I have a B.A. in Film which I am not using in any career. I have made a couple movies since graduating, but I don’t think I really gained any skills at school that I did not already have.

I didn’t learn much. I don’t think my education was particularly good — it was during the last gasp of a tired faculty that gave up on the promises of 1970s independent cinema 10 years before I got there. I’m a little sour on the whole experience.

However, one really neat thing I cherish was seeing lots of documentaries and experimental films that I would likely never see otherwise.

Experimental films and documentaries are not readily available. One thing that really kills me about the show Documentary Now is that it parodies lots of real documentaries that most people have never seen. Hey, assholes, why don’t you show people the real Salesman or Original Cast Album: Company as a public service instead of poking fun at something really hard to find. Assholes!

Anyways, I saw lots of documentaries and experimental films. Experimental films are even harder to find than documentaries. I can find some online, but the quality is often pretty bad. I found several bad transfers of the 1970s silent film Serene Velocity with audio added. NO. NO LIKE.

One of my favorite experimental films I saw at school is the Standish Lawder film Necrology. I found a copy of it that has pretty nice resolution and preserves the soundtrack, even if it is a bit faint.

Enjoy! (or Don’t!)

P.S. After I wrote this post I had a sinking suspicion I might have talked about this film before. I mentioned it in passing and shared a video of it (now gone) in 2007.

I think it warrants a mention every 16 years. Don’t you?