We have lost a remarkable person, whose story needs to be written. For those who are curious, there will be a memorial in the Spring, likely in May. We extend our condolences to her family.
Many on this list might like to know she'd placed a great deal of her papers in the Yale library's collection. I am grateful to have visited Cecile several times this year, partly to finalize CVM's ongoing distribution of films from her collection, such as Mary Ellen Bute's work plus a number of other avant-garde 16mm prints. I recorded a short interview with her in January. In early October, Cecile was busy attending to business, relating anecdotes from her long associations with various filmmakers, working on plans for another book, and discussing future plans for the films. And she had far-reaching plans. While discussing a particular business plan, she expressed her wish to continue it (personally) for the next 10 years! Her energy and dedication were impressive, even at 93. Cecile helped shape avant-garde film history with decades of passionate work. She will be sorely missed, though her legacy and work will live on. I do hope someone will publish a detailed biographical account. Cindy Keefer Center for Visual Music Los Angeles www.centerforvisualmusic.org CVM email = cvmaccess (at) gmail.com > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Pip Chodorov <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Cc: > Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 17:12:08 +0900 > Subject: [Frameworks] Cecile Starr 1921-2014 > Very sad to relate that Cecile Starr passed away on December 9, 2014. She > was 93. > > This news came to me from her grandson Ian Boyajian who has been assisting > her for several years in her film distribution business, and who will > continue to distribute the films she held rights to. > > Cecile Starr met Hans Richter in 1965 and asked him if she could > distribute his early experimental films. His answer was "Nobody's > interested in these things! You want them? Take them!" This led to her > running Starr Films and distributing pioneering work by Richter and > Eggeling, Alexeieff and Parker, Len Lye, Robert Breer, Harry Smith, Helen > Levitt, Mary Ellen Bute, Berthold Bartosch and others, and an occasional > contemporary film she took an interest in such as "Jude" by Drew Klaussner > (1982). > > Her 1976 book with Robert Russett on Experimental Animation, revised in > 1988, is an authoritative reference. She also wrote three other books and > made short film portraits of filmmakers such as "Richter on Film" or "A > Talk With Carmen D'Avino" (both 1972). > > She taught graduate film studies at Columbia University 1955-1961. Her > former students include Peter Bogdonavich, Brian de Palma, George Manupelli. > > She received a Preservation Award from Anthology Film Archives in 1992, > and she introduced me at the 2002 award dinner when I received one. > > We worked together when Re:Voir published its first VHS tapes in 1995 - > one of them was Hans Richter's Early Works. She pushed for our first DVD > project too - Dada Cinema - and we talked a lot when I was preparing my > film "Free Radicals: A History of Expermental Film." > > I visited her several times both in her New York and Vermont homes. Cecile > was always warm and welcoming, also very thorough and organized in business > with great business sense, and her long memory of details about so many > incredible artists was a treasure. > > - Pip Chodorov > > > > >
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