Ben Van Meter

DirectorActor

Ben Van Meter began making films and light shows in the mid-1960s in San Francisco and soon became a leading figure in Bay Area-underground filmmaking. His films, especially S.F. Trips Festival, An Opening (1966) and the epic Acid Mantra or Rebirth of a Nation (1968), are compelling attempts to visually and sonically inscribe psychedelia, as experience and philosophy, in the medium of film. Van Meter’s films were unavailable for many years, but their ongoing restoration by the Academy Film Archive and their inclusion in the de Young Museum’s 2017 exhibition, The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock ‘n’ Roll, has gained them a new audience.

09-02-1941

Birthday

Aquarius

Zodiac Sign

Genres

Total Films

Also known as (male)

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Place of Birth

09-02-1941

Birthday

Aquarius

Zodiac Sign

Genres

Total Films

Humble Ben

Also Known As (male)

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Place of Birth

Popular works

Media

Creative career

actor

3 Works

producer

0 Works

director

26 Works

writer

0 Works

other

3 Works

Apropos of San Francisco

(After or for Jean Vigo). A study in visual rhythms and structure, using the same basic element repeated with variations.

0.0

Year:

1968

He's Here Now

Through the veils of multiple exposure at an "Acid Test" party in San Francisco (toward the end of "He's Here Now" ) one might catch a brief glimpse of Ken Kelsey and Neal Cassidy. During those years, when picking up processed film at Multi-Chrome labs in San Francisco, I would sometimes run into and chat with another hero, the great filmmaker Bruce Baillie, one of the original founders of Canyon Cinema.

0.0

Year:

1967

Me & Bruce & Art

Bay Area filmmakers and Canyon Cinema co-founders Ben Van Meter and Bruce Conner were invited to L.A. to talk about Underground Film on the Art Linkletter Show. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

0.0

Year:

1967