Sunday Morning/The Velvet Underground

Rosalind Stevenson / 1966 / 5 minutes 31 seconds / 16mm / black & white / optical sound print / 24 fps
Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison.

“Sunday Morning/The Velvet Underground” is a moving portrait of Lou Reed, John Cale, and Sterling Morrison that I filmed in 1966. The film was shot with my Beaulieu R16 camera. There was no pre-planning―we had come back to my apartment after their usual performance in Andy Warhol’s multimedia show The Exploding Plastic Inevitable and decided to film. I shot in black and white 16 mm Tri-X Reversal on 100-foot reels, favoring hand held camera, closeups, and the general sensation of floating with the movement of the camera. They were playing the song Sunday Morning, which was still being composed. John Cale was playing an antique pedal organ that I had at the time. The film was shot silent but in sound speed. The final film is a sound print with the official version of “Sunday Morning” dubbed over and stretched to the length of the film.

Screening History: I showed the film occasionally along with my other films at what were informal screenings during the late sixties, but it remained out of the public view until 1993. In 1993 Channel 4 Television, London approached me about including it in a program they were doing on the Velvet Underground. They licensed the 5 minutes and 31 seconds and aired it in its entirety in December 1993 as part of their 7.5-hour Velvet Underground evening Peel Slowly and See. Debbie Harry introduced it.