Tom Neff. Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada, 1992. Audiovisual materials relating to the documentary Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada, 1990-1993. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Audiovisual materials relating to the documentary Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada measure 11 linear feet and date from 1990 to 1993. Records include sound recordings, motion picture film outtakes, transcripts, production notes, lab records of the film production, and video recordings of the completed documentary.
Scope and Contents:
Audiovisual materials relating to the documentary Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada measure 11 linear feet and date from 1990 to 1993. Records include sound recordings, motion picture film outtakes, transcripts, production notes, lab records, and video recordings of the completed documentary.
Original sound recordings and transcripts include two recorded public appearances by Wood, as well as multiple interviews with Beatrice Wood and with others about Wood; interviewed are Francis Nauman, John Perrault, Garth Clark, Mark Del Vecchio, Anne D'Harnoncourt, Steve Watson, Rupert Pole, R.P. Singh, Henry Huglin, and Lee Waisler. Partial transcripts are found for most recordings. Records created by the sound recordist, referred to in this finding aid as sound roll logs, are found with several of the sound reels and document general content and the camera roll numbers of corresponding film footage.
Production notes and lab records include script notes, shot lists, editing notes, detailed editing logs, camera reports, and lab records including work orders for dailies, effects such as titles and superimpositions, and documentation of the final print. Many of the sound recordings were shot synchronously with the motion picture film found in the collection, and while the documentation does not always make the link between picture and soundtrack explicit, the link can be investigated via sound roll logs, camera reports, negative logs, and shot lists.
Moving images include three video copies of the finished documentary and 153 rolls of 16mm motion picture film negative, which are outtakes from 166 original camera negative rolls. The content of outtakes consists of three general types: film shot during several of the interviews and one of Wood's public appearances found in Series 1; silent footage of locations and Wood working in her studio; and footage of historical photographs and artworks. All of the film found in the collection consists of outtakes; footage that was used in the documentary was not donated, although complete sound recordings exist in series 1.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as three series:
Series 1: Original Sound Recordings and Transcripts, 1990-1991 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 2: Production Notes and Lab Reports, 1990-1992 (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 3: Moving Images, 1990-1993 (12.1 linear feet; Box 2, FC 3-122)
Biographical / Historical:
Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada was written and directed by Tom Neff and released by Wild Wolf Productions in 1993 to correspond with Wood's 100th birthday. Tom Neff is a filmmaker, producer, and television executive who was born in 1953 in Chicago, Illinois and received his MFA from the University of Southern California in 1981. Neff founded the production company Wild Wolf Productions with Diandra Douglas in the early 1990s, and Mama of Dada was the company's first production and was written and directed by Neff, and produced by Neff, Diandra Douglas, and Amie Knox.
Neff has produced, written, and directed over a dozen documentaries on historical and cultural subjects since the mid-1980s. In addition to his work on Wood, Neff's filmography includes several documentaries about American artists, including Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Frederic Remington, and Red Grooms. His short documentary Red Grooms: Sunflower in a Hot House earned him an Oscar with Madeline Bell in 1987. He currently teaches at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art holds multiple oral histories and collections of archival material related to Beatrice Wood, including the Beatrice Wood papers, the Beatrice Wood letters to Elizabeth Stein, and the Belle M. Deitch papers concerning Beatrice Wood.
Oral histories include two interviews with Wood conducted by Paul Karlstrom, one on August 26, 1976, and another on March 2, 1992.
The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona holds a collection of material collected and created by Tom Neff for his 1999 documentary "Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Painting with Light."
Provenance:
Donated 1992 by Wild Wolf Productions via writer, director, and producer Tom Neff.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings records with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
Rights:
Outtakes, reels and transcripts: Authorization to quote or reproduce for purposes of publication requires written permission from WILD WOLF PRODUCTIONS via Tom Neff, producer. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Series contains three video copies of the finished documentary and 153 rolls of 16mm motion picture film negative, which are outtakes from 166 original camera negative rolls. Footage consists of three general types of content: film shot during several of the interviews and one of Wood's public appearances found in Series 1; silent footage of locations, Wood working in her studio; and footage of historical photographs and artworks.
As noted elsewhere in the finding aid, the camera roll numbers assigned during shooting, and appearing throughout the production documentation, do not match the negative roll numbers assigned during editing, which are the numbers on the existing film rolls. Although the documentation is not always precise in its transcription of the footage content and numbering, a rough inventory of footage content was made during processing to facilitate research. Verification by visual inspection is recommended prior to requesting any duplication of the footage in this series.
Footage from interviews of December 1990 appears to be on negative rolls 1-11. Footage from Wood's appearance at the Santa Monica auditorium should be on negative rolls 13-15. Interviews conducted in New York City appear to be on negative rolls 21-36. The December 1991 interviews with Wood and others appear to be on negative rolls 90-94, 105-106, and 116-119. The Luncheon shot on December 11, 1991 is likely to be on negative rolls 102-103. A lengthy shoot in Ojai in December of 1991 includes a significant amount of silent footage of Wood's studio and home, interiors and exteriors, and footage of Wood working in her studio. This footage is likely found on negative rolls 75-79, 80-88, 95-101, 108-114, 126-133, and 135. The remainder of the rolls appear to contain stills of artwork and historical photographs shot in Francis Nauman's apartment and the Philadelphia Museum, New York City exteriors, and stills of artwork shot in Ojai.
Also found in this series are three rolls of assembled shorter trims and outtakes labeled "select neg," and 7 small rolls of work print containing mainly titles and superimpositions. The "select neg" reels seem to have been roughly assembled in early stages of editing, and the footage that was ultimately used in the documentary was cut from these rough edits. Although the footage that was used in the documentary is not found in the film footage in this series, the sound recordings in Series 1 are the complete, unedited original recordings.
Arrangement:
Film footage is arranged in rough numerical order by negative roll number, the sequence of numbers assigned during editing. Some of the film rolls were combined, with one roll containing footage from two or more original negative rolls. See Series 2, production notes and lab reports, for more documentation of footage content and links between negative roll numbers and camera roll numbers.
Camera film was originally stored in 33 cardboard boxes provided by the film lab; it has been transferred to archival film cans, sometimes with multiple rolls in single cans. Digital photographs of original cardboard boxes, which have been replaced with archival cans, are available in printed form in Series 2.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings records with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
Outtakes, reels and transcripts: Authorization to quote or reproduce for purposes of publication requires written permission from WILD WOLF PRODUCTIONS via Tom Neff, producer. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Audiovisual materials relating to the documentary Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada, 1990-1993. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
