PASSING THROUGH:
THE PERSONAL PAPERS AND NETWORKS OF LARRY CLARK

PASSING THROUGH:
THE PERSONAL PAPERS AND NETWORKS OF LARRY CLARK

by Kristin D. Juarez

liquid blackness first learned of Larry Clark’s papers when the film series L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema came to Atlanta in the fall of 2013. In collaboration with Emory University and the Atlanta Film festival, liquid blackness hosted the L.A. Rebellion filmmakers Larry Clark, Billy Woodberry, Haile Gerima, and Zeinabu irene Davis, as well as curators Jacqueline Stewart and Allyson Nadia Field.

“For Clark, documenting the process of making Passsing Through and collecting the records of its international exhibition was a matter of professionalization. ”

Over the course of the series, we learned that Allyson Nadia Field was temporarily holding the personal papers Larry Clark had donated to the UCLA Film & Television Archive. As the research project on PASSING THROUGH (1977) unfolded, it became increasingly important to see exactly what Clark had collected. Over the course of two visits—one by me, and the other by Alessandra Raengo—and the invaluable work of Daniel Langford, we got to know the contents of his papers. Packed into two storage boxes and a handful of manila envelopes was an unprecedented look into the making of Passing Through and the film’s prolific international screening life. Included in Clark’s papers were production stills, filmstrips, slides, numerous festival catalogues and posters, and photos of his travels during a particularly rich moment in black cinema in the international scene in the late 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s.

For Clark, documenting the process of making Passing Through and collecting the records of its international exhibition was a matter of professionalization. As his portfolio, it served as the record of his work to show as he completed his MFA at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and would continue to serve him as he continued on for tenure as a film professor at San Francisco State. In conversation with Clark, he stressed that as a black artist it was important to maintain thorough documentation of the film for continued academic support.[1]

Clark’s papers can be viewed through a variety of lenses. In one sense, Larry Clark’s portfolio exemplifies the process of how film images are made. Contact sheets, headshots, books are marked with Clark’s notes. His notes show his consideration of the film’s color, contrast, and character development. Photos documenting the film’s production evidence the collaboration of filmmakers and actors associated with L.A. Rebellion filmmakers. Barbara O., the lead of Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama(1979) appears on set as production assistant. Director Julie Dash worked on sound; Charles Burnett was a camera operator. Other members of the crew came from the Performing Arts Society of Los Angels (PASLA), where Clark directed the film workshop. In an interview that Alessandra Raengo conducted with Clark, he explained how jazz album covers and jazz clubs served as influence for how he wanted to color the film. The album covers included here in the dossier reflect some of the seminal covers known for their use of modern art, and whose coloration has influenced Clark.

His vast collection of posters, pamphlets, and catalogues of film screenings shows both the exhibition history of Passing Through (for which Clark never sought a wide release), as well as the incredible network of production companies and festivals that were emphatically committed to the creating and exhibiting black films. The catalogues give a glimpse onto the diversity of international independent films, and the consideration of form and politics by film programmers. [2]

Through his papers we learned that Passing Through premiered at the 1977 Los Angeles International Film Exposition with Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, David Lynch’s Eraserhead, Jed Johnson’s Andy Warhol’s Bad and Carlos Saura’s Cria Cuervos. The film also screened extensively throughout Russia, Europe, and Africa. For an interactive chronology and map of its screening history created by Nedda Ahmed, film and art librarian at Georgia State University, visit the Passing Through Exhibition History.

Clark’s papers continue to grow. As word spreads of the project, the collaborative spirit of the film is maintained. Since the research project has started, Larry has shared images of the paintings he has made since 2011. Billy Woodberry and Brockman Gallery have shared photos from their records. By joining his papers, album covers, his paintings, and the photos of others, the dossier points towards the intertwining network of jazz, art, film, and activism at work around the world in the 70s and 80s. As such, the web of material emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary and collaborative scholarship.

Because the research project developed out of the film’s commitment to collaborative making and viewing, it has also been important to make the material public. Clark’s papers give a glimpse into the network of films that circulated together in provocatively focused and diverse configurations, extending the cultural life of the film into surprising places and times. Passing Through showed at times alongside the emerging independent British black cinema (for instance, the output of collectives such as Sankofa or the Black Audio Film Collective), or in the context of African or Pan-African cinema, and at times even alongside New Hollywood Cinema. By making Clark’s papers accessible, we hope to contribute to the increasing publication and dissemination of formal and informal, digital and physical archives of black cultural production.[3] We hope that the images made available through the dossier work to spark and support further scholarship.

Acknowledgements:

Many thanks to Larry Clark, Billy Woodberry and Brockman Gallery for providing their images to us, and granting permission to share them.

We are grateful to Allyson Nadia Field and Daniel Langford who provided access to Clark’s papers and tremendous support towards the digitization process.

Thank you to Alessandra Raengo, Cameron Kunzelman, Lauren Cramer, and Nedda Ahmed for technical and theoretical support on this project.

Funding for the project was generously awarded by Georgia State’s Center for International and Collaborative Arts (CENCIA).

[1] On April 10th 2015, following a public screening with Clark, liquid blackness hosted a workshop for interested faculty and students. During a presentation of material at GSU library’s Collaborative University Research & Visualization Environment (The CURVE) Clark gave clarification on his papers and their contents.

[2] For the purposes of online management, only a limited selection of film festival catalogues has been published on this site.

[3] Examples of archivization projects include Camille Billops and James V. Hatch Archives at Emory University, Donald Rodney’s notebooks and papers at the Tate’s Archives, and the digitization of Romare Bearden’s papers.