Tony Conrad - Completely in the Present

A film by Tyler Hubby. In english with german subtitles.

A clip from the notorious 1963 Jack Smith nudie FLAMING CREATURES, on which Tony Conrad worked, segues into his own cinematic affront, a light show called THE FLICKER, the bad boy of the 1966 New York Film Festival. There was vomiting at the premiere; the projectionist suffered a migraine. “No LSD needed!” says filmmaker Larry Seven, one of the on-camera subjects in this film. TONY CONRAD: COMPLETELY IN THE PRESENT is a sharp, sweet, eloquent documentary about the merriest, most artistically expansive minimalist on record: musician, educator, activist Tony Conrad. The violinist’s trancelike droning technique (“the first non-bagpipe Western drone music,” he once called it) caught hold, in its stealthy way, in the 1960’s with (among others) John Cale and Lou Reed. Conrad’s work and his life asserted the importance of listening for the sounds nobody else has heard. He died this year at the age of 76. (Michael Phillips)