CAM is pleased to partner with the annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival to present films that explore the world of contemporary art through a cinematic lens. As a complement to Dominic Chambers’ exhibition Birthplace, this film program explores artists’ use of color as a vehicle for imagination, experimentation, and possibility. Much like Chambers’ paintings at CAM, the vibrant use of color in these films evoke personal memories of place along with surreal, abstracted visionings that only an artist’s work can conjure.

This event is free and open to the public and includes complimentary popcorn and refreshments for purchase. Doors open at 6:30 pm. Click here to register.

Komposition in Blau (Composition in Blue) (1935), directed by Oskar Fischinger. 4 min.

In this early example of abstract animation, colorful geometrical shapes and patterns dance in an imagined landscape to Carl Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. 

Courtesy Center for Visual Music, Los Angeles

Color Rhapsodie (1948), directed by Mary Ellen Bute. 6 min.

This experimental short film made its public premiere at Radio City Music Hall in 1951 and features filmmaker Mary Ellen Bute’s use of a number of animation techniques set to Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2”. “[Bute] transcends her influences; her visual imagination triumphs. I like the romantic flair of COLOR RHAPSODY, its visual density…I think it is time to re-see and re-evaluate all of Bute’s work in a new light.” – Jonas Mekas, Soho Weekly News

Courtesy Center for Visual Music, Los Angeles

With Peter Bradley (2023), directed by Alex Rapport. 86 min.

At once an intimate portrait and a deep study of the creative process, With Peter Bradley is situated entirely at the artist’s rural home and studio, and unfolds over the course of changing seasons. The sole figure on screen, Bradley narrates his life in a series of unscripted conversations: often provocative, sometimes bitter, and full of surprises.