Viet-Flakes, 1962 – 1967

film, 16mm, toned black-and-white, sound collage by James Tenney
8:31 min.

Viet-Flakes was composed from an obsessive collection of Vietnam atrocity images, compiled over five years from foreign magazines and newspapers. Schneemann used an 8mm camera and a unique lens system to “travel” within the photographs, producing a volatile animation. Broken rhythms and visual fractures are heightened in a sound collage by James Tenney, which features Vietnamese religious chants and secular songs, fragments of Bach and 1960s pop hits.

collage image; at the forground is a figure laying face down, bound at the ankles; behind that is an image of a vast army marching; overlaying both is a pink filter with elements reminiscent of the american flag

still of several figures crying: one is lying down, another looks directly at the camera, behind them there is a small boy; overlaying the image is a pink filter which abstracts the shot