[Frameworks] textbook recommendation

[Jonathan Walley]

Dear Joan (and Frameworkers),

I hope people respond on-list, as this is a perennial problem for anyone
teaching undergraduate courses on avant-garde cinema. To my knowledge,
there is not a good general history of AGF, much less one accessible to
students with little or no background in the subject (or related subjects
like art history). Indeed, I can't think of any book that purports to offer
such a history - the closest I can think of is A.L. Rees's A HISTORY OF
EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND VIDEO, which, while fascinating, is a little advanced
for uninitiated readers, and leaves off in the 1970s before going on to
focus specifically on British practice. Despite its title, it's a little
scattershot historically (which I say as an admirer of the book and of
Rees's work generally).

Any other text that comes to mind is focused on specific periods, nations,
filmmakers, or themes. For this reason, I've always cobbled together my
reading lists for such classes in the same way you're doing - journal
essays, book chapters, artist interviews, online stuff, etc.

This is "the history we need," as they say; I've always wondered why there
isn't such a book. And I've thought about writing one. Perhaps it seems
like too pragmatic, or too simplistic, an endeavor for avant-garde-y folks,
or perhaps it's the fear of backlash against such a project, which would
necessarily oversimplify, leave out worthy filmmakers, suffer from blind
spots, etc. Maybe the controversy over VISIONARY FILM, and the related
"Essential Cinema" canon, has made subsequent scholars wary of taking on a
synthetic, general historical account of the subject.

I have only skimmed it, but Michael O'Pray's AVANT-GARDE FILM: FORMS,
THEMES, AND PASSIONS is probably worth looking at.

Anyway, probably not a terribly helpful response, but confirmation that
there are others out there who have the same problem. So I do hope others
on this list will chime in publicly.

Best,
Jonathan

On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 9:24 AM, Joan Hawkins <jchawkin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Frameworkers,I'll be teaching a History of the American Avant-garde
> class in the fall (there'll be 2 weeks of early cinema and then we'll move
> quickly into the 1942-present period) -- and I would like to have a good
> history to use as the basic text,  to be supplemented with journal essays,
> artist's essays etc. Is there a text you'd recommend, preferably one that
> discusses some of the major critical responses to the films as well as the
> films themselves?
>
> The class will be offered to juniors and seniors, with very little
> experimental film background or experience.  There will be a production for
> component for students who sign up for it (so students can take the history
> course alone or take an experimental production course in conjunction with
> my crit/hist class).   Feel free to respond to me offlist.
> Many thanks, Joan
>
> --
> Joan Hawkins
> Associate Professor
> Indiana University
> Dept of Communication and Culture
> 800 E. Third St
> Bloomington, IN 47405
>
> office phone 812-855-1548
>
> _______________________________________________
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> FrameWorks at jonasmekasfilms.com
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>
>


-- 
Jonathan Walley
Associate Professor
Department of Cinema
Denison University
walleyj at denison.edu
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