“My process is that I like to resurrect what is not there. I find something that doesn’t have purpose and I give it purpose. I recycle things.” — Robert Banks
‘Robert Banks is a walking film encyclopedia; his interest in film was fostered by his father Robert C. Banks’ own love of the camera. It is because of his father that Robert Junior took an early interest in learning about photography and filmmaking. After high school and some college, Banks did a stint in the military in 1986-88, training in Texas and Mississippi, before serving abroad in South Korea and at RAF Bentwaters in England. His military career ended shortly after his father died in 1987. Robert Banks, Jr., was honorably discharged in 1988, returning home to the same house in Hough, but to a different family, absent his father. He became even closer to his mother, Nellie D. Goolsby Banks, now age 95.
‘Steeped in 35mm film technologies, techniques, the intersections of avant-garde film and music, Banks is global resource. Six years ago, when Alaskan artist Michael Walsh was in Cleveland for Zygote Press’s Rasmuson Artist Residency, he was looking for a projector to screen the 35mm works he made while in town. Like Banks, Walsh alters the film, “manipulating the physicality of the medium.” At Zygote, this meant printing ink on the film. Scene quoted Walsh in a piece on his culminating event: “If I can get my hands on a 35mm projector before the screening, I will show an excerpt of what I’ve been doing while at Zygote.” Banks showed up with the projector and threaded that messy, printed film through the machine.
‘The recent WAC purchase of his 1997 Motion Picture Genocide and the online exhibition of his and Checefsky’s films together signal a deserved interest in artists who remain committed to film as physical object, and a technology to make moving images with light on screen. Banks’ works from the 1990s, especially MPG and the 1992 critique of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, titled X: The Baby Cinema, are meta-analyses of film narratives about Black men onscreen, using the historical tropes and images that are collaged together on transparent 35mm. The earliest works are moving collage-punk-bricolage.
‘At the start of the new millennium, Robert Banks was making the short film, Embryonic, which was screened at the 2000 Cleveland International Film Festival. This film, which featured at least a dozen actors, signaled a shift to making scenes, props, and characters as intensely colorful and chaotically poetic as films of the previous decades. As actor in scenes by Lake Erie, I learned that the artist’s process also reflects the ethos of intuition that surrealist de Boully wrote of in Hypnos: one blue-sky night in the summer of ‘99 we met at Upper Edgewater Park; I got dressed in my car, donning the 1960s sea-blue dress and silver pumps that we costumed at a vintage shop earlier in the week. In one scene I perch on a rock (the green-blue water behind me backlit by sunset over Lake Erie), curiously, then treacherously, examining an ostrich egg. In a second scene, I stand offering the enormous egg to the viewer, as if to say to him: “You want this responsibility? Have at it.” Other women smash eggs with clunky punk rock shoes, roll them against the ground under placenta-like netting, move like defiant strutting hens, and birth clean white eggs from their mouths. His vision: an agitated homage to female reproductive power in its creative and destructive forms. Robert Banks doesn’t speak for the feminine, he observes, honors, and celebrates it. Like many queers and other feminists in Cleveland, I modeled for Robert because he models for life drawing students. He knows the roles of both subject and object; as female actor, I was subject, not object, not objectified.
‘Robert honors the mother, the planet, his mother. It is she that he references through the ubiquitous female and/or feminine bodies, particularly those from the first ten years of his career. The character-tropes are complicated and always evolving. Robert Banks sees himself in all of them—the white women, the black men, the rowdy kids, Lake Erie, the light from sunsets, which he still celebrates as often as possible at the same breakwater at East 72nd Street. Banks’ new life began in the wake of mourning. His films have subsequently centered on amplifying the power and what is unseen in the mundane amid the magic: a city where liquid-gold water meets concrete block, rusty steel.
‘Robert’s films have a fluidity about them that reflects our Lake Erie and, simultaneously, the decay Cleveland knows just as well. Changeable, powerful, vulnerable—his subjects, the characters in his stories, are universally human. Likewise, the stark reality of our physical environment–where deer roam overgrown industrial lots 55 blocks east of downtown–is always overshadowed by Lake Erie and its wildlife, lake effect snow, wind, and surf. Cleveland is resilient; we find beauty in grit.’ — Gabriel X. Bly
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Stills
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Further
Robert Banks@ Wikipedia
Robert Banks @ instagram
Robert Banks @ Open Sewer
Robert Banks @ IMDb
Robert Banks Is A One-Man Movie Studio
Robert Banks @ Handmade Cinema
Cleveland’s hardest working filmmaker
Robert Banks and Dexter Davis present Color Me Boneface
Robert Banks, Jr. Interview, 03 December 2008
WAKE UP AND SMELL A NEW MILLENNIUM
Robert Banks: The Last Cleveland Filmmaker
Indie filmaker offers insight at Wexner
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Robert Banks: We’ll Talk About That Later (2022)
‘The feature-length documentary Robert Banks: We’ll Talk About That Later follows the challenges and setbacks that face world-renowned experimental filmmaker Robert C. Banks, Jr. as he produces his first feature-length film, PAPER SHADOWS. His short films, including the controversial “X: The Baby Cinema,” have explored topics of artistic expression, identity, race, and gender, and challenge traditional narratives and viewpoints. Robert Banks: We’ll Talk About That Later is a candid and intimate portrait of Robert’s decade-long journey to make his film with limited resources and funds while still staying true to his vision and anti-establishment principles.’
Trailer
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Extras
Robert Banks | PODCASTALAKIS EPISODE 2
Filmmaker Robert Banks Needs Your Help
Robert Banks at CreativeMornings Cleveland, February 2017
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Interview
SPIN: These types of films don’t get made anymore. And I’m talking about the entire process: shot on film, processing a negative, cutting on a flatbed editing machine all with a makeshift or even no crew at all. This is a handmade film.
Robert Banks: I didn’t set out to make an experimental film. I wanted to make an essay using elements of non-linear aesthetic, without having a traditional plot structure.
I got bad news for you: say any of those things at the Netflix offices and they will quickly validate your parking and kindly show you the door.
Unless you’re David Lynch. Or it’s couched inside a Marvel production, like Wandavision. That’s the new subversive cinema. When I first showed Paper Shadows to people, they kept making David Lynch comparisons. I was like, “This is nothing like Lynch.” But they see black and white photography, ethereal soundtrack…that’s all they know. I love David Lynch, but there were people around long before him doing this type of stuff.
Like who? Give me some of the inspirations for this film.
Ingmar Bergman. Jack Smith, Maya Deren, William Greaves, even Orson Welles, and, of course, Jean-Luc Godard.
I noticed a slight nod to Robert Downey Sr., too. There’s a great absurd scene inside a boardroom where the executives have brought in a tarot card reader to guide them through their decision process.
That’s definitely a nod to Putney Swope. [Laughs.] The great Bob Downey. He would never get a movie made today. The whole idea of that scene…if you knew the hoops you have to jump through with the panels that approve arts grants…you might as well engage in some mysticism or pagan rituals. When I submitted Paper Shadows for a grant, I was told by the panel that nobody could shoot a feature film on celluloid for $20,000. So they shot me down. And that’s exactly what I ended up doing.
Give me an elevator pitch of this movie.
[Laughs.] How LA of you… OK: I have an idea for a film, there’s no plot, however, you get to see some cute girls, a bunch of naked people. some trippy music. In fact, this is a film where you can just sit back, smoke a joint, and indulge yourself. At the same time, there’s a message about gender equality, racism and classism, and how we bond together and fight the system to create pure art. What do you think?
Honestly, that might actually play well out here. When did you actually start filming this movie?
January 1, 2011. I had the germ of the idea for this film in my head for years. One day I got a call from a friend who works at NASA, he told me they had all these boxes of expired 35mm Tech Pan film. It’s a gorgeous film stock. He brought it to me, all factory sealed, and I thought, “I gotta do something with this stuff.” I knew that I wanted the film to resemble pen and ink drawings, something that could transport the viewer to another world. So we were ready to go. I was writing the script on the fly, calling up actors, seeing who was available.
The bulk of this film was shot in 2011. Then the derailments started happening, including equipment constantly breaking down, equipment being lent out and never returned, actors and crew flaking out on me…it goes on and on. Plus, I have a job as a teacher. So, we had to stop shooting and didn’t pick back up till 2013, and even then we were still off and on. Production wrapped in late 2016. Post-production took another three years.
Most people would’ve cursed the gods and given up. What kept you going?
Making Paper Shadows was my masters program. I put myself through the wringer. When I hear people say they want to be a filmmaker I say, “you don’t know jack shit about filmmaking because you haven’t done it. Until you get on your hands and knees and bust your ass in ways you never even comprehended before, you know nothing about filmmaking.”
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9 of Robert Banks’s 37 films
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Paper Shadows (2018)
‘Paper Shadows is an experimental feature film project shot on 35mm B&W Film using anamorphic optics for the 2:35.1 aspect ratio for presentation. The running length will be under 70 minutes. The film will focus on 4 main characters. The Central Characters are an widowed African-American Vietnam Vet who works part time as a Janitor at an Art College. The Female lead is a Young White Middle Class Female Undergrad Student completing her final year at school. The Two main Characters also represent Cultural, Class and Generational Gaps in society which are rarely contrasted in mainstream narrative films. The film uses traditional & classic experimental film methods and techniques to provide the viewer with odd metaphoric symbols indicating the social frustration and emotional angst brought upon from the supporting characters. The cinematic visual style is very Eastern European with an original music soundtrack and manipulated found sounds. The finished film will be a 35mm film print optically printed by myself and hand processed in Black & White chemistry. A Pure Analog method of traditional Filmmaking soon to be lost in the Digital World of Modern Cinema.’ — Robert Banks
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w/ Jamie Babbit, Eric Swinderman, Mark Pengryn, Sage O’Bryant, Tony Hartman, Amy Tankersley Swinderman, Cigdem Slankard Made in Cleveland (2013)
‘Made in Cleveland is a 2013 anthology film consisting of 11 short films featuring the work of seven different directors and five screenwriters. The short films all relate in some way to the subject of life, love, and the pursuit of happiness in Cleveland, Ohio. The film was written, directed, produced largely by people with connections to Cleveland, and it stars a cast and crew consisting predominantly of current or former Clevelanders, including Shaker Heights native Jamie Babbit and Cleveland natives Eric Swinderman and Robert C. Banks, Jr.’ — IMDb
Trailer
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A.W.O.L. (2003)
‘Following Outlet (2000), this is the second in a series of military-based experimental tableaux based on director Robert C. Banks’s experience in the United States Air Force.’ — IMDB
the entirety starts at 32:41
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Goldfish & Sunflowers (1999)
‘A riot of shots, sounds, colors, and camera angles, and often scratched-on or painted-on.’ — Expcinema
the entirety starts at 23:22
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Outlet (1999)
‘What do women subject themselves to in order to maintain the image that society dictates they have? Outlet is an intense, skeptical look at cosmetic beauty and the potential havoc it can wreak on one’s persona. Outlet premiered at the 1999 Cleveland International Film Festival. Shot on film, manipulated by hand, edited on film, it’s a great example of award-winning director Robert Banks’ early work — no Photoshop or Final Cut here!’ — Zepie
the entirety
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MPG: Motion Picture Genocide (1997)
‘MPG: Motion Picture Genocide uses handmade techniques to critique the vast history of screen violence inflicted upon African American bodies. An opening image of a hand-painted, yolk-colored circle gives way to more painted frames of purple and cerulean. Banks tells audiences unfamiliar with his cinematic abstractions to “just think about it as graffiti that moves.”36 Toggling between the painted and drawn images (some of which were composed with permanent highlighters) and a panning shot of a young Black man, shirtless, apparently dead on a street, the film quickly adopts the tone of an older horror film. By directly addressing the spectator through text, while juxtaposing bright painterly gestures with murdered Black bodies, Banks attempts to allow his audience to see familiar images of violence with new eyes.’ — Handmade Cinema
Excerpt
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Jaded (1996)
‘In some ways a precursor to Outlet, Jaded is a complex, harsh and visually intense film. Present here are the beginnings of some of the film-manipulation techniques that have become a characteristic of much of Robert Banks’ recent work. Shot on film, manipulated by hand, edited on film.’ — Zepie
the entirety
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Femme Fatale (1993)
‘Femme Fatale is dark, silent, morose — one of award-winning director Robert Banks’ earliest works. It is more narrative in content than some of his recent endeavors and a good base from which to observe the evolution of his filmmaking technique. Shot on film, manipulated by hand, edited on film.’ — Zepie
the entirety
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X: The Baby Cinema (1992)
‘X: The Baby Cinema is a blistering mixed-media essay about the commercial appropriation of Malcolm X’s image, a direct response to the big-budget Warner Brothers biopic.’ — Spin
the entirety
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, I forgot about that scene. And almost about that film. I know the name Marc Blitzstein, I cant remember from where. ** Nightcrawler, I would say the majority of the time even. I hope ‘Juliette’ sits well. I would say in advance, in my opinion at least, ‘120 Days’ is by far his best. It’s sort of everything he did rolled into one conducive package. ** Misanthrope, There was a period when Leonard Cohen only ate meat because he thought plants scream when you pull them out of the ground. Not sure about the logic there since animals certainly don’t take getting killed lightly. Anyway, it was a short period. ** Dominik, Hi!!! It might not be best season to wear a bunny costume — I say that because it’s going to be 39 degrees here today — but, even so, it’s still a good idea. Oh, that’s sad. I loved the ‘Jurassic World’ movie. But I bow to the always superior tastes of Love. Love causing me to sweat 1000 euro bills today, G. ** Anal Del Rey, I’m amazed that I haven’t come across an escort with your name yet. Sure, what do they say … quality over quantity. Mm, both Del Rey and Eilish and dark and moody, and escorts are probably dark and moody dudes deep down? I have friends who love LDR. Her thing is not really my thing, but I get the quality therein. I guess when escorts are especially into BE or LDR, it signals that they’re hooked into the zeitgeist of their generation and are relatively normal dudes or something? I, of course, am more interested in the ones who are into, say, Black Metal. I like my escorts alienated and nihilistic and psychologically tortured, I guess? ** Gus Cali Girls, Hi! Yeah, I think they’re about to reinstitute the indoor mask mandate in California? Here they’re talking about maybe requiring masks on the metro again, but that decree has not come down yet. France has adopted a very casual, wtf attitude towards Covid of late, but we’ll see if it lasts. I’m not the world’s biggest Kris Kristofferson fan either, to be honest. Ha ha ha, yeah, there were droves of walk outs at the Benning screening I saw, even though the person introducing it told people to wait for a surprise at the end, which seemed a little chickenshit, but, yeah, walkouts galore. Still, the screening was packed to begin with, and that made me feel proud of good old France. At least until the walkouts. Cool, exciting, that you’re ready to lay down the vocals. My ears and fingertips are peeled. Have a good day. I hope it’s scalding hot like mine. ** _Black_Acrylic, I know, I know, I should. Right after I buy my Switch, which I’ve been procrastinating on buying for years now. ** Bill, Hi. No real reason to watch the A&F doc. It’s very predictable. I think the ‘Lost Highway’ restore is getting a mini-theater release here. I’ll be there, if so. ** Steve Erickson, I think you would have to go back in a time machine at least a few months to get even a little rich from foisting NFTs. And it’s alive! Everyone, drum roll, clarion of trumpets … here’s Steve Erickson: ‘My new album HEAD FULL OF SNOW is now out. At the risk of blowing my own horn too much, this is the project I’ve spent the most effort mixing, planning sound design and re-working, rather than my earlier practice of finishing a song in a few hours. When it sounded too pretty to me, I didn’t want to make it noisier, but I tried to introduce elements of distortion and disruption, like electronic bubbles during piano chords. (The very first sound on the album is a sample of someone pissing.) Excited to hear it! We have an ideal start date for the shoot in mind but we need to check with the crew and figure out if that date works with the location and equipment rentals and so on, but hopefully we’ll nail it down very soon. Zac and I will go to LA a few times before the actual shoot because there is a ton to do that can only be done in person. So, yeah, it’ll be a lot of back and forth starting probably in late August. ** Okay. Robert Banks is a singular and fascinating filmmaker with whom I’m guessing many of you are unfamiliar. I hope you’ll use your local portion of today to get to know his really worthy works. Thank you. See you tomorrow.
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