Peter Hutton 1st Memorial at Bard

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My friend Peter Hutton died in June and we attended his Funeral which was very sad.  Last weekend there was the first, of what I imagine will be many, memorials for him at Bard College.

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Mark Street and Jenn Reeves, both former students of Peter’s (pink arrows) arranged the whole thing with, I imagine, lots of help from Peggy Awesh, Bard Faculty (blue arrow).  The whole thing was incredibly sad and really great.  Many people- students, friends, fellow filmmakers, etc. spoke.  Jem Cohen showed a short film of Peter (see still above). Eventually they showed three of Peter’s films- Titans Goblet, Lodz Symphony, and the Icelandic one which has a name in Icelandic which I couldn’t possibly spell.  It is always great to see them and especially great and poignant in this setting with all of Peter’s Fan Club there.  Finally they showed all 30+ rolls of B&W reversal 16mm film that we were invited to make over the summer.  This was a great idea that seemed at least as great on the day if not greater.  To save time, or maybe to be arty, they double projected some side by side.  Mine, of fishing boats docked in Westport, Mass., was shown along side Jenn Reeves, also water based, which I like to feel is a VIP spot.  I ran into Kelly Reichert there and her friend Gina.  We had dinner in Rhinebeck at The Local and then I stayed across the street at the Beekman Arms.  The whole thing was pretty fun.

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That’s my film on the right- Peter’s soul as a mighty swan spreading it’s wings.