[Frameworks] textbook recommendation

Sat May 11 18:38:57 UTC 2013

Scott (et. al.),

Your CRITICAL CINEMA books are extremely useful, in part because they are,
indeed, reader friendly. I would say that about MOTION STUDIES, too. I hope
it's clear that my point was that I don't think there is a single broad
historical survey of avant-garde cinema, so that anyone who wishes to teach
a survey course on the subject must cull together material from different
sources, including most definitely your books. I've used several of your
interviews and other writings in classes I've taught, as well as in my own
research.

Maybe it's wrongheaded of me to hope for a "complete" history - and as I
suggested in my last post, anyone who attempted such a thing would probably
be in for a lot of flack. I don't know that a historical survey ala
Bordwell/Thompson's or David Cook's would ever find a publisher: no matter
how broad such a study would be, it would still be too narrow and
specialized to be appealing as a textbook to an academic publisher. And
perhaps the very idea is anathema to the avant-garde spirit. Imagine the
"for dummies"-style prose of a college textbook (MgGraw-Hill's "The Big
Book of Avant-Garde Cinema") applied to Brakhage, or Frampton, or Rainer -
yikes. But I would still like to see, one of these days, a broad,
synthetic, and straightforward account of the subject, as it might
encourage more teaching of this kind of cinema at the college or even high
school level.

Best,
Jonathan

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 2:10 PM, <scott at financialcleansing.com> wrote:

> *Jonathan,*
> *    I've always hoped that my Critical Cinema books might be useful for
> undergraduates as introductory texts. They do not pretend to provide
> anything like a "complete" history, but these volumes can provide a sense
> of the world of avant-garde cinema and the thinking of (some of) the
> filmmakers who have energized this particular world of cinema.*
> *
> *
> *Scott*
>
>  -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] textbook recommendation
> From: Jonathan Walley <walleyj at denison.edu>
> Date: Sat, May 11, 2013 7:13 am
> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>
> 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
>> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Walley
> Associate Professor
> Department of Cinema
> Denison University
> walleyj at denison.edu
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>

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