Skyscraper (1959 film)

Skyscraper is a 1959 documentary film by Shirley Clarke about the construction of the 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper.

Skyscraper
Produced by
Screenplay byJohn White[2]
Music byTeo Macero[1][3]
Production
company
Joseph Burstyn Film Enterprises Inc.
Release date
1959[4][5][6]
Running time
21 minutes[4][5]
CountryUSA[4]

Film

The construction of 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper is shown.[5] The film is mostly black and white.[7] The film was sponsored by Tishman Realty & Construction Co.; Reynolds Metals Co.; Bethlehem Steel Co.; Westinghouse Elevator Co.; York Air Conditioning.

Production and Reception

Sky was a short film,[8][9] and a documentary.[10][11][12] It was considered experimental.[10][1][13] As well as Clarke and Van Dyke contributing it also involved Wheaton Galentine and D. A. Pennebaker.[14] Clarke said the film was a musical comedy regarding the skyscrapers construction.[15]

It won the Venice Film Festival award.[5][16][17] It was also nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar),[12][18] in the Best Short Live Action category[19] in 1959.[20] It also won many other festival prizes.[1]

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References
  1. Lev, Peter; Ellis, Jack C.; Faller, Greg S.; Neve, Brian; O'Donnell, Victoria; Wasko, Janet (2006). "American Documentary in the 1950s". In Harpole, Charles (ed.). The Fifties Transforming the Screen, 1950–1959. History of the American Cinema. 7. University of California Press. pp. 242–243. ISBN 9780520249660. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018.
  2. "Bridges and Skyscrapers: shorts program". Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  3. Grant, Barry Keith (2011). "Growing Up Absurd: Shtick Meets Teenpic in The Delicate Delinquent". Shadows of Doubt: Negotiations of Masculinity in American Genre Films. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0814334577. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  4. "Willard Van Dyke, Shirley Clarke. Skyscraper. 1959". Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  5. Harbert, Benjamin J. (2018). "The Use and Abuse of Musicological Concepts". American Music Documentary: Five Case Studies of Ciné-Ethnomusicology. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. p. 111. ISBN 9780819578020. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  6. Carney, Ray. "The Beat Movement: Beat Screening List". Boston University. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  7. Barrett, Michael (13 December 2016). "Shirley Clarke's Films Collected and Restored". PopMatters. Retrieved 23 June 2019. Another commissioned film is the Oscar-nominated Skyscraper (1961), made with Pennebaker, Willard Van Dyke and Irving Jacoby. To explain how a New York building was raised, it uses the conceit of supposing that the construction workers are commenting upon this footage, thus giving a workers' point of view on their accomplishment. The last few minutes of this black and white film adds color footage that looks like it might be lifted from an industrial commercial.
  8. Vallance, Tom (26 September 1997). "Obituary: Shirley Clarke". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  9. Dargis, Manohla. "The Shirley Clarke Project by Milestone Films". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  10. Cohen, Thomas F. (2012). "After the New American Cinema: Shirley Clarke's Video Work as Performance and Document". Journal of Film and Video. University of Illinois Press. 64 (1–2): 57–64. doi:10.5406/jfilmvideo.64.1-2.0057. JSTOR 10.5406/jfilmvideo.64.1-2.0057. Clarke’s revered place in the history of cinema has so far depended on her experimental documentary films such as Bridges Go Round (1958) and Skyscraper (1959)
  11. Sadoul, Georges (1972). Dictionary of Film Makers. University of California Press. p. 47. ISBN 9780520021518. Retrieved 23 June 2019. documentaries (Scary Time, Loops, Skyscraper with Lewis Jacobs, Willard van Dyke)
  12. Geltzer, Jeremy (2016). "Profanity and the Patently Offensive". Dirty Words and Filthy Pictures: Film and the First Amendment. University of Texas Press. p. 202. ISBN 9781477307434. Retrieved 23 June 2019. Clarke's documentary Skyscraper (1959) received an Academy Award nomination.
  13. Cohen, Thomas F. (2012). "Independent Cinema meets Free Jazz". Playing to the Camera: Musicians and Musical Performance in Documentary Cinema. Columbia University Press. p. 92. ISBN 9780231501804. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  14. Beattie, Keith (2011-09-28). "Performing the Real". D.A. Pennebaker. Contemporary Film Directors. 146. University of Illinois Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780252036590. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018.
  15. Monaco, James (1991). The Encyclopedia of Film. Perigee Books. p. 548. ISBN 9780399516047. Retrieved 23 June 2019. Skyscraper (1958), described by co-director Shirley Clarke as a "musical comedy about the building of a skyscraper."
  16. Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (1995). "Clarke, Shirley". Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 88. ISBN 9780313289729. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  17. "Portrait of Jason" (PDF) (Press release).
  18. Bebb, Bruce (Spring 1982). "The Many Media of Shirley Clarke". Journal of the University Film and Video Association. University of Illinois Press on behalf of the University Film & Video Association. 34 (2): 3–8. JSTOR 20686887.
  19. "Project Shirley: Short Films by Shirley Clarke". Los Angeles Filmforum. March 3, 2015. Archived from the original on July 24, 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  20. Edinburgh International Film Festival. "EIFF Biography of Shirley Clarke". EdinburghGuide. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.

See also
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