James Broughton

The Potted Psalm is full of visual jokes as a young man wanders about at a party and women do odd, suggestive things for the camera. Often seen in distorting mirrors, they wear absurd make-up and weird masks. A man without a head pours his drink into his open collar. A grave marker says MOTHER, at one point OTHER when a woman stands on the M. And what of stop-motion shots of a nutcracker? (Michael Barrett)

Broughton's other film, Adventures of Jimmy (1950) resolves its immature hero's quest for "playmates" through a tongue-in-cheek narration that juxtaposes ironically with the images. We are told his family left him their whole estate, as we see a shack in the woods. The happy resolution is a joke on monogamy. It's a straightforward story, the work of someone who wants to entertain with elegance and quiet subversion. (Michael Barrett)

Men in pairs, mostly naked, perform various sensual tasks together. (imdb)

Poems narrate four afternoon vignettes; each protagonist is older than the one in the previous sketch. (imdb)

The Bed toys with themes of sexual freedom and exploration. In fact, The Bed was one of the first films to contain full frontal nudity of both sexes and not be considered pornography.

Considered by many to be both Broughton's finest work and a masterpiece in American avantgarde film, Dreamwood narrates the oniric quest of a modern argonaut in a mysterious island located somewhere on the borders of the unconscious. Apparently Freudean at times (for isn't Freud the father of modern surrealism?), Dreamwood is an enticing journey through sexual, fecal and esoteric imagery.

The ironically titled "Mother's Day" harkens back, lightly and not overly literally, to his childhood memories of a domineering, all-powerful, beautiful and terrible mother. It looks like a family photo album set in motion, kept alive and running like the children inside us all -- hence its gamesome, ultimately rebellious children are all played by adults.

People quietly or campily pass the time in an overgrown garden full of statues, while a puritanical, funereal gentleman posts bills prohibiting all leisure activities.

The story of the garden of Eden, as performed by a child and narrated by a man and a woman.

This little slapstick comedy pictures the amorous progress of a prancing, baggy-trousered, bowler-hatted, demented and blissfully happy tramp who capers across a sunlit countryside making love to every woman he encounters. Half Rabelais, half Mack Sennet, LOONY TOM owes a great deal to the spirited miming of Kermit Sheets as the Happy Lover. (KG)

A lovely, poetic, humorous and crystal investigation of mankind standing, sitting and lying down. (KG)

A visualization of the Zen dictum of 'sitting quietly, doing nothing,' HIGH KUKUS uses a single beautiful visual image while it delights with a poetic soundtrack composed of 14 gems of Broughton's wit and wonder. (KG)

An autobiography of the poet and film maker James Broughton. (imdb)

An homage to Lao-Tzu, this is a rollicking joyful poem that celebrates the movement of the waterways of the world, set to music by Corelli and read by the poet. The image is a continuous flow of light on water. (KG)

The film travels in close-up over the mysterious terrains of nude human bodies as they touch and explore one another. It is like an expedition into human geography, an intimate sculpture, an erogenous healing ceremony, and an ode to the pleasures of touch. Also it is an homage to old friends, Willard Maas and Marie Menken, who made the first body poem in cinema history, Geography of the Body, in 1943. (KG)

The film consists predominantly of extreme close-ups of parts of Broughton's body. The camera slowly becomes the tool revealing the erotic beauty of the body and the sensual pleasure in loving oneself. The ecstasy and power of sexual gratification are celebrated by the camera, as it maintains an erotic role, probing, revealing and visually caressing. (KG)

This 11 minute homage to the male member shows its subject in the various stages of erection. The voice-over poem by James Broughton includes the line "This is the secret that will not stay hidden." (imdb)

An ecstatic masterpiece! (Stan Brakhage)

James Broughton reads his poetry over various images. (imdb)

This film celebrates weddings and being wed, and the union of opposites in everything everywhere. (themoviedb.org)