Event
In formation III
17 Aug 2018 – 16 Sep 2018
ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts)
London, United Kingdom
-
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, Dir. William Greaves, USA, 1968, 16mm transferred to HD video, 75 mins
Screening
Screening of William Greaves' Symbiopsychotaxiplasm
29 Aug 2018
Regular hours
- Wednesday
- 16:00 – 23:00
Cost of entry
£7 full, £5 concs.
Red Membership includes free access to all programmes.
https://www.ica.art/red
All films are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated.
Address
- Nash House, The Mall
- London
- SW1Y 5AH
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Piccadilly Circus/Charing Cross
Event map
A one of a kind meta-documentary by the late documentarian William Greaves.
About
Writer, director and producer William Greaves’ wildly inventive film is at once a documentary, a documentary about a documentary, and a documentary about the making of a documentary about a documentary. Made in cinéma vérité style, this complex and compelling film takes place in the Central Park, New York City and follows Greaves himself as the director of the fictional, actor-based documentary Over the Cliff, utilizing three different film crews to cover different aspects of the overall production.
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm was shot in 1968 and completed in 1971. At the time, it was screened for small audiences at film festivals and museum screenings, achieving cult status, before being released to wider audiences in the early 2000s.
William Greaves (1926–2014) was a pioneering African-American filmmaker who began his career as an actor on Broadway and went on to write and direct more than one hundred documentary films. His features include Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968), Ali, the Fighter (1974) and Marijuana Affair (1975). He was a recipient of many awards for film and television, including an Emmy. From 1969 to 1982, he taught acting for film and television at the Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York.
