[Frameworks] textbook recommendation

Sun May 12 01:49:52 UTC 2013

I would suggest Scott MacDonald's books "Adventures of Perception"
University of California Press 2009 and "Avant Garde Film/Motion Studies"
Cambridge Univ. press 1993 and P. Adams Sitneys "Visionary Film: The
American Avant-Garde 1943-2000" Third Edition,  Oxford Univ. Press 2002.

I have taught these books in seminars on the history of the avant garde
cinema at Colgate University and they worked very well.

John Knecht

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 2:38 PM, Jonathan Walley <walleyj at denison.edu>wrote:

> 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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>

-- 
John Knecht, Russell Colgate Distinguished
 University Professor of Art and Art History
 and Film and Media Studies
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