John Cage - The Revenge of the Dead Indians: In Memoriam John Cage

(1912-92)

mode 197

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Mode Records - A Record Label Devoted to New Music

The Revenge of the Dead Indians: In Memoriam John Cage

(1993)
a composed film directed by Henning Lohner

FEATURING:
Gary Burton	John Cage	Noam Chomsky
Merce Cunningham	William Forsythe	Betty Freeman
Frank Gehry	Murray Gell-Mann	Matt Groening
Rutger Hauer	Dennis Hopper	Ellsworth Kelly
Alison Knowles	Raymond Kurzweil	Edward Lorenz
Benoît Mandelbrot	Yehudi Menuhin	Marvin Minsky
Heiner Müller	Jean Nouvel	Yoko Ono
Tomaso Poggio	Richard Serra	Shankar
Giorgio Strehler	Iannis Xenakis	Frank Zappa
John Zorn
...and others

And musical appearances by:
Frank Almond	Irvine Arditti
Stephen Drury	Margaret Leng Tan
Isao Nakamura	Percussion Group Cincinnati
Joshua Pierce	Marianne Schroeder
Frances-Marie Uitti
...and others

Director Henning Lohner worked with John Cage during his later years, including collaborating with Cage on his only film, One¹¹. During that time, Lohner filmed interviews and footage with Cage, and after Cage's death decided to assemble some of it into this unique "composed film" based on musical principles - a tribute to Cage, his thoughts, music and influence.

The film also features 42 personalities - from the well known (actors, architects, artists, choreographers, composers, theoreticians, writers) to the unknown (like street cleaners and market vendors) - in conversation with each other. The result is an unexpected and fascinating combination of intellectual thought, viewpoints and opinions.

"The Revenge of the Dead Indians" is neither documentary nor feature film. The thematic story development is a combination of "found" video and audio landscapes along with theatrically directed readings and interviews. Each scene of the film is complete in itself as its own narrative entity, yet simultaneously contributes to the linear progression of the story line.

Lohner's goal was to honor the creative credo of composer John Cage, to whom the film is dedicated. Attention is paid to "forgotten" landscapes: places we overlook because they are the everyday and the ordinary.

Concert performances incorporated in the film were recorded live during the "Musicircus" homage at Symphony Space in New York, November 1, 1992, and at the John Cage music festival at the "Akademie der Schönen Künste" in East Berlin, August 1, 1990.

This sound and visual material was edited to more than 1200 cuts before the final film length of 130 minutes was reached. The shortest scene has the duration of exactly one frame, the longest scene has the duration of exactly 4 minutes, 33 seconds.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

The film incorporates a complete video performance of Cage's infamous silent piece 4'33", created in Berlin by Cage and Lohner.
Henning Lohner and Van Carlson in Conversation: created especially for this DVD. The director and cinematographer speak about their collaboration on this film, along with a commentary track (approx. 20 minutes).

Related Resources:

Also by Henning Lohner on Mode Records:
JOHN CAGE: One¹¹ with 103: a film without subject by John Cage,
produced and directed by Henning Lohner. (mode 174)

John Cage Profile
Noam Chomsky Profile
Henning Lohner Profile
Percussion Group Cincinnati Profile
Joshua Pierce Profile

Frank Almond Online
Gary Burton Online
Noam Chomsky Online
Merce Cunningham Online
William Forsythe Online
Betty Freeman Online
Frank Gehry Online
Murray Gell-Mann Online
Matt Groening Online
Rutger Hauer Online
Dennis Hopper Online
Ellsworth Kelly Online
Alison Knowles Online
Raymond Kurzweil Online
Edward Lorenz Online
Benoît Mandelbrot Online
Yehudi Menuhin Online
Marvin Minsky Online
Heiner Müller Online
Jean Nouvel Online
Yoko Ono Online
Percussion Group Cincinnati Online
Joshua Pierce Online
Tomaso Poggio Online
Richard Serra Online
Giorgio Strehler Online
Frances-Marie Uitti Online
Frank Zappa Online
John Zorn Online