Robert Breer at Home is a documentary made by experimental filmmaker, teacher, and researcher Jennifer L. Burford. It was filmed in 1992, during a meeting with the artist in his workshop. Following no apparent logical framework, the film explores his workshop and Breer’s experimental touch as a filmmaker, from padding sequences to flipbooks, graphic manipulations, cranking mutoscope handles (used to make the film Sparkill Ave!), a writing sequence at his worktable, and a demonstration of how his sculpture Float worked.

This work opens a window into Breer’s research work on forms of movement. A committed work with raw materials and archaic resources, some conducted with pre-cinematographic devices, Burford captures everything in wide shots, highlighting by its very design the operator’s gestures. She takes a particular focus on the creative process, the production of visual rhythms, saccades, and flashes. She makes us co-conspirators at the scene of a “spectacle animation” being made.

Patrick Barrès
Professor at the University Toulouse Jean-Jaurès