RIP Howard H. Guttenplan, Who Bridged Poetry and Film in the Lower East Side, 1934-2015

Howard Guttenplan directed the Millennium Film Workshop from 1971 to 2011. It emerged from the same initiative, a federal anti-poverty program, that helped create The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. Millennium Film Workshop's objective, "to offer 'very personal films by individuals working without large crews or budgets with the same kind of independence as a painter or a poet' and to 'appeal to film artists as well as audiences” lead to an experimental cinema movement so rigorous and powerful, that the Museum of Modern Art plans to acquire the workshop's archives. The Millennium Film Workshop made equipment available to now-legendary experimental filmmakers when they were just starting out, including (but certainly not limited to) James Benning, Bruce Conner, Todd Haynes, Yvonne Rainer, Carolee Schneemann and Michael Snow. More:

Howard H. Guttenplan, who took what began as an anti-poverty program on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and transformed it into a leading workshop and showcase for experimental filmmakers, including Andy Warhol, died on Feb. 23 at his home in Manhattan. He was 80.

His death, from complications of pancreatic cancer, was announced by the Millennium Film Workshop, where he was the executive director from 1971 until he retired in 2011.

Mr. Guttenplan, who struggled to keep the nonprofit organization afloat, said its goal was to offer “very personal films by individuals working without large crews or budgets with the same kind of independence as a painter or a poet” and to “appeal to film artists as well as audiences.”

Peter Kingsbury, the Millennium’s current director, said the workshop’s equipment was made available, to borrow or at low cost, to Warhol and Jean-Luc Godard as well as a long list of fledging experimental filmmakers, including James Benning, Bruce Conner, Todd Haynes, Yvonne Rainer, Carolee Schneemann and Michael Snow.

Many mounted one-person shows as part of the Personal Cinema Series and had premieres of their films at screenings at the workshop. The organization also publishes The Millennium Film Journal.

Amy Taubin, a critic for Artforum and other publications, wrote in an email that Mr. Guttenplan’s legacy “is in the hundreds of films and videos that were made thanks to cheap access to Millennium’s equipment, and in the thousands of viewers who were inspired by nearly 40 years of experimental movie screenings, always with the makers in attendance.” [...]

Learn more about Guttenplan, his career, and The Millennium Film Workshop from The New York Times.