Raphael Montañez Ortíz
Born: 1934-01-30 in Brooklyn, New York, USA
Known For: Directing
Biography
Raphael Montañez Ortíz (b. 1934, New York) is a multidisciplinary artist perhaps best known for his radical performances of the 1960s as part of the Destructivist movement which he helped to articulate. Not many know that he is also a pioneer of found footage cinema who deserves greater recognition within the American filmic avant-garde. Starting in 1957, he produced a number of singular works by subjecting 16mm prints of commercially- or institutionally-produced films to a cut-up method inspired by Yaqui shamanic practices, a kind of ritualistic chance operation intended to break down their structure and thoroughly undermine their discursive power. In the mid-1980s, Montañez Ortiz continued his critical deconstructions of commercial cinema, this time exploring a novel format: the laser disc. Having created a special interactive setup at the computer lab of Rutgers University, the artist transformed micro-moments from classic films into looping, stuttering choreographies that, through obsessive repetition, reveal the tacit gestualities and subconscious inner dynamics of these seemingly innocent Hollywood scenes.
Filmography
1996
- Introspective: Ortiz Art-Work Late 1950s - Late 1980s ... (Director)
- Ring Ring Rag Time ... (Director)
- The Conversation ... (Editor)
- Piano Destruction Concert: Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall ... (Director)
1993
- Dance Number 22 ... (Director)
1992
1991
- Here's Looking At You Kid ... (Director)
- Gonna Get Me a Gal ... (Editor)
1986
- Pushann Pushann ... (Director)
- You Bust Your Bunns ... (Editor)
1985
- Dance Number ... (Director)
- Beach Umbrella ... (Director)
- What Is This ... (Director)
- The Kiss ... (Editor)
1958
- Henny Penny: The Sky Is Falling ... (Director)
- Newsreel ... (Editor)
- Cowboy and "Indian" Film ... (Editor)
1957
- Ritual Destruction of "Follow Through" ... (Director)
- Golf ... (Editor)