Name Jane Wodening | ||
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Jane Wodening (born Mary Jane Collom, and formerly known as Jane Brakhage) is an American writer and the first wife of filmmaker Stan Brakhage. The birth of their first child is the subject of the 1959 experimental short film Window Water Baby Moving. Wodening married Stan Brakhage in 1957 and is credited with creating scrapbooks for the Brakhage family during what is recognized as the filmmaker's most significant period of creation from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s. The couple separated in 1987.
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Life
Wodening grew up in a Chicago suburb, and moved to Fraser, Colorado, when she was eleven years old. After graduating highschool in Boulder, she dropped out of college and went to New York City. After meeting Stan Brakhage, the couple traveled around the country for several years before settling in Lump Gulch, where they had five children together. After separating from Brakhage, she again traversed the U.S. and settled in a cabin in Fourth of July Canyon, where she lived alone for ten years and authored seven collections of short stories.
Window Water Baby Moving
Jane insisted that Brakhage be present at the birth of their daughter, Myrrenna; however, Brakhage felt he would faint if he weren't focused on filming the event. The hospital initially gave permission for filming, but this was later reneged. Instead, Brakhage transferred the birth to their home, hiring a nurse and some expensive emergency equipment. Jane was originally "very, very shy" about being filmed, but eventually relented after Brakhage made "a big dramatic scene and said 'All right, let's forget it!'" Most of the film was shot by Brakhage himself, but Jane occasionally took the camera to capture her husband's reactions.
Quotes
"The moon was a great chum when I was an adolescent. He looked like a freckle-faced boy and when he’d smile, it was going to be a nice day."