Robert Nelson Movies

A continuous dissolve of 87 male and female nudes. "The film's fascination lies with the suspense of that magic moment, halfway between two persons,...

A kinetic film sketch designed to involve the viewers muscles. The rocky seaside cliffs near Stinson Beach, California, hold the wrecked carcass of a...

A film by Robert Nelson

"Special Warning is like a poem more than a narrative or story. It suggests states of isolation, barrenness, sexual guilt and sin, but even these...

"Even when we know the game is an illusion, the experience of Bleu Shut is entirely a pleasure: the ‘game’ is fun, the Nelson/Wiley...

“When Picasso died I wanted to make the first post-mortem documentary, as I knew would happen anyway, and cheaply. The film took four hours to...

[1970/2003, color, 7.5 min] Experimental short film preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

Experimental filmmaker Robert Nelson brings his characteristic wit to this restaging of the famous “play rehearsal” scene from Hamlet,...

Nelson sets minimal, repetitive imagery against a looping recording of his daughter Oona, which goes gradually from sweet to curious to mysterious to...

"Dada-inspired performance in which absurd actions take place in an environment of strange symbols and graphic forms." -Mark Webber. Design by...

The Off-Handed Jape is an afternoon’s lark made by Nelson and his artist friend William Wiley. The two men perform whimsical actions and poses...

A feature-length documentary directed by Dorothy Wiley and Gunvor Nelson about five working San Francisco artists: William T. Wiley, Robert Hudson,...

Made by Robert Nelson and William Allan in cooperation with KQED-TV San Francisco. Starring an ensemble cast that includes Bill Gourley, Bruce...

A black-and-white travel journal, in which the themes of memories and their relationship to the past suddenly catch up and rush away from us. The...

A ‘film wake’. Though celebratory in mood, it has a mournful subtext… death and dying. We dedicated it to Dr. Sam West, departed...

A film by Robert Nelson

Commissioned by the San Francisco Mime Troupe as a short to be screened during intermission for its rather infamous 1965 Minstrel Show (Civil Rights...

A film by Robert Nelson

A film by Robert Nelson

"I'm definitely not interested in passing along intellectual information about California. There's plenty of that everywhere. I'm trying to get at...