1959 American film
Skyscraper is a 1959 documentary film by Shirley Clarke about the construction of the 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper.
Film
The construction of 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper is shown.[ 2] The film is mostly black and white.[ 7] The film was sponsored by Tishman Realty & Construction Co.; Reynolds Metals Co.; Bethlehem Steel Co.; Westinghouse Elevator Co.; York Air Conditioning .
Production and reception
Sky was a short film,[ 8] [ 9] and a documentary.[ 10] [ 11] [ 12] It was considered experimental.[ 10] [ 5] [ 13] As well as Clarke and Van Dyke contributing it also involved Wheaton Galentine and D. A. Pennebaker .[ 14] Clarke said the film was a musical comedy regarding the skyscrapers construction.[ 15]
It won the Venice Film Festival award.[ 2] [ 16] [ 17] It was also nominated for an Academy Award [ 12] [ 18] in the Best Short Live Action category [ 19] in 1959.[ 20] It also won many other festival prizes.[ 5]
See also
References
^ a b c "Willard Van Dyke, Shirley Clarke. Skyscraper. 1959" . Museum of Modern Art . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ a b c d Harbert, Benjamin J. (2018). "The Use and Abuse of Musicological Concepts" . American Music Documentary: Five Case Studies of Ciné-Ethnomusicology . Middletown, Connecticut : Wesleyan University Press . p. 111. ISBN 9780819578020 . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ Carney, Ray . "The Beat Movement: Beat Screening List" . Boston University . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ "Bridges and Skyscrapers: shorts program" . Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane . Queensland Art Gallery . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ a b c d e f Lev, Peter; Ellis, Jack C.; Faller, Greg S.; Neve, Brian; O'Donnell, Victoria; Wasko, Janet (2006). "American Documentary in the 1950s" . In Harpole, Charles (ed.). The Fifties Transforming the Screen, 1950–1959 . History of the American Cinema . Vol. 7. University of California Press . pp. 242–243. ISBN 9780520249660 . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018.
^ Grant, Barry Keith (2011). "Growing Up Absurd: Shtick Meets Teenpic in The Delicate Delinquent" . Shadows of Doubt: Negotiations of Masculinity in American Genre Films . Detroit: Wayne State University Press . p. 109. ISBN 978-0814334577 . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ Barrett, Michael (13 December 2016). "Shirley Clarke's Films Collected and Restored" . PopMatters . Retrieved 23 June 2019 . Another commissioned film is the Oscar-nominated Skyscraper (1961), made with Pennebaker, Willard Van Dyke and Irving Jacoby. To explain how a New York building was raised, it uses the conceit of supposing that the construction workers are commenting upon this footage, thus giving a workers' point of view on their accomplishment. The last few minutes of this black and white film adds color footage that looks like it might be lifted from an industrial commercial.
^ Vallance, Tom (26 September 1997). "Obituary: Shirley Clarke" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ Dargis, Manohla . "The Shirley Clarke Project by Milestone Films" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ a b Cohen, Thomas F. (2012). "After the New American Cinema: Shirley Clarke's Video Work as Performance and Document". Journal of Film and Video . 64 (1–2). University of Illinois Press : 57–64. doi :10.5406/jfilmvideo.64.1-2.0057 . JSTOR 10.5406/jfilmvideo.64.1-2.0057 . S2CID 191635595 . Clarke's revered place in the history of cinema has so far depended on her experimental documentary films such as Bridges Go Round (1958) and Skyscraper (1959)
^ Sadoul, Georges (1972). Dictionary of Film Makers . University of California Press . p. 47. ISBN 9780520021518 . Retrieved 23 June 2019 . documentaries (Scary Time, Loops, Skyscraper with Lewis Jacobs, Willard van Dyke)
^ a b Geltzer, Jeremy (2016). "Profanity and the Patently Offensive" . Dirty Words and Filthy Pictures: Film and the First Amendment . University of Texas Press . p. 202. ISBN 9781477307434 . Retrieved 23 June 2019 . Clarke's documentary Skyscraper (1959) received an Academy Award nomination.
^ Cohen, Thomas F. (2012). "Independent Cinema meets Free Jazz" . Playing to the Camera: Musicians and Musical Performance in Documentary Cinema . Columbia University Press . p. 92. ISBN 9780231501804 . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ Beattie, Keith (2011-09-28). "Performing the Real" . D.A. Pennebaker . Contemporary Film Directors . Vol. 146. University of Illinois Press . p. 82. ISBN 9780252036590 . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018.
^ Monaco, James (1991). The Encyclopedia of Film . Perigee Books . p. 548 . ISBN 9780399516047 . Retrieved 23 June 2019 . Skyscraper (1958), described by co-director Shirley Clarke as a "musical comedy about the building of a skyscraper."
^ Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (1995). "Clarke, Shirley" . Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary . Greenwood Publishing Group . pp. 88 . ISBN 9780313289729 . Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ "Portrait of Jason" (PDF) (Press release).
^ Bebb, Bruce (Spring 1982). "The Many Media of Shirley Clarke". Journal of the University Film and Video Association . 34 (2). University of Illinois Press on behalf of the University Film & Video Association : 3–8. JSTOR 20686887 .
^ "Project Shirley: Short Films by Shirley Clarke" . Los Angeles Filmforum . March 3, 2015. Archived from the original on July 24, 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
^ Edinburgh International Film Festival . "EIFF Biography of Shirley Clarke" . EdinburghGuide . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 .
External links