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Sidney Peterson

Sidney Peterson

Date of Birth: 15 Nov 1905

Country: USA

Biography: Sidney Peterson (November 15, 1905, Oakland, California – April 24, 2000, New York City) was an American writer, artist, and avant-garde filmmaker. He attended UC Berkeley, worked as a newspaper reporter in Monterey, and spent time as a practicing painter and sculptor in France in the 1920s and 1930s. After World War II, Peterson founded Workshop 20 at the California School of Fine Arts (renamed the San Francisco Art Institute), initiating filmmaking courses at the school.

Total Credits at Criticker: 2 (Actor), 5 (Director)

Biography and picture submitted by Rivette

Find more information about Sidney Peterson at The Internet Movie Database

Titles you haven't rated - Actor (2) | Director (5)

    The Potted Psalm
    The Potted Psalm (1946) - Short Film
    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)
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    The Cage
    The Cage (1947) - Short Film
    The Cage describes the adventures of a "mad" artist. In a symbolic or real self-mutilation, he takes out his own eye, which immediately escapes from his studio and into . . . San Francisco. His blinding is accompanied by complete schizophrenia. He alternates with his double throughout the film. His girlfriend, . . . frightened by his mad groping around his studio for the lost eye, gets a doctor. The girl, the doctor, and one of the "two" protagonists then chase around the city after the eye. (P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film p. 49)
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    Lead Shoes
    Lead Shoes (1949) - Short Film
    An experimental film that uses a distorted lens to alter the viewer's perspective.
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    Mr. Frenhofer and the Minotaur
    Mr. Frenhofer and the Minotaur (1949) - Short Film
    Peterson based this romantic piece on Balzac's Le Chef d'oeuvre Inconnu and Picasso's Minotauromachie. The film combines a story of the competition for the love of a woman with images of a young girl with a candle wandering through a corridor, a modern adaptation of the mythological Minoan labyrinths. (hcl.harvard.edu)
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    The Petrified Dog
    The Petrified Dog (1948) - Short Film
    An avant-garde film created under the auspices of Peterson's annual "Workshop 20" project at the California School of Fine Arts.
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