Earth and Fire: Soldner Ceramic (1969)

25 minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound

An exploration into the work of master ceramicist Paul Soldner, at his studio in Aspen, CO. Images of his practice paired with philosophical musings at the intersection of art and nature. Soldner was known for popularizing an American style of Japanese Raku firing, as well as a founder of the Andersen Ranch Arts Center.

Watch here.

Bicycle France

10 minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound

An unreleased roll of film found in Fulton’s archive with an accompanying jazz soundtrack, simply labeled “Bicycle France.” A documentation of southern France, from the motion of anonymous cyclists. Smaller in scale than Fulton’s grand ethnographic documentaries, such as Inca Light, but with a similar attention to detail, shadow, and composition.

Likely from the 1970’s.

Watch here.

Structure Space

5 minutes, 16mm, Color, Silent

An unreleased film. Children on the beach, a nude woman swimming, a view from an airplane. Seemingly an exploration in heavily layered footage.

Likely from the early 1970’s.

Watch here.

Beta Structure Space

7 minutes, 16mm, B&W, Sound

A figure splashes through the waters of a semi-frozen world, near Aspen, Colorado.

A reel of film found in Fulton’s archive, with a significantly more restrained style compared to other Fulton works, while maintaining a granular connection with the natural world.

Likely from the late 60’s / early 1970’s.

Watch here.

Paris Non-Denumerably

9 minutes, 16mm, Color, Silent

An unreleased collection of home movies shot with Fulton’s signature composition and sense of fluidity. Possibly an unfinished film, or a test of corrective blue filters, likely from the early 1970’s.

Scenes from the home, the shore, and Colorado.

Watch here.

Alice Film (1971)

11 minutes, 16mm, Color, Silent

An experimental short featuring winter scenes in Aspen, Colorado. Children play in the snow, ceramist Paul Soldner fires a pot, Fulton’s family runs in a field.

Rapid images, animations created by scratching film negative, multiple exposures.

Watch here.

Alice Fall ‘69 (1969)

5 Minutes, 16mm, Black and White, Sound

A rare reel of unedited footage with sync sound found in Fulton’s archive. Potentially an equipment test.

Watch here.

Paris Birth Film (1979)

Composite: 44 minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound
Reel 1: 39 minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound
Reel 2: 34 minutes, 16mm, Color, Silent
Reel 3: 44 minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound
Reel 4: 37 minutes, 16mm, Color, Silent

A story of Pregnancy and Birth. Shot in Paris in 100 days, silently following Fulton’s wife in enigmatic adoration leading up to the live birth of their child. The film was originally exhibited as four separate projectors running simultaneously on the same screen, similar to an earlier Fulton project: Street Film Part Zero (1975).

This Composite Restoration was created by archivists in an attempt to recreate the overlapping layered effect of all four reels in a digital format.

Watch here.

Third Law of Thermodynamics (1967)

2 Minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound

An early experiment in rapid frame capture. Winter in New England. Twisting frozen branches. An appearance by Geshe Ngawang Wangyal. Narration in english and french on energy, thermodynamics.

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Cows and Leonardo (1967)

3 Minutes, 16mm, Color, Silent

An early experiment in rapid frame capture. A foggy field of cows, a book on anatomy, an equestrian jumper.

Watch here.

Vineyard I-IV (1967)

Vineyard I: 1 Minute, 16mm, Color, Sound
Vineyard II: 1 Minute, 16mm, B&W, Silent
Vineyard III: 1 Minute, 16mm, Color, Sound
Vineyard IV: 2 Minutes, 16mm, B&W, Sound

After ten years of honing his eye for composition with still photography, Fulton began experimenting with a 16mm Bolex film camera. With a series of shorts filmed on the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard, his sensibilities for focusing on the concussive forces of nature begin to emerge.

Watch here.

Kata (1967)

2 Minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound

One of Fulton’s early experiments in accelerating perception, which he dubbed “Omnivision.” Short bursts, single frames, autumn in New England.

Watch here.

“Nature, gymnastic movements, a cat ... The editing of Fulton and his handling of a camera are already amazing. Since his debut, the way he aligns his camera with gymnastics and martial arts movements is remarkable..”

— Federico Rosin

Reality’s Invisible (1971)

50 Minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound

Reality’s Invisible could be described as a portrait of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, yet it is a portrait of an extremely idiosyncratic and distinctive sort. Fulton made the film during his brief time at Harvard, where he had been invited to teach by Robert Gardner, his friend and collaborator. Fulton moves us through the concrete space of the Center’s Le Corbusier-designed building—the only structure by the architect in North America—but, more centrally, presents us footage of students making and discussing their work alongside figures like Gardner, theorist Rudolf Arnheim, artist Stan Vanderbeek, filmmaker Stan Brakhage, and graphic designer Toshi Katayama.

In his own words, Fulton describes this film as “Extensive experimentation with optical printing montage in a documentary on Visual Studies.”

In the Screening Room episode which featured Fulton as guest filmmaker, he elaborated on the film saying, “Normally we think of an image as an information-conveying unit,” he explained. “Well, more than that, it does have kinesthetic properties, in that it generates a certain energy, a certain ‘tone’ if you like.”

Watch here.

Portait de Fulton (1980)

27 Minutes, 16mm, Color, Sound

A self-portrait commissioned by French Television, Antenne 2, Paris. Featuring interviews with Fulton and showcasing his filmmaking. Directed by Fabienne Strouve.

Watch here.