Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present

トニー・コンラッド：完全なる今

1h 35min | Documentary | 2016 | USA | English w/ Japanese Titles
Director / Writer: Tyler Hubby
Producers: Paul Williams and Christine Bebe
Japanese Production and Subtitles: Union Pole
Featuring: Tony Conrad, John Cale, Jim O’Rourke, David Grubbs, Moby, Tony Oursler

This film is an unusual documentary examining the pioneering life and works of artist, musician and educator Tony Conrad. The film brings together intimate footage of Tony and his collaborators shot over the last twenty-two years, as well as Tony’s own archive of recordings and films. The construction of the documentary is done in a way that mirrors Conrad’s own approach to making art: a non-linear approach used to wildly free associate his streams of consciousness. In doing so, the film captures the essence of Conrad’s remarkable and creative life.

Director and Artist

Tyler Hubby (Director):
Born 1969 in Los Angeles. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied film and photography, he has edited over 30 documentaries including The Devil and Daniel Johnston. This film is his directorial debut. His subversive and irreverent short films detailing fetishism have screened internationally. Since 1994 he has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the avant/experimental record label Table of the Elements documenting artists such as Faust, Keiji Haino, John Fahey, Jim O’Rourke and Tony Conrad. He is a regular contributor to Artillery magazine photographing such contemporary art figures as Mike Kelley, John Waters and John Baldessari.

Tony Conrad (Artist):
Born March 7, 1940 in New Hampshire. Passed away April 9, 2016 in New York. One the great American artists of our time, yet to the world at large he remains criminally under appreciated. Since the early 1960s, Conrad’s films and compositions have been the stuff of legend for artists and musicians everywhere. His vast, inter-disciplinary repertoire has single-handedly created and influenced major film and compositional movements. His work with Stockhausen and La Monte Young still has the music establishment scratching their heads. His pivotal role in the formation of The Velvet Underground has directly or indirectly influenced everyone who has picked up a guitar since. In his later years he continued to perform and make work that pushed the boundaries.

Reviews

“It’s hard to imagine a better tribute to Tony Conrad than Tyler Hubby’s film.”
-Daily Grindhouse

“Hubby’s film captures Conrad in all his facets, as longtime Buffalo, N.Y., media professor, and more broadly as a man determined to make “abstract art funny, happy, energetic, joyful.”
-Chicago Tribune

“Completely in the Present aims to remove much of the structure of your typical documentary film by taking a nonlinear path through Conrad’s life…there remains a beautifully clear understanding of his life and works.”
-Film Monthly

“Tony Conrad’s unique brilliance and iconoclasm (is presented) in Tyler Hubby’s excellent, incisive documentary.”
-The Stranger

“Director Tyler Hubby has created an essential portrait of Conrad in his new documentary.”
-Hollywood Chicago

Screenings / Events

November 20, 2016 @ Super Deluxe – Tokyo, Japan

Japan Premiere Screening and Live Performances by Jim O’Rourke and Keiji Haino (w/The Flicker)

April 9, 2016 @ Uplink Factory – Tokyo Japan

2nd Year Anniversary Screening, live performance by Daiho Sogo

April 29, 2016 @ Zushi Beach Film Festival – Kangawa, Japan

The Jack Smith Flaming Creatures’ genitalia was mosaiced out. But we still managed to fread out the squares. Parents took their kids home, leaving the beach. Sorry not sorry.