Crossroads / The Exploding Digital Inevitable
- This is a past program
Co-presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum.
In person: Q&A with Ross Lipman, Michelle Silva (Conner Family Trust)
Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series Archive Treasures. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu.
Crossroads (1976)
In 1976 groundbreaking collagist, sculptor and filmmaker Bruce Conner released his magnum opus, a 36-minute assemblage of U.S. government footage of the iconic Bikini Atoll atomic bomb test. If Conner invented the modern found footage film with A Movie in 1958, he re-invented it with Crossroads. The Exploding Digital Inevitable is a live documentary essay by Ross Lipman, who oversaw the restoration of Crossroads in 2012. Presented together, Crossroads and its unique production come into view as one of the most profound meditations on the nuclear era extant.
U.S., 1976
DCP, b&w, 36 min. Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
The Exploding Digital Inevitable (2017)
The Exploding Digital Inevitable is a live documentary essay by Ross Lipman, who oversaw the restoration of Crossroads in 2012. Integrating an array of movie and audio clips, still photographs and rare archival documents, Lipman tells the story of Crossroads' unique production, as well as the massive cultural spectacle of the original Bikini Atoll tests themselves. It also chronicles the extraordinary collaboration of Conner with Riley and Gleeson, including original interviews with both composers. As part of this program, The Exploding Digital Inevitable will be presented jointly with Crossroads for a total run time of 90 minutes.
U.S., 2017
Multimedia, b&w and color, approx. 54 min.
Special thanks to our community partners, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and UCLA School of Arts and Architecture.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
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