, Kansas
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As:
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Bruce Conner Movies

  • 1968
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    Underground New York

    Underground New York

    1 1968 HD

    A rare behind-the-scenes view of the exploding New York “underground” in the late sixities, a turbulent time and place that was to change...

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  • 1964
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    Pas de Trois

    Pas de Trois

    1 1964 HD

    A short film documenting the making of Bruce Conner's Breakaway.

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  • 1997
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    Birth of a Nation

    Birth of a Nation

    6.3 1997 HD

    Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades.

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  • 2004
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    Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments

    Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments

    7.5 2004 HD

    The inevitable fat cigar between his fingers, the American actor, director and fine artist Dennis Hopper (1936) self-mockingly looks back on his...

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  • 2002
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    Battle Stations – A Navel Adventure

    Battle Stations – A Navel Adventure

    1 2002 HD

    Starring Bruce Conner, a belly dancer, a geiger counter, and a toxic waste dump.

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  • 1986
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    The Kitchen Presents: Two Moon July

    The Kitchen Presents: Two Moon July

    1 1986 HD

    Two Moon July was a multidisciplinary event that featured experimental video, film, visual art, performance and music in a theatrical framework. More...

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  • 1967
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    Me & Bruce & Art

    Me & Bruce & Art

    1 1967 HD

    Bay Area filmmakers and Canyon Cinema co-founders Ben Van Meter and Bruce Conner were invited to L.A. to talk about Underground Film on the Art...

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  • 1967
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    Report

    Report

    6.194 1967 HD

    Bruce Conner’s most celebrated film for a reason: it takes historical moments that were replayed over and over on television—chilling...

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  • 1965
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    Vivian

    Vivian

    6.9 1965 HD

    "A film portrait cut to the tune of Conway Twitty's version of 'Mona Lisa.' Filmed in part at a 1964 show of Conner's artwork in San Francisco, the...

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  • 1976
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    Crossroads

    Crossroads

    6.9 1976 HD

    The 1945 atomic-bomb explosion at Bikini Atoll becomes a thing of terrible beauty and haunting visual poetry when shown in extreme slow motion, shown...

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  • 1973
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    Marilyn Times Five

    Marilyn Times Five

    6 1973 HD

    A commentary on the destructive expectations of females in a male dominated society, Marilyn Times Five was made from an old stag film called "The...

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  • 1976
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    Take the 5:10 to Dreamland

    Take the 5:10 to Dreamland

    5.8 1976 HD

    Its slow somnambulic rhythm, its animalistic jungle sounds as well as the eerily mixed images create a dream mood that comes closest to my actual...

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  • 1967
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    The White Rose

    The White Rose

    6.5 1967 HD

    Jay De Feo started painting THE WHITE ROSE in 1957. When the unfinished painting was removed eight years later it weighed over 2300 pounds.

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  • 1967
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    Looking for Mushrooms

    Looking for Mushrooms

    6.8 1967 HD

    During his year in Mexico, Conner hosted psychedelic guru Timothy Leary, who he had met on an earlier visit to New York. Conner and Leary occupied...

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  • 1977
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    Valse Triste

    Valse Triste

    5.8 1977 HD

    With a similar dreamy mood like its predecessor "Take the 5:10 to Dreamland" (1976) this clip starts with a boy getting into his bed. The camera...

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  • 1958
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    A Movie

    A Movie

    6.8 1958 HD

    Bruce Conner's landmark experimental film consisting entirely of found footage edited to a new score.

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  • 1967
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    Breakaway

    Breakaway

    6.7 1967 HD

    Breakaway plays out like a visual symphony. A prototype for the best (but still, lesser) contemporary formalist music videos, like Peter Care’s...

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  • 1962
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    Cosmic Ray

    Cosmic Ray

    6.4 1962 HD

    Experimental short uses Ray Charles' “What'd I Say” as accompaniment to constantly shifting collage of female nude, cartoons, and...

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  • 1981
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    America Is Waiting

    America Is Waiting

    6.2 1981 HD

    Stock footage edited with music to comment on American culture.

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  • 1981
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    Mea Culpa

    Mea Culpa

    5.2 1981 HD

    In his first collaboration with David Byrne and Brian Eno, Conner used footage from educational films to create a rhythmically austere image-track...

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  • 1965
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    Ten Second Film

    Ten Second Film

    4.9 1965 HD

    An advertisement for the New York Film Festival which the Festival rejected as being "too fast."

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  • 2006
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    His Eye Is on the Sparrow

    His Eye Is on the Sparrow

    1 2006 HD

    16mm/Digital, color/b&w/sound Bruce Conner began working on By and By a documentary about The Soul Stirrers several decades ago shooting their...

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  • 1969
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    Permian Strata

    Permian Strata

    6.5 1969 HD

    A film he made in 1969 that rarely gets discussed, and is only barely mentioned even in the monograph 2000 BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II. This...

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  • 1975
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    Television Assassination

    Television Assassination

    1 1975 HD

    TELEVISION ASSASSINATION is one of two major works that Bruce Conner began in the days immediately following the Kennedy assassination and the...

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  • 1996
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    Looking for Mushrooms

    Looking for Mushrooms

    6.7 1996 HD

    Bruce Conner's 1996 revision of his Looking for Mushrooms (1967).

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  • 1978
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    Mongoloid

    Mongoloid

    5 1978 HD

    A documentary film exploring the manner in which a determined young man overcame a basic mental defect and became a useful member of society....

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  • 1967
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    Luke

    Luke

    6 1967 HD

    A short film created during the production of Cool Hand Luke.

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  • 2008
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    Easter Morning

    Easter Morning

    5 2008 HD

    Departing from an inimitable film repertoire of tour-de-force editing technique, visual comedy, and apocalyptic themes, avant-garde master Bruce...

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  • 2006
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    Three Screen Ray

    Three Screen Ray

    1 2006 HD

    A three screen projection comprised of imagery from COSMIC RAY (1961) and EVE-RAY-FOREVER (1965).

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  • 1976
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    Take the 5:10 to Dreamland

    Take the 5:10 to Dreamland

    5.8 1976 HD

    Its slow somnambulic rhythm, its animalistic jungle sounds as well as the eerily mixed images create a dream mood that comes closest to my actual...

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  • 1970
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    Eve-Ray-Forever

    Eve-Ray-Forever

    1 1970 HD

    EVE-RAY-FOREVER is a silent, three-screen expanded version of COSMIC RAY (1961). Originally exhibited as an 8mm Technicolor looped installation at...

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  • 1967
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    Easter Morning Raga

    Easter Morning Raga

    1 1967 HD

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  • 1967
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    Liberty Crown

    Liberty Crown

    1 1967 HD

    From KQED kinescope with Michael McClure (No longer extant).

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  • 1968
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    Antonia Christina Basilotta

    Antonia Christina Basilotta

    1 1968 HD

    In 1968, Bruce Conner offered this film comprised of the unedited footage of Toni Basil dancing, footage that was previously edited down in 1966 to...

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