Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present

”Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present” is a non-fiction film examining the pioneering life and works of artist, musician, and educator, Tony Conrad. Tony Conrad was one the great American artists of our time, yet to the world at large he remains criminally under appreciated.  Since the early 1960s, Conrad’s films and compositions have been the stuff of legend for artists and musicians everywhere.

His vast, interdisciplinary repertoire has single-handedly created and influenced major film and compositional movements.  He performed in and recorded the soundtrack to Jack Smith’s legendary Flaming Creatures; he turned the paradigms of cinema upside down with The Flicker, a film composed of only black and white frames; his development and practice of Just Intonation and Minimalism through his work with Stockhausen and La Monte Young still has the music establishment scratching their heads; his pivotal role in the formation of The Velvet Underground has directly or indirectly influenced everyone who has picked up a guitar since; as an early adopter of activist public access television he democratized the emerging medium of portable video.  In his later years he continued to perform and make work that pushed the boundaries of reason for which he has finally begun to receive worldwide attention. Utilizing intimate footage of Tony and his collaborators shot over the last twenty-two years, as well as his own archive of recordings and films, ”Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present” mirrors Conrad’s own playfully radical approach to art making. The non-linear structure allows Conrad to wildly free associate his streams of consciousness, revealing an honest and humane way of navigating a remarkable, creative life.