[Frameworks] Let's define things

[Jonathan Walley]

It's a truly awful article - I don't think there's a single line that bears
scrutiny. But what bothers be even more than the article itself is that The
Independent chose someone to write an article on experimental film who has
no discernible credentials, and then actually published the drivel that
resulted. We can fault the (very young) author for not doing her homework,
for offering a laundry list of platitudes about art, for parroting the
party line on the glorious of the internet, and for a writing style more
appropriate for a high school newspaper than a publication claiming to have
been "obsessed with independent film since 1978." But there's some spark of
enthusiasm for the subject matter, misguided and uninformed as it is. Her
article shouldn't have ever seen the light of day, but for that we can only
fault The Independent. Perhaps the line under the title is a veiled
acknowledgement by the publishers of the article's shortcomings: "...her
unique POV," and "an area of film that leans toward indecipherable" suggest
that none of it should be taken too seriously.

Taking the article apart would be too easy, and perhaps a little
mean-spirited. But The Independent and the aivf should be called on the
carpet for printing it.

JW


On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 9:20 PM, Michael Betancourt <
hinterland.movies at gmail.com> wrote:

> This article left me with that "you're joking" sense: it doesn't even get
> Sheldon Renan's name right (quote: Sheldon Ren, author of *An
> Introduction to the American Underground Film*<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/052547207X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=052547207X&linkCode=as2&tag=theindep-20>,
> writes that the term came into usage because “there was at the time a
> feeling that the forces that be were trying to keep this certain kind of
> film from being made.") Problem is, people who don't know any better will
> read it and think they've learned something.....
>
> But somehow I don't think objecting will actually do any good. (It's
> already in print.)
>
> Michael Betancourt
> Savannah, GA USA
>
>
> michaelbetancourt.com
> twitter.com/cinegraphic | vimeo.com/cinegraphic
> www.cinegraphic.net | the avant-garde film & video blog
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 7:47 PM, Beebe, Roger <rogerbb at ufl.edu> wrote:
>
>>  I tried to post a comment to this article expressing my dissatisfaction
>> about her very idiosyncratic lexicon, but it seems not to have taken.  The
>> author goes on to say that Citizen Kane was avant garde, completely
>> ignoring the historical usage of this term.  I don't understand why The
>> Independent got someone to write this article who seems to have very little
>> exposure to experimental film.  (She also seems to have mostly art-world
>> references for exp. film, which is another problem after the more basic
>> ones.)
>>
>>  Mass protest?
>> R.
>>
>>
>>
>>  On Mar 4, 2013, at 6:53 PM, Chuck Kleinhans wrote:
>>
>>
>> http://independent-magazine.org/magazine/2013/03/Minhae-Shim_defines_experimental-film_avant-garde_video-installation
>>
>>  For me, experimental film is essentially a broad strokes or umbrella
>> term for moving images that explore the human condition, nature, or fantasy
>> in ways that haven’t been traditionally explored before. “Experimental
>> film” includes a wide range of works, from a video performance of a heavily
>> made-up woman smearing her face on a pane of glass (Pipilotti Rist,*Be
>> Nice to Me <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYDh_D1G0hU>*) to Wes
>> Anderson’s *Moonrise Kingdom <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748122>*.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  Chuck Kleinhans
>>
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>
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-- 
Jonathan Walley
Associate Professor
Department of Cinema
Denison University
walleyj at denison.edu
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