Adrian Salas

Adrian SalasMIAS 210Winter 2015

The Challenge of Harry Smith and the Avant-garde in FilmAmerican artist Harry Smith (1923-1991) dabbled in a broad range of disciplines across the artistic spectrum. As Rani Singh, Smiths one-time assistant and later executor of his estate, states in reference to Smith, [w]ell never be able to separate the truth entirely from myth, but we can be sure that from an early childhood there were instilled an appreciation of nature and an alchemical synthesis of the arts and sciences, which culminated in the melding of music, anthropology, linguistics, ethnology, film, occultism, design, and the plastic arts.[footnoteRef:0] Smith is maybe best known for curating and compiling together the Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952 from his personnel collection of 78 RPM records.[footnoteRef:1] No less a personage than Beat Generation figurehead Allen Ginsberg has said, [t]his box-set was a historic bomb in American folk music. It turned on Peter, Paul and Mary, tuned on the whole folk music world at the time...[footnoteRef:2] Beyond his influential take on musicology, Smith also built up a significant body of work in film spanning roughly twenty films in forty years (exact numbers change depending on where one sources their filmographic information), which is perhaps his most extensive surviving artistic legacy.[footnoteRef:3] Examining the material and intellectual issues with some of his key works such as Heaven and Earth Magic, Mahagonny, and Early Abstractions will shed light on some of the issues involved with conserving and preserving the legacy of a rather non-traditional filmmaker operating outside the normal studio channels that are normally thought of as the home of moving images. [0: Singh, Rani. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 13.] [1: Cohen, John. "Sing Out!, Volume 19, No.1, 1969." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith --Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 66-100. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999.] [2: Ginsberg, Allen, and Hal Willner. "Introduction: Allen Ginsberg Interview with Hal Willner." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith - Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 4.] [3: "Curriculum Vitae." Harry Smith Archives. Accessed March 15, 2015. http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/1_bio/index.html.]

Artists such as Smith possess major shortcomings when it comes to custodianship of their materials. Simply taking an accurate survey and inventory of his work is somewhat complicated, as Smith was prone to sell, lose, or destroy works original works of his at random (paintings as well as films), with little or no documentation or thoughts to future posterity.[footnoteRef:4] Smith was also an interminable editor who constantly would go back to earlier works in his filmography to obtain material to incorporate into later works which further muddies the water as to making a complete picture of his projects. Smith had a system of numbering his works sequentially (Film #1, Film #2, etc...) in addition to alternative titles given to some works, although not every number seems to have an existent corresponding work, or many times early works get incorporated into later works. Looking at various sources for a comprehensive filmography yields a range of answers for the amount of material he released. There are works going all the way to number fourteen listed in the Film-makers Cooperative Catalogue no. 3 from 1965 (this catalogue is from way before Smiths death in 1991 or the end of his active film-making but this list gets subsequently republished in P. Adams Sitneys most current third edition of Visionary Cinema from 2002). A program for an event called Articulated Light at Harvard in 1995 includes a filmography that tops out at Film #18, Mahagonny. The Articulated Light list subsequently is republished as the filmography used for the books Thinking of the Self Speaking and American Magus. The filmography found on the webpage for the Harry Smith Archives, and subsequently sourced with some additions to Wikipedia, shows Smith as having produced works all the way up to Film #20. Finally, referring to the Getty Research Institutes inventory of the Harry Smith Research Archive, which the Getty acquired in 2013, there is a listing noting a hand spliced reel of 16mm film in the collection titled Film #22. The breadth of his legacy combined with Smiths somewhat eccentric and at times erratic lifestyle of cadging money off his friends, as Allen Ginsburg says, resulted in conditions that were often perilous to the survival and correct accounting of his films.[footnoteRef:5] [4: Singh, Rani. "Harry Smith Interview." Interview by author. March 5, 2015.] [5: Ginsberg, Allen. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 109.]

The films of Harry Smith usually take the form of experimental projects situated in the avant-garde. Cinema historian and Anthology Film Archive co-founder P. Adams Sitney attempts to contextualize American avant--garde cinema by stating: The precise relationship of the avant-garde cinema to American commercial film is one of radical otherness. They operate in different realms with next to no significant influence on each other.[footnoteRef:6] Adams in short outlines a theory that avant-garde cinema exists as a complete separate entity from traditional popular films and that the two share very little aside from the basic medium and technology of moving image recording and playback. In the case of Harry Smith and his filmed works, Sitney reserves a fair measure of praise: [6: Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film: The American Avant-garde, 1943-2000 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. xii.]

The hand-painted films with which he began his career as a film-maker are the most remarkable ever achieved in that technique; and his subsequent films, both animated and photographed from actuality, sustain his stature as one of the central film-makers of the avant-garde tradition.[footnoteRef:7] [7: Ibid. 235.]

Smiths films often encapsulate animation and collage to create non-narrative art works, and are rife with symbolism culled from his anthropological studies of spiritual and philosophical works. Many of his films are also influenced by his interest in alchemy. Given Smiths musicological studies, naturally sound and music often plays major roles in Smiths works, inspiring him to incorporate recorded audio works that he comes across or creates as the aural component to his film, and even as a direct influence on the visual content. Films for an experimental or avant-garde oriented creator such as Smith were an ongoing project. A great challenge in preservation, distribution and later restoration is to decide what the films intended fixed form should be. Artists such as Smith could be particularly painstaking and laborious in their continuous re-imagining of their works. According to Singh, it seemed that Smith often worked with no defined endpoint in mind for what form his films were to ultimately take.[footnoteRef:8] This raises many issues for caretakers of his filmic legacy, because even though there may be clues such as documentation of exhibitions, artists notes and papers, and existing prints and videos, the ultimate form a work is to take was often beholden to the whims of the artist or external forces such as running out of resources, or approaching a deadline imposed by an exhibitor sponsor such as a representing gallery. [8: Singh, Rani. "Harry Smith Interview." Interview by author. March 5, 2015.]

While one can contend that all film makers are constrained by the limitations of their resources and backers, an independent, non-commercial film maker like Smith works on a different scale of economics then filmmakers working for a studio or producer. Some projects may literally consist of one man, and as such film making could potentially go on indefinitely assuming the artist has the will to continuously work on a project. Singh was quick to point out that Harry Smith often made his films for himself under his own volition, and aside from occasional grants, often lived quite destitute. The story Jonas Mekas relates to how the Film-Makers Cooperative came to take in several of Smiths work illustrates the catch-as-catch-can nature of how his filmography came to be preserved: He comes in--I see Harry Smith, and he drops his three or four boxes of films, Can you take care--can you show my films, here they are, you can have them, do what you want with them... Those were Early Abstractions, Late Superimpositions, and Heaven and Earth Magic--his key works. Then a few days later he again came in and I found out more--that these were the actually prints--that the originals do not exist or he doesnt know where they are--tell you the truth, even now, today, we dont know.[footnoteRef:9] [9: Mekas, Jonas. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 79.]

As often Smith was the only party with a say in the chain of custody for his productions, this left many of Smiths films subject to his idiosyncrasies until such time that someone like Anthology Film Archive or Film-Makers Cooperative could take in copies of his films.Display of artists work in and of itself can be a contentious issue encountered in the preservation of experimental film and video works. Smith was fond of exploring the artifice of motion picture display. Often this resulted in works that were intended to have non-standard projections and presentations. Smith has stated: In a number of cases Ive made special screens to project films on. All those so-called early abstract films had special screens for them. They were made of dots and lines. All those things disappeared.[footnoteRef:10] Beyond the issue of Smiths custom screens, there are other complications with presentation beyond the conservation and projection of film elements that exhibitors and preservation minded parties have to take into account with screening Smiths works. [10: Sitney, P. Adams. "Film Culture No. 37, 1965." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 44-64. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 55.]

Heaven and Earth Magic: Film #12 Issues of display raise their head in one of Smiths most famous works, Heaven and Earth Magic: Film #12 (ca.1957-1962). Talking about screening Heaven and Earth Magic, Jonas Mekas outlines the rather complex conditions of how Smith originally presented the work: He had structures, machines constructed specifically to project Heaven and Earth Magic... So he screened from 62--63 on that contraption--on the special machine where there was a screen and the film was projected. It was projected on a screen that has ornaments around it. And he projected--around the film itself--other images and designs, and used also color filters here and there. So it was like every time it was slightly different and it was very impressive. I think its a masterpiece, even when you see it in the black and white version as its projected now.[footnoteRef:11] [11: Mekas, Jonas. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 80.]

The film as originally shown comes to resemble almost an immersive experience where the audience is witness to active compositing of the imagery before them. The films become performative actions, in a way, as their complete meanings are continuously being created and somewhat reconstructed with each screening according to variables beyond the standard ones which go into motion picture projection. Taking into account how much of the presentation was dictated by Smiths presence, the preservation of these films require parties to engage in active negotiation with the material to determine how much of Smiths ancillary elements feasibly can and should be included in the films presentation going forward. Items such as Smiths custom projector are probably too much of an idiosyncrasy and too difficult to feasibly reconstruct, minus the existence of extensively detailed technical documentation and interested parties with enough technical expertise and resources to undertake such a project. As Smith described it, the projector was to show slides along with the film, and allow for the slides to be taken out and changed as the film ran.[footnoteRef:12] This would have allowed Smith to frame his scenes in ways that responded to the narrative, by changing what went on outside the traditional areas employed by a moving image projection. Presentation elements such as the filters, gels, and custom drawings added to projections would be less of a challenge to incorporate into a presentation in a more fixed form, such as digitally editing in colors to a restored preservation, but this is dependent on whether examples and documentation exist for what Smith had in mind. This last step can be quite complicated, as Jonas Mekas, among others with similar stories, recounts later in the previously quoted interview several occasions when Smith tossed films as well as other ephemera and equipment he was using out into the street during a screening in a fit of rage.[footnoteRef:13] [12: Sitney, P. Adams. "Film Culture No. 37, 1965." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 44-64. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 61.] [13: Mekas, Jonas. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 80-81.]

At the end of the day, a preservationist must work best with what material they have. Even if Smiths extra--filmic elements exist, it can prove prohibitively complicated to re--incorporate them into the film. A judgment call must be made in which it is decided whether the extra elements are inextricable to viewing and understanding the film. Mekas himself seems to find that the black and white print version still stands up on its own merits, even with none of the other adornments of Smiths original presentation. It is perhaps bests to view the filters, extra images and, custom screens as illuminating additions to the film, should there be a way to incorporate them according to the original presentations but not prohibitive obstacles for viewers taking in the experience. An appropriate parallel can be perhaps drawn with the tinting and toning incorporated into silent films. The extra step of tinting was not something that was unwaveringly reproducible (within certain limits) like creating the films prints themselves. Rather, tinting, much like Smiths extra flourishes required an artisanal intervention with the produced film to introduce the dye to the film stock. While a tinted silent can change the reception of the film by the audience, it is not a necessary element to the distribution and screening of a work. While, it would be preferable to see moving images reproduced with their exact original presentation elements intact, if the main heart of a work is still intact like with the actual film of Heaven and Earth Magic an audience can still derive a significant part of the experience from viewing the piece if it holds enough artistic merit and is crafted well enough, as Mekas indicates.

Mahagonny: Film #18Smiths film Mahagonny (ca.1970-1980), also known as Film #18, is a prime case--study of the difficulties inherent in attempting to present a nontraditional film work in a way that is respectful to the perceived intentions of the artist. The technical challenges of reconstituting the film are detailed in a short documentary, Restoring Harry Smiths Mahagonny, which was prepared to coincide with the 2002 restoration of the work.[footnoteRef:14] The film, according to different sources, was either shot over six years (according to the restoration documentary), or shot over two years starting in 1970 and subsequently edited for the next eight (according to Rani Singh).[footnoteRef:15] This confusion is perhaps par for the course with a personality like Smith, whose rambling interviews can read like a concoction of half-truths, misremembrances, mis-direction, the fantastical and occasional frankness. For instance, in an interview on his filmography conducted in 1965, a few simple questions posed to Smith about dating related to his age and filmography causes Smith to launch into a long series of far-fetched biographical details (including his supposed familial ties to the Czarina of Russia, The Knights Templar, The Masons and Aleister Crowley) which eventually leads him to make the following admission: Theres confusion in the notes for the Catalogue [Film-makers Cooperative No.3, 1965], because I tend to glamorize, saying that I did such and such at a much earlier age than I did it.[footnoteRef:16] At any rate, both time frames given for the length of Mahagonnys production imply that much thought was given by Smith in planning and editing down the footage as it finally came to be presented in 1980. [14: Restoring Harry Smith's Mahagonny, Directed by Simon (New York: Cineric, Inc, 2002). Online. Accessed March 13, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klCfLPaC4Vg.] [15: Singh, Rani. "The Getty Research Institute Presents Harry Smith's Film #18, Mahagonny: Symposium Statement." Harry Smith Archives. January 1, 2002. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/4_news/mahagonny.html.] [16: Sitney, P. Adams. "Film Culture No. 37, 1965." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 44-64. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 51.]

The piece, as originally conceived, was intended to be shown by having two projectionist running four 16mm projectors and a reel to reel tape recorder simultaneously. The films program itself consisted of twelve twenty-five minute reels of 16mm films, which were then copied to create another twelve reels of mirrored footage. All twenty-four reels of footage were then to be run in unison on the four projectors according to a chart of Smiths devising. The presentation was intended to be accompanied by a 1956 German language recording of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weills 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (or Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in the original German).[footnoteRef:17] The complication of running the two hour and twenty-one minute film resulted in only six screenings at the Anthology Film Archives in 1980, all under the direct supervision of Smith.[footnoteRef:18] When it came time to restore the piece there was some challenge on how exactly the presentation of the film was to be preserved. Even if the 16mm elements for the four projectors were preserved, restored, and released for distribution the issue of running the film correctly would be a prohibitive challenge for many potential exhibitors, due to the equipment involved and the issues that would present themselves with attempting to correctly synchronize the run times for four prints. The solution that was finally settled on was to compile the four 16mm prints into a 35mm composite print with the four different images running together in a single tiled frame along with an optically printed soundtrack. [17: Hoberman, Jim. "Mirror Men." The Village Voice Movies. September 10, 2002. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://www.villagevoice.com/2002--09--10/film/mirror-men/.] [18: "Harry Smith's Film #18, Mahagonny." Getty Research Institute, Exhibitions & Events. January 1, 2002. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/events/mahagonny.html.]

To properly prepare the restoration, documentation was consulted to determine the correct order and aesthetics for the piece. Sources included Harry Smiths charts which laid out his plan for the performance, pictures of Smith working, and interviews with audience members from the 1980 Anthology screenings. Determining the films final presentation was complicated by Smiths continuous re-editing of the piece, but by comparing the running times of the 16mm prints with Smiths charts, and then referencing slides made by photographers documenting the event and Harry Smiths preparations, sequencing, running order, and the correct orientation of the four projections with each other were eventually deduced. Another problem was determining how the four prints were intended to run together in time.[footnoteRef:19] Three of the prints could easily be coordinated according to the documentation present, but the fourth proved troublesome. After ruminating over the problem, the preservationist working on the print discovered that one of the projectors was intended to lag behind the others by 14 seconds. Once this key bit of information was uncovered, the other pieces of the preservation fell into place in short order.[footnoteRef:20] [19: Restoring Harry Smith's Mahagonny, Directed by Simon (New York: Cineric, Inc, 2002). Online. Accessed March 13, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klCfLPaC4Vg.] [20: Singh, Rani. "Harry Smith Interview." Interview by author. March 5, 2015.]

The compilation of the four 16mm films into a single 35mm print, showcases the type of problem solving that must be undertaken to ensure non-traditional works can be presented outside their original contexts. While the composite optical print may not necessarily be 100% accurate to Smiths original performances, the amount of variability inherent in the original showings due to the number of elements involved in projecting the films means that pursuing a 100% accurate recreation of the 1980Anthology screenings is perhaps a fools errand. Rather, the composite print ensured Mahagonny was able to have a stable record and a greater avenue of venues able to show the film to interested audiences. Avant-garde films are not made with wide appeal in mind, but artificially limiting the range of the films potential audience due to technical limitations that can easily be overcome is not ideal either. Although none besides Harry Smith could ever say for sure, the practical choices made by the Mahagonny preservation walk a fine line, but seem to fairly balance the needs of practical presentation while not substantially altering Smiths original vision.

Early AbstractionsSmiths film Early Abstractions (ca. 1964) was edited together as an anthology of his earliest works from his earlier films, Film(s) #1-5, #7, and #10. According to the Harry Smith Archives, the film was originally a silent print and designed to be accompanied by a reel to reel soundtrack provided by the band the Fugs, whom Smith was associated with through producing their first album.[footnoteRef:21] Smith was screening the film in New York in the early 1960s with the Fugs soundtrack, and then proceeded to get in an argument with someone in the middle of the showing and throw down his equipment and tapes, and subsequently that was the last time he used the Fugs soundtrack.[footnoteRef:22] Around 1965, Early Abstractions was re-edited and released for distribution with an optical soundtrack taken from the Beatles 1964 Meet the Beatles! LP. This seems to have been a completely unlicensed or authorized use of the Beatles music though, so it was somewhat of a calculated risk to release the Abstractions in this form. Somehow this does not seem to have seriously impeded the distribution of the film through the years, despite the Beatles notoriously protective label Apple Records reputation (although Abstractions was re-edited before Apple Records formed in 1968, so it seems initially the danger was in running afoul of either the Beatles British label Parlaphone or their US label Capitol). [21: "Curriculum Vitae." Harry Smith Archives. Accessed March 15, 2015. http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/1_bio/index.html.] [22: Mekas, Jonas. American Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996. 80.]

Many of the filmographies and interviews encountered for Harry Smith list the Beatles cut of the film, so it seems to be the version of Early Abstractions that had the most penetration into the public. It is curious that in Mekas interview from 1993, he talks about finally pulling the Beatles version (whether this is through Anthology Film Archive or Film-Makers Cooperative is a bit unclear), and the hopes that Mystic Fire Video will put out a variant version of the film with what is said to be the original jazz soundtrack on video at some time in the near future.[footnoteRef:23] Therefore it is curious that a DVD from 2013 released under the aegis of the Harry Smith Archives called Harry Smith: Selected Films said to be sourced from new digital transfers contains the Meet the Beatles! soundtrack on Early Abstractions. When I asked Rani Singh about this, she said that she just has never considered it an issue as they film has never been challenged by the Beatles or any of their representatives in all the years it has been in distribution. Her reasoning is that the film is too under the radar and small for them to be concerned with going after, even though it was deemed significant enough to be named to the Library of Congresss National Registry in 2006.[footnoteRef:24] [23: Ibid.] [24: "Complete National Film Registry Listing." National Film Preservation Board. Accessed March 15, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/.]

Soundtracks and scores can be of enormous concern in the preservation process, but perhaps just as much, if not more, for the rights issues than the technical concerns. While there is a significant amount of legwork involved with clearing rights for moving images, the basic process can be fairly straightforward if a chain of custody can be determined for the rights holders.[footnoteRef:25] Music copyright on the other hand is a much more complicated process. The number of parties that must be dealt with in obtaining rights to either use a song or to re-license a song that was previously cleared can start to become staggering due to the many facets involved with music rights. As one recent book on the process of film production states: Clearing music... is one of the thorniest jobs a producer can do. It usually requires extensive research, long delays, and complex negotiations. If you ever have the experience of trying to clear many songs for a movie, youll probably never want to do it again.[footnoteRef:26] Assuming one can navigate the tricky landscape of determining the music publisher and the record label and receiving permission to obtain the subsequent rights (sync and public performance rights from the music publisher, and a master use license from whoever holds the rights to a particular recording), the whole process can still be held up if affordable fees cannot be negotiated. [25: Michael C. Donaldson and Lisa A. Califfs book Clearance and Copyright (Silman James Press; 2014) is a good primer and guide for understanding the processes involved.] [26: Ascher, Steven, and Edward Pincus. "Producing and Distributing the Movie." In The Filmmaker's Handbook : A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age, 2013. 2013 ed. New York, New York: Plume, 2012.]

Lapses in musical rights for a previously released film can come back to affect a motion picture later on, when unresolved licensing issues or the need to renew licensing for an extended term beyond the initial negotiated period becomes a necessity when a re-release is contemplated. Failing to secure these music rights can essentially lock away a movie from the public, even one that has received extensive preservation and archival treatment. A striking examples of the effect music licensing can have on a production is the case of Killer of Sheep (1978) which never received distribution and was only able to be shown sporadically at festivals, despite near universal critical acclaim due to director Charles Burnett never clearing music rights.[footnoteRef:27] The AFI Catalog notes that the film was preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive as part of a 2000 grant, but due to lingering musical rights issues it still took 6 years and $142,000 in licensing fees to finally clear the movie for distribution in 2007. A further example of the power of music copyright is the case of Its a Wonderful Life (1946). The Frank Capra film itself technically entered the public domain for a while, but due to anomalies in the copyright code and a series of legal maneuvers, Paramount was able to do a partial re-capture of copyright of the film through exploiting rights held on Dimitri Tiomkins score.[footnoteRef:28] [27: Sterritt, David. "Killer of Sheep." Turner Classic Movies. Accessed March 16, 2015. http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/184975|0/Killer-of-Sheep.html.] [28: The Curious Copyright Case of It's A Wonderful Life," YouTube video, 21:37, posted by Filmmaker IQ, December 14, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnUGXQwJMSM.]

The aforementioned examples of music copyright serve as prime examples of the effect music copyright can have across all facets of a motion picture. While the Beetles soundtrack is the most blatant example of the tricky ground walked by the caretakers of Harry Smiths estate, it is not the only example, as Smith was very interested in the intersection between music and visual performance. Smith stated that I had a really great illumination the first time I heard Dizzy Gillespie play. I had gone there very high, and I literally saw all kinds of colored flashes. It was at that point that that I realized music could be put to my films.[footnoteRef:29] Many of his films consequently are made to be played with recordings that Smith had in mind, such as jazz artists like Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker, or the Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Veill score that Mahagonny is intended to be set to. The only film of Smiths that actually had a soundtrack printed on the film by Smith upon original release is Heaven and Earth Magic. Instead many of his films were intended to be accompanied by a separate recording being synched with the film. This then means that the two, sound and film, are not inextricably linked, but instead are complementary technologies that Smith just contextualizes by placing in proximity with each other, and may explain why his estate seems to have been able to avoid legal entanglements over music for the most part. While the Beetles score being later included to distributed versions of Early Abstractions is still somewhat of a puzzling anomaly, it seems that Smiths separation of sound and visual mediums may in a way have helped allow his films to be more unrestricted. [29: Sitney, P. Adams. "Film Culture No. 37, 1965." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 44-64. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. 56.]

ConclusionThe challenge of working with Harry Smiths films can lie in a multiplicity of aspects. There are the unique presentation and aesthetic concerns involving missing components that are part of working with Heaven and Earth Magic that must be negotiated. The non-traditional projection issues of showing Mahagonny and its four simultaneous film reels introduce technical restoration challenges that film preservationists must make decisions about which may differ from the authorial intent of Harry Smith, but will enhance access. Early Abstracts is an interesting study in taking calculated risks in the face of copyright and clearance concerns that can potentially lock up a restoration for all intents and purposes. While many of these concerns are universal across moving image preservation to varying degrees, Smiths itinerant and rambunctious lifestyle introduce unique concerns to those searching for material and documentation in order to preserve his legacy. His works were made largely outside the framework of institutional and commercial entities, so wrapped up in his greater autonomy to create are the dangers his works faced from the increased exposure to his sometimes erratic whims and cavalier custodial habits.

Works CitedAmerican Magus Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist. Edited by Paola Igliori. New York: Inanout Press, 1996.

Ascher, Steven, and Edward Pincus. "Producing and Distributing the Movie." In The Filmmaker's Handbook : A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age, 2013. 2013 ed. New York, New York: Plume, 2012.

Cohen, John. "Sing Out!, Volume 19, No.1, 1969." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith --Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 66-100. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999.

"Curriculum Vitae." Harry Smith Archives. Accessed March 15, 2015. http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/1_bio/index.html.

"Complete National Film Registry Listing." National Film Preservation Board. Accessed March 15, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/.

The Curious Copyright Case of It's A Wonderful Life," YouTube video, 21:37, posted by Filmmaker IQ, December 14, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnUGXQwJMSM.

Ginsberg, Allen, and Hal Willner. "Introduction: Allen Ginsberg Interview with Hal Willner." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith - Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999.

"Harry Smith's Film #18, Mahagonny." Getty Research Institute, Exhibitions & Events. January 1, 2002. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/events/mahagonny.html.

Hoberman, Jim. "Mirror Men." The Village Voice Movies. September 10, 2002. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://www.villagevoice.com/2002--09--10/film/mirror-men/.

Restoring Harry Smith's Mahagonny, Directed by Simon (New York: Cineric, Inc, 2002). Online. Accessed March 13, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klCfLPaC4Vg.

Singh, Rani. "The Getty Research Institute Presents Harry Smith's Film #18, Mahagonny: Symposium Statement." Harry Smith Archives. January 1, 2002. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/4_news/mahagonny.html.

Singh, Rani. "Harry Smith Interview." Interview by author. March 5, 2015.

Sitney, P. Adams. "Film Culture No. 37, 1965." In Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected Interviews, edited by Rani Singh, 44-64. 1st ed. Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999.

Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film: The American Avant-garde, 1943-2000 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Sterritt, David. "Killer of Sheep." Turner Classic Movies. Accessed March 16, 2015. http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/184975|0/Killer-of-Sheep.html.Salas 18