Biographical Elements

Paul Sharits began by directing staged, narrative films between 1958 and 1965. However, in 1966, “in a rage of non-narrative commitment” (as he describes in his article “Exhibition/Frozen Frames”), he destroyed these films—only one of them, Wintercourse (1962), has been preserved and rediscovered. Summing up this period, Sharits describes these films as haikus, that is, general research into filmic temporality as instant composition.

It is touching to note that when he describes the evolution of his work, Sharits begins by mentioning this self-destruction on two separate occasions: in the articles “Exhibition/Frozen Frames” (1974) and “Hearing:Seeing” (1975). It is as if Sharits’ films originated in the destruction of previous images that were no longer wanted, that he no longer wanted to make and that must never be seen again. Of course, these origins prove to be more symbolic than realistic because the destruction of the narrative films dates to 1966 and the creation of the first “Sharitsian” film dates to 1965: Ray Gun Virus, his first flicker film (a rapid succession of frames chosen for their powerful contrasts—between positive and negative, different colors, and figuration and abstraction).

Sharits’ films belong to a historical current that was baptized “structural film,” a current that dominated experimental cinema between the late 1960s and late 1970s. Filmmakers belonging to this international movement were American (Sharits, George Landow, Hollis Frampton…), Canadian (Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland…), Austrian (Kurt Kren, Peter Kubelka…), German (Birgit and Wilhelm Hein…) and English (Malcolm Le Grice, Peter Gidal…). Of course, the work of each of these filmmakers is different but if it were necessary to determine their common denominator, two basic principles would be:

• 1. A structural film is a reflexive film, it is devoted to elucidating something about its own workings and therefore partaking in a description and even a definition of cinema;

• 2. A structural film is part of an overall investigation into film's properties and powers—or, more precisely, as Sharits describes it himself, “cinematics.