Alice Anne Parker Severson

Introduction to Humanities

Alice Anne Parker Severson

My first year Humanities class at the San Francisco Art Institute steps before the camera and introduces itself one by one. This film is an appropriate complement to NEAR THE BIG CHAKRA and should be shown immediately after.

Near the Big Chakra

Alice Anne Parker Severson

Alice Anne Parker Severson

Extreme close-ups of 38 vulvas, aged three months to fifty-six years. Intended as an educational film by and for women, but screened to mixed audiences, the women photographed were mostly friends and acquaintances, or children of friends and acquaintances, of the director. The Glide Methodist Church's education division, which specialized in community service related to sexuality and pregnancy, produced the film, despite the director's male colleagues finding the concept unsavory.

I Change I Am the Same

Alice Anne Parker Severson

Alice Anne Parker Severson, Shelby Kennedy

A short, hilarious film of a woman and a man in various stages of undress - in their own and each other's clothing.

Riverbody

Alice Anne Parker Severson

Alice Anne Parker Severson, Robert Nelson

A continuous dissolve of 87 male and female nudes. "The film's fascination lies with the suspense of that magic moment, halfway between two persons, when the dissolve technique produces composite figures, oftentimes hermaphroditic, that inspires awe for the mystery of the human form." - B. Ruby Rich, Chicago Art Institute

The Struggle of the Meat

Alice Anne Parker Severson

When I was editing my last film, ANIMALS RUNNING, a collection of images grouped themselves together but refused to be included in the film. I spliced them together and put them aside. At the same time I was experimenting with sound loops, inspired by John Lilly's work with dolphin language. Briefly, he discovered that when exposed to a repeating loop in a relaxed atmosphere, a subject would begin to hear sounds or words other than those recorded. I made some loops and found that the phrase "the struggle of the meat" was a particularly evocative one.

Animals Running

Alice Anne Parker Severson

A continuous stream of animals from bison to splinters of fishes. "[A] serenely beautiful ... study of animal life in continual movement - bees swarming, birds in flight, deer running. Photographed in high-contrast black and white, ANIMALS RUNNING is like a series of engravings come to life and its sense of delicacy is heightened by what sounds like rippling xylophone sounds." - Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times

19 Bygone Sweethearts

David Boatwright, Alice Anne Parker Severson

An impressionist investigation of past relationships and true love.