Available at http://www.der.org/films/screening-ro...

From the Screening Room series
by Robert Gardner
color, 74 min, 1977/2006

A major figure in the American experimental film movement of the 1960s and '70s and a widely published theorist, Hollis Frampton made such acclaimed and influential films as Zorns Lemma, the Hapax Legomena series, and the unfinished Magellan. Retrospectives of his work have been shown at the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Modern Art, and elsewhere. The journal October twice devoted whole issues to Frampton, and the entire bodyof his film work is preserved in the Royal Film Archive of Belgium. Frampton taught at Cooper Union, Hunter College, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. In January 1977, Hollis Frampton appeared on Screening Room to discuss his work and screen:

• Maxwell's Demon (excerpt, 3:34)
• Surface Tension (excerpt, 5:34)
• Lemon (full film with commentary, 4:44)
• Critical Mass (excerpt, 3:04)
• Pas De Trois (full film with commentary, 4:12)
• "Lumier Bits" (became Magellan) (footage, 14:38)

About the Screening Room series:

In the early 1970s a group of idealistic artists, lawyers, doctors and teachers saw an opportunity to change commercial television in Boston and the surrounding area. It would require years of litigation up to and including the Supreme Court, but the case was won and the Channel 5 license was given to WCVB-TV. Screening Room was one of several programs offered in an effort to provide alternative television viewing. The idea behind Screening Room was to give independent filmmakers an opportunity to discuss their work and show it to a large urban audience. Nearly 100 ninety-minute programs were produced and aired between 1973 and 1980.