Mason Williams
2021Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Maureen Muldaur
Tom Smothers, Dick Smothers
The history of the irreverent "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and the content battles it fought with its television network.
Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
The Books of Ed Ruscha
Edward Ruscha
Mason Williams
This rare foray into filmmaking by the iconic California visual artist opens with Mason Williams, the composer of "Classical Gas" solemnly making himself a drink on a hillside patio at dusk as if performing an incantation. Heavy reverb on the soundtrack amplifies every sound until he sits down to read through a stack of Ruscha's photography books, Twentysix Gas Stations, Some Los Angeles Apartments, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, etc. In an over-the-shoulder shot, we see each page of each book as Mason flips through them, briefly contemplating what he sees and reading any available text as a kind distanced recitation. Mason punctuates this seeming solemnity with moments of irreverence, manhandling, at times, these limited edition art objects as if they were toss away shopping catalogs as he presses on with his appointed task
The Books of Ed Ruscha