Bruce Conner passes away

I was just talking with a co-worker yesterday about how great it was that Bruce Conner was still making films and how cool it would be to invite him to our festival. I had just seen his latest film at Cinevegas. Later that afternoon, I read the sad news that he has passed away at age 74. He is the father/inventor of collage or found footage filmmaking. Here is his most famous film the groundbreaking 1958 work, A MOVIE.

Bruce Conner, a movie.
by zohilof

My first contact with Conner's amazing films was in film school. I remember a professor saying that if there was any justice in the world MTV would be sending Conner a check for a million dollars every year. Conner 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. Here is his film for the Devo song "Mongoloid"


A few years later in Los Angeles I was lucky enough to see the Conner exhibition at the Kohn Gallery. Wandering into the back of that small space I found a small screen showing TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND. Stumbling into that film in such a unusual way was purely magical. Take a look:

Take The 5 10 to Dreamland
by zohilof

On a side note, the book "2000 BC: The Bruce Conner Story part II" was a dearly a treasured object, my own copy has alas slipped through my fingers. I'm sure it must have been passed to a dearly loved one, and lost in the sands of time.

Saying goodbye to this towering figure in art and cinema is heartbreaking. Now it is our sad duty to update all biographies and profiles from "one of our greatest living artists" to simply one of our greatest.