Analog Dreaming: Jon Behrens Memorial
Curated by Kornelia Boczkowska
Commissioned & sponsored by Caryn Cline from the Interbay Cinema Society
Analog Dreaming is a series of memorial programs commemorating the legacy of Seattle based filmmaker Jon Behrens. Different versions of the program were presented in eight venues in the United States and Europe in 2024-2025.
Jon Behrens
Jon Behrens (born May 12, 1964, in Eugene, OR; died in Seattle, WA, Sept. 5, 2022) was a prolific, dedicated, self-taught filmmaker and composer whose career spanned more than four decades. Jon founded the Interbay Cinema Society, the Engauge Experimental Film Festival and the Lightpress Grants program.
Program description
This program celebrates the vast legacy of a Seattle-based and one of the Northwest’s most prolific filmmakers and composers Jon Behrens (1964-2022), showcasing his unique experiments with image, sound and celluloid. From silent studies in light, color and water and cinematic abstractions to landscapes, cityscapes, NASA images and Hollywood movies, the program demonstrates a remarkable diversity of Behrens’ films, which are both simple and complex, lyrical and psychedelic as well as mediative and visually challenging. Since the late 1970s, Behrens made well over 100 films using different formats, styles and approaches, ranging from short documentaries, narratives and diaries to found footage, hand painted and optically printed films. Behrens’ work is a living proof of his genuine love and passion for experimental film, his lifelong mission of supporting analog filmmakers and his numerous contributions to the filmmaking community through the Interbay Cinema Society, the Lightpress Grants program, Engauge Experimental Film Festival and other initiatives. The program features a selection of Behrens’ films and the world premiere of his three unreleased films. (Kornelia Boczkowska)
Program
Presented at the Ann Arbor Film Festival 2025
Part I: Landscapes and cityscapes
In the Autumn Before the Winter Comes Man’s Last Mad Surge of Youth
16mm to digital, color, sound, 3 min, 2019
Optically printed fragments of film Jon Behrens shot during the autumn months in response to seeing some of Caryn Cline’s films. Caryn re-introduced Jon to shooting films outside.
Light Color and Water
16mm to digital, color, silent, 1 min, 1987
A silent mediation on light, color and water and one of Jon Behrens’ earliest released films.
Undercurrents
16mm to digital, color, sound, 9 min, 1994
The third and final installment of Jon Behrens’ Urban Landscape Series and his personal favorite of the three. RUBATO provided the soundtrack.
Viaduct
16mm to digital, color, sound, 7 min, 2020
A loving look back on a Seattle icon that is no longer there.
One Minute Movie No. 1
16mm to digital, color, sound, 1 min, 2013
Jon Behrens’ unreleased one-shot city film.
The Colors of Boulder in the Summer
16mm to digital, color, sound, 6 min, 2015
In the summer of 1997, Jon Behrens went to Boulder Colorado for a holiday and shot little bursts of images along the way.
Part II: Experiments in found footage
Difficult Cinema
16mm to digital, color, sound, 6 min, 1993
A film made by taking scraps of film from other projects and some found footage. The footage was chopped up into very short sections and then cut all back together again at random with hand painting sections and sections with the emulsion bleached off of the film. The Soviet France provided the soundtrack.
Fluffy Fluffy Calm Calm
16mm to digital, b&w, silent, 7 min, 1998
The story of the week in the life of an eyeball.
Atomic Theory and Chemistry
16mm to digital, color, sound, 5 min, 2012
Jon Behrens’ experiment with incorporating NASA found footage into his hand painted and optical printing filmmaking using jelled light, a variety of colors and Behrens’ own sound design.
Found Footage Film
16mm to digital, color, sound, 2 min, 2017
A film made up from discarded trailers from Hollywood movies from the early 1990’s.
Part III: Experiments in hand painted footage
Bipacking Experiments No 1
16mm to digital, color, silent, 2 min, 1999
Jon Behrens’ unreleased hand painted film.
Anomalies of the Unconscious
16mm to digital, color, sound, 11 min, 2003
An entirely hand painted, manipulated and step printed film and the second instalment of the Anomalies Cycle when Jon Behrens began experimenting more with other colors and different textures. The soundtrack was performed by NEGATIVLAND.
Retina Circus
16mm to digital, color, sound, 3 min, 2014
Jon Behrens’ unreleased hand painted, manipulated and optically printed found footage film.
My Stars
16mm to digital, color, sound, 2 min, 2021
A film using found 35mm footage: painted, manipulated and optically printed.
Part IV: Analog Dreaming
Modular on the Spot
16mm to digital, color, sound, 3 min, 2017
Jon Behrens’ unedited film shot at Gas Works Park on July 16, 2016, with his newly acquired Arriflex camera.
I Love Synthesizers
16mm to digital, color, sound, 6 min, 2016
A music video and promotional film for Vinegar Syndrome, the “sound arm” of Jon Behrens’ creativity. Composed of images of Behrens’ gear and unused footage from his unreleased projects. With improvised sound.
TRT: 74 minutes
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