[Frameworks] textbook recommendation

Sun May 12 08:11:50 UTC 2013

Joan, all,

I agree that there's not yet (and perhaps will never be) a single, comprehensive history, for all the reasons Scott says. I think those of us who teach and who may be following the current debates on MOOCs as pedagogical tools might propose to design one of these online courses. (How 'bout it?  If McGraw-Hill won't have us, maybe Coursera or xEd will! "The History of Avant-Garde Film"..... we could all make lots 'o' money!) 

Joan, I just finished teaching an Avant-Garde Film History course, which I offer fairly regularly at UNM. We spend a good few weeks at the beginning of the semester on the European avant-garde movements, and then move on to (mostly) American films, 1940s to the present.

Because I haven't yet figured out a way to force my students to read, this semester I just typed out some excerpts from what I thought were the most useful articles on the particular film(s) or movements, and handed them out in class. For further reading (hope reigns eternal!) I also put some 100+ articles on e-reserves, which I can burn to a disc. I'd be happy to send those to you, or to anyone else who might be interested. 

I'll contact you offline, Joan.

Nina Fonoroff
Department of Cinematic Arts
University of New Mexico

-----Original Message-----
From: scott <scott at financialcleansing.com>
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
Sent: Sat, May 11, 2013 7:50 pm
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] textbook recommendation

Hey Jonathan et al,
    I don't actually think there can be a single, comprehensive history--since "avant-garde cinema" can mean so many things, what exactly is "avant-garde" and what all does that history include?
    In any case, I think it's better to have students enter the field by way of the filmmakers than by a single overview.

Scott

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] textbook recommendation
From: Jonathan Walley <walleyj at denison.edu>
Date: Sat, May 11, 2013 11:38 am
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>

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 

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

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_______________________________________________
 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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