Stan Brakhage is one of the most important experimental filmmakers of all time. His short films and writing on the medium have had a huge amount of influence on both experimental and mainstream filmmakers. Directors from Terrence Malick to Martin Scorsese have aped aspects of Brakhage’s style for sequences in their films. To those without an interest in the medium he was also the creators of South Park college Professor so that’s influence enough.
Brakhage’s short film The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes is one of his most distinct and to some by far his most disturbing. The work is numerous real autopsies shot with Brakhage’s distinctive fast-cut style with no soundtrack at all. The autopsies are at various stages so there are seemingly gentle scenes of a pathologist holding the hand of a cadaver as he drains its fluids. In contrast, there is the full removal of a person’s ribcage and to use non-medical terms all the internal stuff as their now scalped head lies over their face like a bedsheet.
The Act Of Seeing is actually part of Brakhage’s Pittsburgh trilogy with it just being the most famous due to its ugly subject matter. The Pittsburgh trilogy saw Brakhage engage with a documentary style with more of a focus on the ‘realistic’ aspects of filmmaking. As a result, these films lack the often surreal imagery of his other films. Despite the documentary essence of the short lacks any soundtrack or explanatory text completely removing the context for a layman (who is everyone except morgue workers or serial killers). This makes the viewer focus on deeper aspects than the purely technical and to me this makes the autopsy take on the appearance of a ritual. The repetition of measuring the corpse with a ruler starts to look like a form of blessing and the extraction of organs especially the brain brings up images of ritual mummifications.
Obviously due to the subject matter of the short it’s very easy to be repulsed and disturbed by Brakhage’s short. However, thanks to how it is shot, edited and the lack of soundtrack what are normally intensely disturbing and cold footage gains an intimate air. When I viewed The Act Of Seeing I thought that it stripped away much of the viscerally disgusting nature of an autopsy. Despite the sheer ugliness of the shots, it all comes together to make it seem like a deeply caring process one in which brutality is used to preserve the body for as long as possible. This makes it to me perhaps the only life-affirming work that includes a brain being extracted. As a result, I recommend The Act Of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes of course with the heavy caveat that if you feel you have a strong enough stomach. But at least in my experience, the film makes it so what would be nausea-inducing is not due to the warmth it’s able to convey.
The short is also worth it for anyone interested in the act of filmmaking. Brakhage’s style is a mish-mash of techniques and it’s interesting to see him not use certain elements such as his use of painting directly on film. Michael F. Miller has argued that the vivid colours of the brain extraction are reminiscent of his use of painting in his more abstract shorts. As a result, The Act Of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes is a particularly interesting piece of Brakhage’s filmography. Thanks to the internet what previously was a filmography reserved to areas such as Universities is now widely available with the link provided being from YouTube.
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