The Automotive Story

Made in the final year of his life, Rudy Burckhardt’s Scattered Showers begins its journey in the city he so scrupulously documented in photographs and film for the greater part of his career.

"A few acres in Maine. Closeup looks at a small lake in the woods, wild flowers, clouds, mosses, ants and mushrooms. The visual richness is fantastic, the objective eye is absorbing. Often cut by glimpses, the second time you see the film you see twice as much, and each time the power and depth of feeling are new." - Edwin Denby "Like a mescaline high." - Frank Lima

A snow storm – Disney World – self important New York – ox-pull in Maine – a special old man – strip tease – an ant in the woods –wild 14th street – a mugging survived – the end.

Charles Simonds is building strange structures of tiny bricks in the crumbling walls of New York’s Lower Eastside, for his ‘Little People’, as the astonished neighborhood kids look on.

"R. B.'s new film is a magic dream, airy and clear. Everything you see is a fact, firm and distinct at the moment you are seeing it, a fact of daily life or of extraordinary dance, or of amateur acting, and you recognize each fact too, at a glance. Later, as the film continues, the factual seeing is still the same, but somehow it doesn't feel the same, it feels like a good dream you are dreaming, with a sly and witty tease to it, and nearly weightless." - Edwin Denby

Images to accompany the lines of a poem by John Ashbery. "Rudy Burckhardt's film is a brilliant extension of my poem, perhaps the film I might have made myself if I were a filmmaker." – John Ashbery

Poems by John Ashbery; with performances by Douglas Dunn and Susan Blankenson, Yoshiko Chuma. "A grand synthesis of the poetic free association films by Rudy Burckhardt has been perfecting for the past fifteen years. Democratic in its celebration of all contemporary art forms (dance, painting, performance art, music, and, of course, film), encyclopedic in its images (from New York City interiors to Maine brooks to Latin American villages), it is finally most unique by virtue of its emotional range. The filmmaker has achieved a style which enables him to encompass everything from the whimsical, even silly, to the deeply philosophical and grave, with all shades of curiosity and neutral observation ('Just walking around,' as the subtitle says) in-between." – Phillip Lopate

A snapshot from the filmmaker's own life in rural Maine.

When New York was about to go bankrupt, all construction had stopped and an architect tried to become a wrecker. This is the story of the demolition of a large factory building on 23rd Street and 6th Avenue. Meanwhile daily business - grimy or funny, money or no money - goes on as usual.

"The New Jersey Turnpike and downtown New York in rain and shine. Trailer trucks, overpasses and industrial wastes become natural wonders. The stream of trucks is often gay but sometimes ominous. After a thunderstorm, the pike gives way to charming and sexy shoppers on 14th Street. Real sounds and wonderful color." - Edmund Leites