[Frameworks] textbook recommendation

[Greg DeCuir]

All:

Very interested in this question and the responses. Just today I was asked to put together a special festival program on the history of American avant-garde cinema. This is for an audience that may have never seen a survey of this type, so it should be very basic and canonical even but with some challenging picks added to the mix to keep things interesting from a curatorial perspective. Simple starting point but challenging because there is a lot to try to reduce into one program. Looking forward to absorbing these various histories we're discussing and then building something. If anyone feels so inclined, please do chime in with a "this program can't do without..."

Sincerely,

Greg de Cuir, Jr
Selector/Programmer, Alternative Film/Video Belgrade

http://www.alternativefilmvideo.org/


________________________________
 From: Jonathan Walley <walleyj at denison.edu>
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com> 
Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2013 4:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] textbook recommendation
 


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 
>_______________________________________________
>FrameWorks mailing list
>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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