Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.


Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.


Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.


These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986

Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986. Various directors, 1947-1986.
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Edition screened: Image 2-DVD, released 2008. Cumulative runtime approximately 312 minutes.

Summary: Films in this set do not depict violence or harm to animals.

This 4th installment from the Treasures From American Film Archives series includes:

7362. Pat O'Neill, 1967, 10 min. No dialogue track, scored.

Aleph. Wallace Berman, 1956-66(?), 8 min. No dialogue track, scored by John Zorn.

Bad Burns. Paul Sharits, 1982, 6 min. No dialogue track.

Bridges-Go-Round. Shirley Clarke, 1958, 4 min. No dialogue track, individual scores by Louis and Bebe Barron, and Teo Macero.

By Night with Torch and Spear. Joseph Cornell, 1940s?, 8 min. No dialogue track, scored by John Zorn.

Chumlum. Ron Rice, 1964, 23 min. No dialogue track, scored by Angus Maclise and Tony Conrad.

The End. Christopher Maclaine, 1953, 34 min. English language.

Eyewash. Robert Breer, 1959, 3 min. English language.

Fake Fruit Factory. Chick Strand, 1986, 22 min. Spanish language.

Film No. 3: Interwoven. Harry Smith, 1947–49, 3 min. No dialogue track, individual scores by Dizzy Gillespie and John Zorn.

Fog Line. Larry Gottheim, 1970, 11 min. No dialogue track.

Go! Go! Go!  Marie Menken, 1962–64, 11 min. No dialogue track.

Hamfat Asar. Lawrence Jordan, 1965, 13 min. No dialogue track.

Here I Am. Bruce Baillie, 1962, 10 min. English language.

I, An Actress. George Kuchar, 1977, 9 min. English language.

Little Stabs at Happiness. Ken Jacobs, 1959–63, 15 min. English language.

Mario Banana (No. 1). Andy Warhol, 1964, 4 min. No dialogue track.

Necrology. Standish Lawder, 1969–70, 11 min. Scored.

New Improved Institutional Quality: In the Environment of Liquids and Nasals a Parasitic Vowel Sometimes Develops. Owen Land, 1976, 10 min. English language.

(nostalgia) Hollis Frampton, 1971, 36 min. English language.

Note to Patti. Saul Levine, 1969, 7 min. No dialogue track.

Notes on the Circus. Jonas Mekas, 1966, 12 min. No dialogue track, score by Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band.

Odds & Ends. Jane Conger Belson Shimane, 1959, 4 min. English language.

The Off-Handed Jape... & How to Pull It Off. Robert Nelson and William T. Wiley, 1967, 8 min. English language.

Peyote Queen. Storm De Hirsch, 1965, 9 min. No dialogue track, scored.

The Riddle of Lumen. Stan Brakhage, 1972, 13 min. No dialogue track.


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