I programmed a week of films inspired by the work of photographer Larry Sultan for the Hampshire College Creative Media Institute in June 2015.



Larry Sultan (1946 – 2009) was a seminal California photographer whose remarkable work mined archives, family portraiture, Southern California landscape, and the collision of artifice and naturalism. His subjects ranged from his elderly Jewish parents to declassified government photographs, and the San Fernando Valley film sets of the pornography industry.

This program of 17 narrative, documentary, and experimental films is inspired by the work and artistic strategies of Sultan, which have influenced programmer Matt Wolf’s filmmaking. Over the course of the week students discussed Sultan’s images and related films that blur the line between fiction and documentary.

The Films:

Day 1: Home Movies
Quadrangle, Amy Grappell, 2010
Sean, Ralph Arlyck, 1970
Following Sean, Ralph Arlyck, 2005

Day 2: Pornography and Artifice
The Image, Harun Farocki, 1983
Finished, William E. Jones, 1997
Valley Girl, Michelle O'Mara, 2002

Day 3: The Archive and Family
A Movie, Bruce Connor, 1958
Report, Bruce Connor, 1967
5:10 Dreamland, Bruce Connor, 1977
It Felt Like a Kiss, Adam Curtis, 2009
An American Family Episodes 1&2,
Alan and Susan Raymond, 1973

Day 4: Landscape
Landscape Suicide, James Benning, 1987
Los Angeles Plays Itself, Thom Anderson, 2003

Day 5: The Body and it's Betrayals
Taris, Jean Vigo, 1931
Safe, Todd Haynes, 1995
The Incredible Shrinking Man, Jack Turner, 1957

More Information:
Larry Sultan Website
Larry's 5 Favorite Films