''My Name Is Oona'' is a 1969 American

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

short film directed by Gunvor Nelson. It uses footage of her daughter Oona that has been optically printed, with Oona's voice used for the soundtrack. The film was selected for preservation in the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

in 2019.

Summary

Footage of Gunvor's daughter Oona saying her name multiple times and days of the week edited into an expressive rhythmical structure that accompanies the visual structure of the film that plunges into the experience of a child.

Production

''My Name Is Oona'' began with footage of Oona that Gunvor optically printed. Inspiration for the film's soundtrack came when Nelson attended a

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

concert. Gunvor recorded Oona saying her name in different ways, and after hearing about the project, Reich sent Gunvor a recording he had made of Oona saying the days of the week. Gunvor worked with

Patrick Gleeson Patrick Gleeson (born November 9, 1934) is an American musician, synthesizer pioneer, composer, and producer. Career Gleeson moved to San Francisco in the 1960s to teach in the English Department at San Francisco State. Gleeson began experimentin ...

to create the audio track. Once that was complete, Nelson made a final cut of the film by editing the image track based on the audio.

Reception and legacy

When ''My Name Is Oona'' screened at the

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, Danny Weiss of ''Show Business Illustrated'' identified it as a standout, calling it a lyrical film that "ends leaving the viewer a little high." In ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'',

Amos Vogel Amos Vogel ( Vogelbaum; April 18, 1921 – April 24, 2012) was a New York City cineaste and curator. Biography Vogel was born in Vienna, Austria. He fled Austria with his parents after the Nazi '' Anschluß'' in 1938 and at first studied animal h ...

declared it "one of the most perfect recent examples of poetic cinema." In 2019, the film was selected by the U.S.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0468815
''My Name Is Oona''
at

Canyon Cinema Canyon Cinema is an American nonprofit organization for distributing independent, avant-garde, and artist-made films. After starting in the 1960s as an exhibition program, it grew to include a nationwide newsletter and a distribution cooperative. ...

''My Name Is Oona'' on MUBI
1960s avant-garde and experimental films 1960s American films 1960s English-language films 1969 short films American black-and-white films Films directed by Gunvor Nelson Non-narrative films United States National Film Registry films English-language short films American avant-garde and experimental short films