I have been making films since the late 60’s when I created serious amounts of footage for the Boston Tea Party light show. Besides the copious experimental films, animations, and video documentaries I have made over the years, I have also produced dozens of short commissions for MTV, VH-1, Sesame Street, AMC, and other clients.

Psychedelic Cinema

This selection of films is a true pop culture artifact.  They were created between 1967-1969 and played regularly with the light show at the Boston Tea Party and other music venues around New England. The video shown below is an excerpt taken from more than an hour of psychedelic footage.

Exerpt from Psychedelic Cinema - a Film by Ken Brown. Music by Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra Between 1967 and 1969, Ken Brown shot super 8 films to projected with the light show at Boston’s premiere rock club The Boston Tea Party. The resulting films, cobbled together to make the current PSYCHEDELIC CINEMA, stand today as an amazing window on another time. The Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra is: Ken Winokur (Alloy Orchestra) - Percussion and Clarinet Jonathan LaMaster (Cul de Sac) - Electric Violin, Guitars, Electronics Dana Coley (Morphine) - Bass Clarinet, Baritone Sax, Electronics

Single-Frame Films

Between 1988 and 2008 I made over 30 single-frame shorts. I refer to this style of filmmaking as “chika-chika" films, the sound of single frames being shot. This collection reflects a diverse swath of pop culture themes; from visionary environments to roadside attractions to urban graffiti. They explore a personal technique of short, single frame "brush strokes”, edited entirely in camera, then transferred to video at a reduced rate.

A quick, cine-poetic sketch surveying some of the graphic vibrancy of downtown New York City in 1996. A snappy track by Caleb Sampson.
Over several years in the 90's there was a high camp celebration of hair and high heels in New York City's Tompkins Square Park. This is a selected, single frame distillation of do's and drones (hair-do's and wardrobes) from a colorful event known as Wigstock.
In the outskirts of Sparta Wisconsin, we came across a yard filled with giant burgers, bears, elephants, ice cream cones and innumerable other outsize figures familiar to road scholars. We had arrived at F.A.S.T. Corp., a fiber art studio that has been in business for over thirty years, producing a large percentage of these roadside wonders. With surreal-sensitive antennae twitching, I was given permission to wander the back acres adjacent to the workshops.
Flag City is a short documentary on the phenomenal outpouring of flag-abilia that seemed to crop up almost overnight in New York City in the weeks following 9/11. Special thanks to Brian Dewan for his amazing soundtrack.

Commercial Projects

In the late 80’s, I started producing a variety of commissioned animations for MTV, VH-1, Sesame Street, and other clients.

"Milo Counting" is a pixilated short animation I made for Sesame St when Lisa Crafts and I worked there in the '90's. Milo Motola, an artist friend with an understanding of stop motion, was my delivery man. Caleb Sampson did the sound track.

Documentaries

In the early 1980’s I purchased a big-rig video camera. Soon after, I began shooting a series of mini-documentaries. These pieces took a humorous, affectionate view of America and Americana.

A tour de force of a miniature golf course, even by American roadside standards. It includes some wonderfully bizarre characters, including a sphinx, an animated skull, a large gorilla, and an anthropomorphic tree. Sadly, it is now a casino parking lot.

Animations

I’ve always been fascinated by the notion of bringing images to life. When I was kid, I used to make my own flip books. Since then, I’ve created many animated pieces using various techniques, including drawing, pixelation, paper-cutting, and collage.

This animation uses photo booth snaps and under the camera cut away backgrounds. It was a collaboration with Photo Booth artist Herman Costa and composer Caleb Sampson in 1992.

Photo Slide-Films

These photo slide-films combine my love of film and photography. Each slide-film acts as a mini photo essay: a poetic picnic for the eyes.