Kindering (1987) Online

Kindering is haunting and it's an example of the filmmaker getting right to the point (whatever it is). In 3 minutes Brakhage conveys so much through both his visuals and the sound. There are children playing around, there's distorted shots of them running around, there's music ("The Times" its called mixed in with "lala" sounds from one of the kids, and it all brings up a feeling of... The world is so colorful and yet so uncanny; the distortions bring out a truly dreamlike ambiance. I really liked this a lot, it's beauty mixed with a sort of terror that might make David Lynch wince. It feels unsentimental.

This easily could have been a more typical Brakhage film with quick editing and cute imagery of kids, but instead he transforms his simplistic footage into a horrifying experimental masterwork. It's so crazy and bizarre that it made me both laugh and hide in fright. The editing style is very much like Brakhage, but this time seems a little less repetitive and more unique compared to a few of his previous works. Although Brakhage was one of the greatest of all filmmakers, and his traditional techniques influenced cinema highly, it is always great to see his creating something a little bit more fresh and new. It is extremely important to note that this is among the very few Brakhage films to include SOUND. And the audio really adds to the creepy, seemingly drug inspired atmosphere that feels chaotic, hypnotic, and damn scary all at the same time!

These almost 3 minutes certainly do not look like a Stan Brakhage film. There are people in it, there is sound in it and there are no shots of wild colors all the time. Yet it is a movie by the prolific American movie maker. And stuff like this would actually have been what he should have done far more frequently as I enjoyed this more than most of his other works. This was in 1987 when Brakhage was in his 50s and about the the time when he got divorced from his first wife Jane (who gave birth to no less than 5 children). There is a weird, somewhat creepy atmosphere to this film with the children's voices and it adds so much that was missing in his other works. I still would not say this is a particularly good film, but it's definitely superior to almost everything else Brakhage has done.