James Broughton
James Broughton was an American poet and poetic filmmaker. He was part of the San Francisco Renaissance, a precursor to the Beat poets. He was an early bard of the Radical Faeries as well as a member of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, serving the community as Sister... Read full bio →
Testament
"TESTAMENT is James Broughton's exquisite self-portrait. A major figure in avant-garde filmmaking and poetry since the 1940s, Broughton views his life and life's work with irony, charm, humor, and a combination of joyous self-love and gentle self-depreciation.
High Kukus
In this homage to Zen poet Basho, the subtle changes of a pond are chronicled on film over a period of time. Broughton recites his cuckoo haikus in the background.
Dreamwood
The oneiric quest of a modern argonaut on a mysterious island located somewhere on the borders of the unconscious.
This Is It
James Broughton's creation myth, THIS IS IT, places a 2-year-old Adam and a bright apple-red balloon in a backyard garden of Eden, and works a small miracle of the ordinary. And since that miracle is what his film is about, he achieves a kind of casual perfection in matching means and ends.
The Golden Positions
A lovely, poetic, humorous and crystal investigation of mankind standing, sitting and lying down.
Nuptiae
This film celebrates weddings and being wed, and the union of opposites in everything everywhere.
The Bed
James Broughton's counterculture masterpiece about nudity and a bed.
The Pleasure Garden
People quietly or mischievously pass the time in an overgrown garden full of statues, while a puritanical, funereal gentleman posts bills prohibiting all leisure activities.
Loony Tom
A short black and white film from James Broughton with Kermit Sheets in a Chaplinesque role.
Four in the Afternoon
Poems narrate four afternoon vignettes; each protagonist is older than the one in the previous sketch.
Mother's Day
Accepting the potentialities of the medium to manipulate both time and space, Broughton brings past and present head-on as he regards with adult feelings his childhood family and friends. Grown-ups romp like children, and by their magnified infantilism playfully underscore such basic traits as sadism, sensuality, arid egocentricity.
The Potted Psalm
A soundless mix of story fragments and images. Initially, images of death, a man with a guitar, a soirée. Some images are surreal: an older woman eats a leaf; a headless man pours a cocktail into his body.