FILMOGRAPHY
CHEN FILMS
Fred’s Park (possible , as yet unconfirmed)
Caterpillar (possible, as yet unconfirmed)
One for One (1963)
Hand Held High (1965)
The Hero (1965)
Swap Meet (1965)
Grave Echoes (1966)
Episiotomy (1966)
Electric Interactions (1967)
TRIMBIN FILMS
ONE FOR ONE (aka Labor Day 1963) is now an interesting look back on Fred’s folk music roots since it stars Terry Wadsworth, who was another underground folkie back in the day, and onetime member of the New Christy Minstrels. An interesting sidenote is that the film also stars Nancy Gray, and Nancy and Terry actually had a baby in 1963 named Summer…If you look closely during one of the early credit images which has a picture of Nancy and the text “One for one – Summer – 63 you can see the reflection of Fred”
HAND HELD HIGH is an early unfinished project Fred worked on that uses Stanton Kaye as the subject. Roughly 45 minutes of footage was shot, but never edited or finished
THE HERO was clearly made while Fred and Stanton Kaye were still friends as the end of the titles negative contains some brief shots of Kaye sitting in a chair. As a film The Hero is a nice mixture of Fred’s trimbin style matched with some originally shot footage featuring a man played by Lawrence Brighton as he struggles with a conscionable action. The story is the closest to a straight forward narrative that we have found of Fred’s non-documentary films.
SWAP MEET shows early evidence of what was to come with Fred’s filmmaking in that it takes a fairly standard documentary subject and presents it in a poetic and experimental way. This one was inspired by Kaye’s dad who was a regular at the swap meets before they became a hip place to go.
GRAVE ECHOES was a collaborative piece that was made following the death of JFK that was funded by Robert Vaughn. There was the film component which is presented here in which Vaughn performs the narration. There was also a book that was produced that included similar images of JFK coupled with text quotes from various speeches by JFK.
EPISIOTOMY is probably one of Fred’s more well known films. It mixes in some of his trademark elements such as the use of the trimbin footage, negative images and non sync sound. This was clearly made while the friendship with Stanton Kaye was still in effect since he is seen throught the film rolling through film reels. Before Engelberg eventually made up some composite prints he preferred that the audio and picture for this film be started separately in order to create a unique viewing experience every time, so we are presenting it that way here.