"Filmmakers often try to make a great film by making it feel heavier than film is by nature. Rudy Burckhardt seems happy if he can make his feel lighter. That does leave him unique, and he succeeds in it too. There is no distortion of image or sound. Its magic invention - including the later dream-weight - is new and inscrutable. It is a film that changes when you watch it again, it has many surprises I haven't mentioned. Take it as a wonderfully touching dream and as an amazing marvel of filmmaking." - Edwin Denby.
"Rudy Burckhardt (1914-1999) was born in Basel, Switzerland and immigrated to the United States in 1935, hoping to forge a career in photography. By the 1940s, he had begun to create a series of now-classic photographs of New York, which uniquely capture the energy and chaotic beauty of the city. Burckhardt soon became well-known in New York art circles, and began to photograph the great New York artists of the time, creating legendary portraits of icons like de Kooning and Pollock. Gradually, he became an important cultural force in his own right, not only as a photographer, but also as a maker of over 70 underground films." Included on this three-disc collection is twenty-three short films from the prolific career (1936-1999) of Rudy Burckhardt featuring music composed, selected and performed by: Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, John Cage, Tony Ackerman, Kim Brody, The Supremes, Earl Hines, Frank O'Hara, Brad Burg, Jacob Burckhardt. Alvin Curran, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Gold, Robert Fizdale, Tom Burckhardt, and Edgar Varese. Region 0, NTSC format; approx 333 minutes playing time.