Chicago Reds and Blues (1973) by Saul Levine
Thursday, December 13, 1984, 8:00 pm
The Films of Saul Levine – I
Levine in person
Chicago Reds and Blues (1973), The Big Stick (1968-72), New Left Notes (1968-76) — all 16mm prints from 8mm originals; Notes of an Early Fall (1976-77), super 8-mm sound, 38 min.
Boston filmmaker Saul Levine has been producing personal films for nearly twenty years, yet few have been publicly shown to more than a handful of serious film devotees and students This is partly due to the fact that virtually all of Levine’s work exists in either regular or super-8mm, small-gauge formats which few showcases have bothered to accept. Levine is also one of the American filmmakers who shares with poets a dogged refusal to interfere with his own evolving idiom in favor of what is trendy or facile. His subjects extend from his daily life (experiences as a political activist, portraits of friends, family, and places, etc.), yet weaving throughout them all is an uncanny feel for cinematic metaphor. “If irrepressible creative energy is its own reward, then Saul Levine has been wholly original you are unlikely ever to see it in the refined precincts of M.O.M.A. or the Whitney.” — P. Adams Sitney.