Outsider Cinema

Pat O'Neill

Pat O'Neill. O'Neill at a screening of Water and Power in Veracruz, Mexico, 2012.
  • 1989Water and Power
  • 19677362
  • 2002The Decay of Fiction
Echoed in
  • The Empire Strikes Back1980
OC 019 · b. 1939 · Los Angeles, California

He stacked desert landscapes, found footage and animation on homemade optical printers, years before digital compositing.

O'Neill studied design at UCLA, graduating in 1962, and took an MFA there in 1964. He trained as a sculptor and also works in drawing, collage and installation. His first film, By the Sea (1963), was made with Bob Abel. He began teaching at CalArts in 1970, and his students there included Adam Beckett and Larry Cuba, who later worked on the effects for Star Wars.

He is best known for work made on the optical printer, using printers he built himself and war-surplus equipment. He layers found footage, new material, animation and Southern California landscapes into dense, often funny composites. Canyon Cinema, his distributor, says the work anticipated digital imagery. He also made effects composites for commercial work.

His first 35mm feature, Water and Power (1989), won the documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1990 and was added to the National Film Registry in 2008. Later features include Trouble in the Image (1996) and The Decay of Fiction (2002). He has had retrospectives at Tate Modern, the Whitney and the Centre Pompidou.

Films

Where to start with Pat O'Neill, in the order they were made. Runtimes are approximate.

  1. A still from 7362.

    7362

    1967 · 10 min · 16mm, black and white and colour

    Live footage turned by optical printing and solarisation into symmetrical, Rorschach-like abstract animation. Joseph Byrd wrote most of the music.

  2. A still from Saugus Series.

    Saugus Series

    1974 · 19 min · 16mm

    Seven short films joined by one soundtrack, each an optically printed composite of found footage and new scenes.

  3. A still from Water and Power.

    Water and Power

    1989 · 57 min · 35mm

    A portrait of Los Angeles and of the Owens Valley, drained for the city's water, built from layered and composited images. It won the documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

  4. A still from The Decay of Fiction.

    The Decay of Fiction

    2002 · 1 hr 14 min · 35mm, colour

    Shot in the derelict Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Transparent figures and scraps of dialogue from old Hollywood films drift through the rotting building.

Echoed in

Where O'Neill's ideas turned up next.