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phone out the window. I know the later
Fluxfilm
reels that were made in 1966, but did the Fluxus group get involved with film before that?
Ono:
No. I think that one of the reasons why we couldn't make films or didn't think of making films was that we felt that it was an enormously expensive venture. At that time, I didn't even have the money to buy canvas. I'd go to army surplus shops and get that canvas that's rolled up. During that period, I felt that getting a camera to do a film was unrealistic.
MacDonald: Grapefruit
includes three tiny descriptions of conceptual film projects that are identified as excerpts from "Six Film Scripts by Yoko Ono." Were there others, or was the indication that there were six scripts a conceptual joke?
Ono:
No, there were six at first; then later there were others. At the time I wrote those scripts, I sent most of them to Jonas Mekas, to document them. Actually, that's why I have copies of them now.
MacDonald:
There seems to be confusion about the names and numbers of the films on the
Fluxfilm Program,
and about who did them. I assume you made the two slow-motion films,
Eyeblink
and
Match,
and the first film about buttocks,
No. 4
.
Ono:
Those are mine, yes.
MacDonald:
Did people collaborate in making those films, or did everybody work individually and then just put the films onto those two Fluxus reels?
Ono:
One day George [Maciunas] called me and said he's got the use of a high-speed camera and it's a good opportunity, so just come over [to Peter Moore's apartment on East 36th Street] and make some films. So I went there, and the high-speed camera was set up and he said, "Give me some ideas! Think of some ideas for films!" There weren't many people around, at the beginning just George and . . .
MacDonald:
Peter Moore is credited on a lot of the slow-motion films.
Ono:
Yeah, Peter Moore was there, and Barbara Moore came too. And other people were coming inI forget who they werebut not many. When I arrived, I was the only person there, outside of George. I don't know how George managed to get the high-speed camera. I don't think he paid for it. But it was the kind of opportunity that if you can get it, you grab it. So I'm there, and I got the idea of
Match
and
Eyeblink
and we shot these.
Eyeblink
didn't come out too well. It was my eye, and I didn't like my eye.
MacDonald:
I like that film a lot. Framed the way it is, the eye becomes erotic; it's suggestive of body parts normally considered more erotic.
Ono:
The one of those high-speed films I liked best was one you didn't mention:
Smoking
.