Tom Chomont

Biography

Tom Chomont was a prominent figure of the New York underground film world, and made films for over 40 years. Tom Chomont was a longtime HIV and Parkinson’s Disease survivor and sadly died on June 28, 2010. “Tom Chomont’s films are at once highly poetic and carefully controlled personal statements, and so private both in form and subject matter that they become almost hermetic…the instability of human existence, the poles of all -encompassing imagination on the one hand and nothingness and death on the other, are the notions underlying these works.” – Fred Camper From 1962 through 1989, Tom Chomont made over 40 films. All but two of his films are silent and all are short, ranging from less than 1 minute to 16 minutes. Perhaps, the subtitle of his film Phases of the Moon best characterizes his film work: The Parapsychology of Everyday Life. His films, often portraits of friends, are a lyric evocation of the ordinary world, but at the same time they bear witness to an unabashedly spiritual and sexual parallel universe. His incomparable technique of offsetting color positive and high contrast black and white negative creates a subtly beautiful and richly evocative, otherworldly aura.…

Directed

1. The Cat Lady (1969) — Director
2. Oblivion (1969) — Director
3. Ophelia (1969) — Director
4. The Mirror Garden (1967) — Director
5. Epilog/Siam (1968) — Director
6. Jabbok (1967) — Director
7. Phases of the Moon: The Parapsychology of Everyday Life (1968) — Director
8. Mona Lysa (1966) — Director
9. Flames (1965) — Director
10. Night Blossoms (1965) — Director
11. Anthony (1966) — Director
12. Morpheus In Hell (1967) — Director
13. abda/Rebirth (1975) — Director
14. Gloria in the Glass (1969) — Director
15. The Heavens (1977) — Director
16. Earth (1978) — Director
17. Joe's Maison (1984) — Director
18. Aria (1970) — Director
19. Lijn II (1972) — Director
20. A Persian Rug (1969) — Director
21. Portret (1970) — Director
22. Untitled (1969) — Director
23. Space Time Studies (1977) — Director
24. Minor Revisions (1979) — Director
25. Inner Sanctum — Director
26. Twilight (1998) — Director
27. Razor Head (1984) — Director
28. Aquarium (1994) — Director
29. The Hidden Staircase — Director
30. A Faustian Knot — Director
31. Head Shot — Director
32. Love Objects (1971) — Director
33. Spider Jan.16.91 (1994) — Director
34. Re: Incarnation (1973) — Director
35. Research (1972) — Director
36. Storm Warning — Director
37. Penguin Pool — Director
38. Wizard of Light — Director
39. Mother's Day (2006) — Director
40. The Cat Music — Director

Also appeared in

1. Birth of a Nation (1997) — Self
2. Tom (2002) — Himself
3. Panic Bodies (1998)
4. Galaxie (1966) — Self
5. Early Monthly Segments (2003)
6. Spiracle (1967)
7. Lover (1978)
8. My Hand Outstretched to the Winged Distance and Sightless Measure (2005) — Himself