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The Lost Films of A. G. Gray
Aug. 12th, 2024 01:04 pmIn my youth, I directed a few films starring my friends. The films have since been lost, but I have a few stills, and I thought it would be fun to put them in my scrapbook… and then I thought it would be fun to write up my filmmaking career in the form of an academic article… and, well, here it is.
“The Lost Films of A. G. Gray” is a perfectly cromulent subtitle, but I’m trying to think of a title to go with it. Some poetry quote, perhaps?
***
In the early 21st century, a new star appeared in the directorial firmament. But like all too many female film directors, A. G. Gray faded into obscurity after only a brief career. All four of her films have been lost.
Of the first two, there is no record even of the titles. Only the synopses remain. Gray’s debut was a black and white silent melodrama about a young girl (Emma M.) slowly driven mad by her quest to pursue fifty-five majors. As she sinks deeper into her obsession with a can of Spaghetti-Os, her desperate friends (Caitlin A. and Sarah T.) take her to an asylum, knocking the Spaghetti-Os from her grip. (In a dramatic close-up, the Spaghetti-Os roll from her hand, like the baby carriage rolling down the steps in Battleship Potemkin.) But the Spaghetti-Os catch A. in their wicked net. The film closes on a close-up of her face as she holds the Spaghetti-Os to her cheek and strokes it. “My precious,” proclaims the closing intertitle.
Before Gray began her next film, the era of sound dawned, and her use of music shows that she was swift to grasp its possibility. In this psychological drama, two friends (Micaela C. and Monika F.) find themselves trapped in a ski lodge by a blizzard. F. passes the time by singing Christmas carols, until C., driven mad by the incessant singing, locks F. outside in the storm. F., frantic, bangs on the door. But soon her knocking falls into a rhythm, and her irrepressible spirit triumphs as she bursts into song again.
Gray’s third and most experimental film, Fans in Three Modes, has left the most complete record. The film begins with a young girl (M. again) in a black dress, attempting to pick a fan to complete her outfit for the evening. As she considers various fans, different scenarios appear. In one, a girl in an orange shawl (A., another reappearance) peers over a black fan at a tempting plate of strawberries. In another, A. does battle with an adversary (Myra A.) armed with a red fan. The red fan triumphs. We return to M., who selects the red fan and sets out to conquer.
Questions, however, remain. Though the title alludes to three modes, we only see two. What was the second mode? (One feels instinctively that the fan battle is the climax of the film.) And what is the deeper meaning of this fan-tasy?
Gray ended her career with a more conventional offering, The Trojan Horse. Long-time collaborator M. is joined by newcomer Rebecca W. (visible in the only extant still), who is attempting to infiltrate Purdue gear onto the IU campus, prompting a battle of wits with M. There are unsubstantiated rumors that the director herself played a cameo as the evil mastermind behind the scheme. No record of the ending remains.
There is no record, either, to explain the abrupt termination of Gray’s career. She had the experimental verve of Maya Deren, the unflinching eye of Agnes Varda, and the highly aestheticized interest in the female experience of Sofia Coppola. The loss of the films that she made is hard enough to bear, but the loss of the films that might have been is incalculable.
“The Lost Films of A. G. Gray” is a perfectly cromulent subtitle, but I’m trying to think of a title to go with it. Some poetry quote, perhaps?
***
In the early 21st century, a new star appeared in the directorial firmament. But like all too many female film directors, A. G. Gray faded into obscurity after only a brief career. All four of her films have been lost.
Of the first two, there is no record even of the titles. Only the synopses remain. Gray’s debut was a black and white silent melodrama about a young girl (Emma M.) slowly driven mad by her quest to pursue fifty-five majors. As she sinks deeper into her obsession with a can of Spaghetti-Os, her desperate friends (Caitlin A. and Sarah T.) take her to an asylum, knocking the Spaghetti-Os from her grip. (In a dramatic close-up, the Spaghetti-Os roll from her hand, like the baby carriage rolling down the steps in Battleship Potemkin.) But the Spaghetti-Os catch A. in their wicked net. The film closes on a close-up of her face as she holds the Spaghetti-Os to her cheek and strokes it. “My precious,” proclaims the closing intertitle.
Before Gray began her next film, the era of sound dawned, and her use of music shows that she was swift to grasp its possibility. In this psychological drama, two friends (Micaela C. and Monika F.) find themselves trapped in a ski lodge by a blizzard. F. passes the time by singing Christmas carols, until C., driven mad by the incessant singing, locks F. outside in the storm. F., frantic, bangs on the door. But soon her knocking falls into a rhythm, and her irrepressible spirit triumphs as she bursts into song again.
Gray’s third and most experimental film, Fans in Three Modes, has left the most complete record. The film begins with a young girl (M. again) in a black dress, attempting to pick a fan to complete her outfit for the evening. As she considers various fans, different scenarios appear. In one, a girl in an orange shawl (A., another reappearance) peers over a black fan at a tempting plate of strawberries. In another, A. does battle with an adversary (Myra A.) armed with a red fan. The red fan triumphs. We return to M., who selects the red fan and sets out to conquer.
Questions, however, remain. Though the title alludes to three modes, we only see two. What was the second mode? (One feels instinctively that the fan battle is the climax of the film.) And what is the deeper meaning of this fan-tasy?
Gray ended her career with a more conventional offering, The Trojan Horse. Long-time collaborator M. is joined by newcomer Rebecca W. (visible in the only extant still), who is attempting to infiltrate Purdue gear onto the IU campus, prompting a battle of wits with M. There are unsubstantiated rumors that the director herself played a cameo as the evil mastermind behind the scheme. No record of the ending remains.
There is no record, either, to explain the abrupt termination of Gray’s career. She had the experimental verve of Maya Deren, the unflinching eye of Agnes Varda, and the highly aestheticized interest in the female experience of Sofia Coppola. The loss of the films that she made is hard enough to bear, but the loss of the films that might have been is incalculable.
