Film UbuWebRobert Nelson (b. 1951)
Back to Robert Nelson in UbuWeb Film
The player will show in this paragraph
The Awful Backlash (1967)Made by Robert Nelson and William Allan
"In their starkly minimal film, The Awful Backlash, directors Robert Nelson and William Allan, focus solely on a pair of hands as they begin to unravel what appears to be a tangled fishing line. Any further evidence of the title's confusing 'awfulness' Ð other than the literal disentanglement of the line remains, however, tentative, left as it were, literally, at a loose end. The viewer knows nothing of the incident that led to this backlash or entanglement; nor of the directors' initial motive for the title indeed not of any other attempt at blending an additional storyline beyond what is seen. There is, perhaps, one link with a reverse reaction Ð a sense of gradual recovery taking place, as the thread unfolds from a position of multiplicity back to a singular line." (Pamela Kember, Rethinking Refunctioning, 'Awful Backlash' catalogue, May 2000)
RESOURCES:
Edited for UbuWeb by Stephen McLaughlin
UbuWeb Film | UbuWeb
PennSound | CENTRO | EPC | WFMU