Alexander (Sasha) Hammid (1907-2004)

Alexander (Sasha) Hammid (born Hackenschmied) (1907-2004) was one of the avant-garde and documentary cinema’s pioneers. Before immigrating to the United States from Czechoslovakia, Hammid was a major figure in the Czech Avant-Garde. He wrote numerous articles in various film and arts publications on film as an art form. Hammid also began making his first films…

In collaboration with the composer, František Bartoš, I have tried in my experimental film of Prague Castle (now entitled Music of Architecture) to find the relationship between architectural form and music; between an image and a tone; between the movement of a picture and the movement of music; and between the space of a picture…

Finally! That’s the only way to say it. Finally, after all the talking and writing, it has arrived in Prague. After so much indecision and delay only a few people had hope left that it would be realized. Since the first exposure to this kind of film art (known here, if at all, only from…

Memory One The year was 1953. I had just moved into 95 Orchard Street place. The rent was $14.95 a month. During the days I worked at Lenard Perskie’s Graphic Studios on West 22nd Street, doing camera work. We did work for the international edition of Life magazine. I remember making copies for Archipenko of…