Richard Beymer’s THE INNERVIEW (1973) with film preservationist Ross Lipman

It’s no exaggeration to state that the film preservationist, filmmaker, and author Ross Lipman has had a transformative impact on the history of American independent cinema. From Barbara Loden’s WANDA to Charles Burnett’s KILLER OF SHEEP to Kenneth Anger’s SCORPIO RISING and beyond, the list of his film preservation projects is studded with vital films that have migrated from the periphery to the center of the film canon. With the recent publication of his collected writings under the title The Archival Impermanence Project (Sticking Place Books), Lipman posits film preservation as at once a philosophical and a historical endeavor, an interpretive as well as recuperative gesture.

For this special screening, Lipman will present and discuss one of his most unruly preservation projects: Richard Beymer’s long-lost psychedelic magnum opus THE INNERVIEW (1973-1975/2024). Like Dean Stockwell and fellow West Side Story co-star Russ Tamblyn, Beymer was a former child star who fell under the spell of experimental filmmaking in the 1960s and 70s, before later finding a home in David Lynch’s company of actors. In 1973, Beymer created THE INNERVIEW, a kaleidoscopic, intensely self-reflexive lysergic ode to subjective experience and the art of moviemaking, before re-editing it multiple times in successive years. With abrupt transitions between film stocks and psychological registers, intentional uses of degraded celluloid and fragmentary passages of found-footage (not to mention its numerous iterations), THE INNERVIEW is a film of constant flux; what better to illustrate the provisional, fluid art of film preservation?

Following the screening, Lipman will appear for discussion and audience Q&A.

About the guest:
Ross Lipman is an independent filmmaker, archivist, and essayist. His films have screened throughout the world and been collected by museums and institutions including the Academy Film Archive, Anthology Film Archives, Northeast Historic Film, the Oberhausen Kurzfilm Archive, Budapest's Balazs Bela Studios, and Munich's Sammlung Goetz. His feature documentary was named one of the 10 best films of the year by ARTFORUM, SLATE, and many others.

Formerly Senior Film Restorationist at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, his many restorations include Barbara Loden's Wanda, Kent Mackenzie's The Exiles, the Academy Award-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, and works by Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Shirley Clarke, Charles Burnett, Kenneth Anger, Lourdes Portillo, Robert Altman, and John Cassavetes. His most recent restorations (in partnership with organizations including UCLA Film & Television Archive, Pacific Film Archive, Lightbox Film Center, Milestone Films, Arbelos, and Criterion) include: David Schickele's , Nancy Savoca's , Peter Kass and Ed Emshwiller's , Richard Beymer's , Eleanor Antin's and a new 4K digital revisitation of his landmark 35mm work on Charles Burnett's originally released in 2007. His recent film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in fall 2021 and was named to Jonathan Rosenbaum's list of ten best films of 2022.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher The Block Museum of Art