The Elms (1964), Abbott Meader

«A response to the assassination of JFK in 1963. The sound was created first, and so the film really presents images that respond to the sound. Much of the sound involves material taped from the TV during the funeral and memorial ceremonies for Kennedy, as well as the chaos in the police station after Oswald was is also the New Orleans jazz classic,“Weary Blues,“ and fragments via Berlioz, Boito, Chopin, JS Bach, from his Christmas oratorio 142, plus other sources, including many brief violent bursts that even I can no longer identify. This is a transfer from a 16mm original. The noble elms were being stricken by disease and dying out. A valued way of life was in decline. The assassination seemed to underline many things. I was moved to act, and this film is an expression wherein I feel I have been a vehicle for something quite beyond my personal ego/self. So be it.»