A 3 DVD Collectors Edition of feature films plus a 36 page illustrated booklet of history and critical essays.
Featuring major avant garde talents: Alvin Lucier, Mary Ashley, Steve Paxton, Claude Kipnis, and Robert Ashely.
Distributed by GEORGE MANUPELLI FILMS with PANDORA'S PICTURES 2008 / all rights reserved
Order online or Write:
George Manupelli, 1 Muchmore Rd., Bethlehem, NH 03574 603-869-2439
The Trilogy $50 | single title $20
Library Rate: $300 | Single title $200
All orders $5 shipping & handling
DR. CHICAGO 1968
118 min. Black & White
RIDE DR. CHICAGO RIDE 1970
109 min. Black & White
CRY DR. CHICAGO 1971
96 min. Color
Dr. Chicago Trilogy: Additional Photos & Credits
The Chicago films do not use actors. Instead, the main characters are played by major avant garde talents from other creative fields. Dr. Chicago is played by renowned composer Alvin Lucier whose stream-of-consciousness soliloquies in the films are punctuated by his ferocious stutter. Painter and performance artist Mary Ashley, a primary member of the legendary ONCE Group, smolders throughout as Chicago's girlfriend, Sheila Marie.
Steve Paxton, originator of the revolutionary dance form, Contact Improvisation, plays a mute naif who dances his part. Sometimes he seems to be dancing in a movie of his own making. Israeli mime Claude Kipnis, heir to Marcel Marceau, switches seamlessly to a speaking role as an international criminal and Chicago's archenemy. The distinguished American composer Robert Ashley, known internationally for his work in operatic forms, created the soundtracks for the Chicago Trilogy.
The Dr. Chicago films thrive on wordplay and slapstick bordering on Dada. They also forecast, 35 years earlier, contemporary issues such as racism, sexism, gay rights, immigration, presidential spying, privatization of jails, abuse of political prisoners, commercialization of healthcare, and the environmental degradation of Native American lands. The Chicago films once enjoyed cult status but have not been exhibited in recent years.
Robert Ashley wrote, "The Dr. Chicago films are a memoriam to George Manupelli's genius as a director and cinematographer and they are a memoriam to the spirit of the times in which they were made. There will never be anything like them again in our lifetime."
Distributed by George Manupelli Films with Pandora's Pictures 2008. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
"Each frame is composed like an exquisite still photograph - looks like Antonioni but plays like Woody Allen only funnier."
-June Moss, New York Artist
"Dr. Chicago is the most influential film of all time: long takes, pan, tilt, zoom. I had to make films."
-Cineaste Magazine
"I wish you had made a dozen Dr. Chicago films. I love them!"
-Amy Beal, Musicologist, University of California Santa Cruz
"Manupelli's movies are overlooked treasures in the history of experimental film and the burgeoning independent feature film movement of the late '60s and early '70s."
-Andrew Lampert, Archivist, Anthology Film Archives
DR. CHICAGO 1968
118 min. Black & White
RIDE DR. CHICAGO RIDE 1970
109 min. Black & White
CRY DR. CHICAGO 1971
96 min. Color
"A direct line from Jean Cocteau to Maya Deren to George Manupelli."
-Ed Emshwiller, Film Maker
Dr. Chicago Trilogy: Additional Photos & Credits
