[Frameworks] Let's define things

[Tom Whiteside]

Agreed, this is dumbo to the max. I didn't read the whole thing, it was awful.

However, the entire episode has been worthwhile as it leads up to Peter's exquisite critique - nice language, good message, delivered with Confirmation Notification to RightHereSville! Thnx.

Tom       Durham Cinematheque

From: FrameWorks [mailto:frameworks-bounces at jonasmekasfilms.com] On Behalf Of Peter Mudie
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 9:12 AM
To: Experimental Film Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Let's define things

It was just stupid, that's all. The author tries (but comes across as stupid), the editor who is responsible must be stupid, the publication is pretty stupid for printing it. A stupidathon, full circle - even without scrutinising bears, that's credibility in a non-return airmail package to Nowheresville.
P

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<mailto: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<http://michaelbetancourt.com>
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www.cinegraphic.net<http://www.cinegraphic.net> | the avant-garde film & video blog

On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 7:47 PM, Beebe, Roger <rogerbb at ufl.edu<mailto: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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--
Jonathan Walley
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Denison University
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