For a brief window in time, the filmmaker David Brooks was one of the leading voices of the 1960s avant-garde film scene in the United States. His sudden and tragic death, at the age of 24, left us with six of his completed works, of which The Wind is Driving Him Towards the Open Sea stands out as an artistic pinnacle in his career. Both his longest and most ambitious production, the film mixes vérité filmmaking with diaristic footage and lyrical interludes to assemble a portrait of a shellshocked artist ambling about Martha’s Vineyard.

“Who is Chandler Moore?” is the question that haunts Brooks’ poetic featurette. Filming different landscapes alongside interviews with Moore’s so-called friends and acquaintances, Brooks pieces together a singularly elusive film portrait that inspires more questions than answers. Yet, it is his knack for asking questions and seeking out great mysteries that makes his cinema so alive, as it becomes apparent that each new image, character, and idea in sight are the product of Brooks’ restless and inquisitive spirit—the very same that inspired him to travel around the world and detoured him into the world of experimental cinema. 

“A film is made to satisfy the film-maker’s emotional need to create an artistic sensation which he (the artist) feels within himself. The question is for whom is this sensation created. I answer most vehemently that for a film to reach the ultimate being of its conception, for it to truly explore the fecundity of the human spirit, it cannot, Cannot, CANNOT attempt communication with a specified audience.” DAVID BROOKS

Two strains run deep in Brooks’ cinema and his relationship to film-making. On the one hand, his studies in philosophy and Freudian psychology. On the other, his association with the burgeoning independent film scene of 1960s New York. Thus, his creation of films that united an interest in big ideas — spiritual, personal, political, et cetera — with an indubitably unique perspective that lended itself to intimate stories and impressive visuals. As he put it in an interview from 1967, “my movies are an attempt to capture these mental images — certainly no other form can come as close to the mind as the movies.” 

David Brooks was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1944. He studied philosophy and psychology at Columbia University, but soon left to dedicate himself to making films. In 1962, Jonas Mekas recruited him to act as the first Executive Director of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative. He was only 18 years old at the time. Around the same time, his films started screenings in programs alongside the work of directors like Bruce Conner, Ron Rice, and Stan Brakhage. In 1968, he died in a car accident.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer. Special thanks to the Film-Makers’ Cooperative.