Episode #124 - Brian L. Frye (The Hart of London)

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"I'm perhaps not the most typical law professor..."

To suggest that Brian L. Frye has lived an eclectic life would be an understatement. A former experimental filmmaker, a collector of home movies, and a legal scholar of intellectual property among other strange, often quizzical projects at the University of Kentucky. After having Peter on his own podcast, Brian sat down tor return the favor. We discuss his oddball way into filmmaking (including his notorious film, Brian Frye Fails to Masturbate), his collaboration on the most curious documentary about home movies perhaps ever made—Our Nixon—and then look at much of his legal scholarship and the various avenues of exploration that has led him down (including how the defendant of one of the most important cases every 1L learns may have been lying the entire time). The discussion remains quite strange: from the Supreme Court nominee who was squashed by Flaming Creatures to the intellectual property history of the Zapruder film, to why you should plagiarize. Finally, the two discuss The Hart of London, Jack Chambers's amazing experimental film and the failure of words to possibly describe this monumental work.

0:00–5:57 Opening
6:43–1:21:44 Deep Focus — Brian L. Frye
1:22:21–1:27:24 MUBI Sponsorship Section
1:28:34–1:40:16 Double Exposure — The Hart of London (Jack Chambers)
1:40:22–1:41:59 Close 

Notes and Links to the Conversation
—Check out Brian L. Frye, his scholarship page, and follow him on Twitter. Watch a number of his experimental films through his Vimeo. Watch Our Nixon. Learn about the law from his podcast, Ipse Dixit. Fred Camper has collected much of Brian's film writing.
—Vivitar Dual 8 Projector
—Daniel Martinico
—Eisenstein's Film Form
—SF's Total Mobile Home Microcinema
—The Pacific Film Archive. Kathy Geritz discusses some of the history of SF experimental cinema in this edited volume.
—Fred Camper on Brian's films.
—Jonas Mekas's Walden is now on Blu-Ray via Kino Lorber
—The FilmMaker's Co-Op
—The Robert Beck Memorial Cinema and the film, Robert Beck is Alive and Well and Living in NYC
—Brian on the origins of the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema
—Brian discusses the work of the Nixon home movie makers
—Brian discusses Our Nixon on C-SPAN
—Read the collected materials from Nixon v. Administrator of General Services (1976)
—Naomi Mezey and on Visual Culture and the Law
—Brian on The Fortas Film Festival
—Whitney Strub's Perversion for Profit
—A History of Intellectual Property in 50 Objects and Brian on the Zapruder Film
—Erie v. Tompkins (1938) and on why Brian thinks Tomkins may have lied
—Plagiarize this Paper! and Why Plagiarism is not a Crime
—The Kentucky Amateur Film Archive
—The Bastard Film Encounter
—Lea Shaver's Ending Book Hunger: Access to Print Across Barriers of Class and Culture
—Brian examines the patents of Gremlins
—Like many experimental films, The Hart of London has appeared on YouTube
—Fred Camper on The Hart of London

Theme Music: “Forward” by Northbound

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