Mary Ellen Bute

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Mary Ellen Bute (November 21, 1906 – October 17, 1983) was a pioneer film animator who did much of her work in visual music. She was one of the first female experimental filmmakers in the U.S. From 1934 until 1953, she made 14 short, musical abstract films, working in New York. Many of these were seen in regular U.S. movie theaters, such as Radio City Music Hall, often before a prestigious film. Several of her films were also called "Seeing Sound" films.

Born in Houston, Texas, Bute studied painting in Texas and Philadelphia, then stage lighting at Yale University. She was interested in the tradition of color organs, as a means to paint with light. She also worked with Leon Theremin and Thomas Wilfred. She was influenced by the abstract animated films of Oskar Fischinger.

She began her filmmaking career with a collaboration with Joseph Schillinger, for whom she animated visuals. Eventually she partnered with Ted Nemeth who was her cinematographer; they were married in 1940. Bute's last film, Passages from Finnegans Wake (1965-67), a live-action feature, was based on the novel by James Joyce.

There has been discrepancies over the dating of her films, primarily due to inaccuracies published in online articles and websites. The dates below are verified by documents from her distributor and the Center for Visual Music.

[edit] Filmography

Synchromy – 1933, collaboration with Joseph Schillinger and Lewis Jacobs Unfinished.
Rhythm in Light – 1934 (b&w, 5 min.) in collaboration with Melville Webber and Ted Nemeth.
Synchromy No. 2 – 1935 (b&w, 5.5 min.) Music: Evening Star from Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner
Dada – 1936 (b&w) – 3-minute short for Universal Newsreel.
Parabola – 1937 (b&w, 9 min.) Music: Création du monde by Darius Milhaud.
Escape – 1937 (color, 4.5 min.) Music: Toccata in D Minor by J.S. Bach.
Spook Sport – 1939, (color, 8 min.) Music: Danse macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns. Animation by Norman McLaren.
Tarantella – 1940, color, 5 mins.
Polka Graph – 1947, color, 4.5 mins. Dmitri Shostakovich's Polka from The Age of Gold
Color Rhapsody (aka Color Rhapsodie) – 1948, color, 6 mins.
Imagination – 1948, color
New Sensations in Sound – 1949, color, 3 mins. (ad for RCA)
Pastorale – 1950, color, 9 mins. Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze
Abstronic – 1952, color, 7 mins. Aaron Copland's Hoe Down and Don Gillis's Ranch House Party
Mood Contrasts – 1953, color, 7 mins.
The Boy Who Saw Through – 1956 (Producer), b/w, 25 mins. Not abstract.
Passages From Finnegans Wake – 1965-67, b&w, 97 mins. (Director and co-writer). Not abstract. Screened at Cannes Film Festival