Hilary Harris, 1971

Runtime: 73 minutes
Made in collaboration with Robert Gardner
The Nuer call themselves Naath. Only their immediate neighbors, the Dinka, Shilluk and Arabs, call them Nuer. Most foreigners, which includes those with whom the Nuer neither fought nor traded, are called Bar which means ‘almost entirely cattleless’. Those foreigners who live even more remotely and include Europeans are called Jur which means ‘entirely cattleless’, a most unthinkable state indeed.

The people of Ciengach, where the film was made, are the Eastern Jikany, one of about a sixteen distinct tribes of Nuer. Twenty-five years ago E.E. Evans Pritchard estimated the total population of Nuer to be around a quarter of a million. Since then the number has undoubtedly dwindled considerably due to warfare, civil strife, sickness, drought and the general abandonment of traditional lifeways.

distributed by Documentary Educational Resources

Robert Gardner, 1997

Passenger is the title of a painting by Sean Scully, the well-known American artist. It was done in his studio in Barcelona in the early summer of 1997. A friend, the filmmaker Robert Gardner, made what he calls “an observation in four movements. The intent of the piece is to impart an experience of the engagement by Scully with the work in question, an engagement which is both physical and emotional. The only sounds are those made by the artist as he works and, occasionally, musical passages from tapes Scully listens to while he is painting.

distributed by Documentary Educational Resources

Barry Ferguson and Michael Butler with Robert Gardner and Gerald Holton, 1965

This film was produced to make the life of science more appealing to school children in America. It was intended to tell the story of purpose and even drama that scientists experienced in the world of experimental physics. The film recounts the long and complicated life cycle of a high energy physics experiment.

distributed by American Association of Physics Teachers

Robert Gardner, 1974

My first choice as a title for the film that became Rivers of Sand was Creatures of Pain. Though it seemed at the time to evoke most aptly the central theme of the work, I was persuaded by friends not to use it. They felt, perhaps correctly, that it was too somber, too susceptible to wrong interpretation. But what I heard in those words is what I felt as I made the film: the anguish of an ordeal and a process by which men and women accommodate each other in the midst of conflict and tension caused by fidelity to their culture’s values.

The people portrayed in this film are called Hamar. They dwell in the thorny scrubland of southwestern Ethiopia, about one hundred miles north of Lake Rudolph, Africa’s great inland sea. They are isolated by some distant choice that now limits their movement and defines their condition. At least until recently, it has resulted in their retaining a highly traditional way of life.

Part of that tradition was the open, even flamboyant, observance of male supremacy. In their isolation, they seemed to have refined this not uncommon principle of social organization into a remarkably pure state. Hamar men are masters and their women are slaves. The film tries to disclose the effect on mood and behavior of lives governed by the idea of sexual inequality.

The 2008 Special Edition DVD includes:

• The film optimally remastered for sound and image from a new 35mm blow up
• Audio commentary track by Robert Gardner and Robert Fenz
• Photo gallery featuring still images and journal entries read by Robert Gardner

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Seen above, Jean Rouch appeared on Screening Room in July 1980 and screened Les Maitres Fous as well as several film excerpts including Rhythm of Work and Death of a Priest. Over a period of five decades Jean Rouch made many films about the Songhay and Dogon of West Africa.

Screening Room was a 1970s Boston television series that for almost ten years offered independent filmmakers a chance to show and discuss their work on a commercial (ABC-TV) affiliate station. This unique program dealt even-handedly with animation, documentary, and experimental film, welcoming such artists as Derek Lamb (1973 & 1975), Jan Lenica (1973), John & Faith Hubley (1975), Emile de Antonio (1973), Jean Rouch (1980), Ricky Leacock (1973), Jonas Mekas (1975), Bruce Baillie (1975), Yvonne Rainer (1977) and Michael Snow (1975). Frequently, guests such as Octavio Paz, Stanley Cavell, and Rudolph Arnheim appeared as well. The filmmakers presented on the show are now considered the most influential contributors to their respective genres. Nearly 100 programs were produced during the years Screening Room was broadcast.

Recently, The Museum of TV and Radio in New York City offered to copy the two-inch master tapes that had been given to the Film Study Center. Thirty programs have been edited for release as DVDs. In 2008 Gardner received an Anthology Film Archives Film Preservation Honor for this series.

Les Blank (1975) Stan Brakhage (1973 & 1980) Robert Breer (1976) James Broughton (1977) Ed Emshwiller (1975) Hollis Frampton (1977) Robert Fulton (1973 & 1979) George Griffin (1976) Hillary Harris (1973 & 1979) Peter Hutton (1977) Standish Lawder & Stanley Cavell (1973) Caroline Leaf & Mary Beams (1975) Alan Lomax (1975) Suzan Pitt (1975) Richard P. Rogers (1975) John Whitney Sr. (1972).

distributed by Documentary Educational Resources.

Robert Gardner, 1998

A short film acknowledging the efforts of those responsible for installing the exhibition Sean Scully 1987-1997 in Malaga. Equally important, the film captures Scully’s parents dancing their beloved ‘paso doble’ in the midst of their son’s work.

distributed by Documentary Educational Resources

In 1997 Robert Gardner visited friend and well-known American painter Sean Scully in his Barcelona studio. He documented the making of two paintings, Testigos and Passenger, and the opening of “Sean Scully 1987-1997” at Salas del Palacio Episcopal in Malaga. This DVD, an important document of an influential modern artist, brings together the three short films made during that summer.

Testigos – 10 minutes
Testigos is a small painting done when Gardner and Scully worked together in Barcelona. The title, which means ‘witnesses,’ is the name of a small island in the Caribbean. Testigos, and at least one other painting, was made on the days that the larger canvas Passenger was drying.

Passenger – 25 minutes
In Passenger Gardner made what he calls “an observation in four movements.” The intent of the piece is to impart an experience of the engagement by Scully with the work in question, an engagement which is both physical and emotional. The only sounds are those made by the artist as he works and, occasionally, musical passages from tapes Scully listens to while he is painting.

Scully in Malaga – 7 minutes
A short film acknowledging the efforts of those responsible for installing the exhibition “Sean Scully 1987-1997” in Malaga. Equally important, the film captures Scully’s parents dancing their beloved ‘paso doble’ in the midst of their son’s work.

distributed by Documentary Educational Resources

Robert Gardner and Akos Ostor, 1985

Sons of Shiva is a sustained attempt to film a four day ceremony concerned with the worship of Shiva. Devotees of the God Shiva are shown from the initial taking of the Sacred Thread through gradually intensifying action to a culmination in a variety of ascetic and self-denying practices. Devotees are also shown in informal activities such as preparing food and listening to recitals of devotional songs by the famous mendicant Bauls of Bengal.

Among the specific devotional practices is the fulfillment of vows to please the gods. Many devotees resolve to roll in prostration through the field to the shrine of Shiva. Others participate in the nightly processions that involve falling in trance while dancing and holding a symbol of Shiva on one head. One of the highlights of the film is a performance by a group of Bauls (wandering holy men and religious troubadours) who sing devotional songs for the resting devotees. This film belongs to the Pleasing God series of films about how Hindus worship.

distributed by Documentary Educational Resources