Yesterday, I told you about the reactions I had to Chip Delany’s experimental film The Orchid when I first saw it at a comic-book convention in the early ’70s, and pointed you to a YouTube version of the film, one that was in less than stellar condition, and chopped into four pieces on YouTube.

If you checked it out, you should consider it a poor advertisement for itself, because I’ve been alerted by one who should know that the YouTube version is of low quality due to its ancient videocassette source. You can, however, find a version which has been pristinely restored from the best surviving original print of the film itself as part of the two-DVD set of the Delany documentary The Polymath, or The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman.

The first disc of the two-DVD set contains the award-winning 80-minute documentary The Polymath, which I saw at Readercon, and which is magnificent. You can catch a small clip (including one of its most moving moments) at the director’s site here.

The second DVD of the set not only has a pristine transfer of The Orchid that’s far superior to the version posted on YouTube, but over two hours of additional interviews with Chip.

If you need any further convincing that you need to own this DVD, check out these reviews from The New Yorker and CinemaQueer.

Unfortunately, director Fred Barney Taylor, though a great documentarian, isn’t so great at marketing and making it easy for you to order the DVD, as there’s no BUY ME NOW link on his site. But if you use PayPal to send $35 ($30 for the DVE plus $5 for shipping and handling) straight to Taylor at fredtaylor@nyc.rr.com , he’ll get one out to you ASAP. The process may be convoluted, but I assure you it will be worth it!