Film Details

Dr. Charles Bergengren, who died in July, taught in the liberal arts department of the Cleveland Institute of Art for 21 years. He was a faithful attendee of the Cinematheque for just as long. In fact, no one from CIA (outside of Cinematheque staff) attended more screenings than he did. Charlie loved all kinds of movies, but had a special fondness for “underground” cinema—and even taught a popular avant-garde film class. Tonight we remember Charlie with a program of classic experimental movies by three filmmakers he loved. Anchoring the program will be a newly restored color print of Robert Nelson’s 42-min. The Great Blondino (1967), an exuberant opus that “follows an anachronistically attired young fellow as he navigates a beguiling, sometimes troubling world with a curiosity that opens us wide to the filmmakers' inspired, freeform vision” (Mark Toscano). Charlie often lobbied us to show this movie, maybe because he identified with the misfit main character, a tightrope walker. Preceding Blondino will be two works: The Whirled (USA, 1961), four short movies starring underground icon Jack Smith and made by Smith’s boho Boswell, Ken Jacobs, whom Charlie brought to CIA two separate times; and Mass for the Dakota Sioux (USA, 1964), which filmmaker Bruce Baillie describes as “a film Mass, dedicated to nobility and excellence.”

run time: 90 min 16mm