[Frameworks] 2. Re: What are the 3 Essential Films that you would show Artists on their first foray into the Moving Image Realm ?

[Adam Hyman]

I did find, in conducting a bunch of oral histories, that three films came
up multiple times as films that inspired people into making experimental
films. 

No surprises:
Meshes of the Afternoon
A Movie
Blood of a Poet

I think the importance of Blood of a Poet cannot be underestimated.

So although I think there are no shortage of ³essential² films, and many
more films that influenced people to pursue this type of film art, I can
suggest that for at least a generation of folks from the late 1940s through
the mid-1960s, those three seem to be essential, and should still be part of
any education.   

On 3/29/15 10:56 AM, "Gene Youngblood" <atopia at comcast.net> wrote:

> The original question is so absurd that I almost didn¹t respond, but i did,
> only to make the point that, within such a restricted frame, you don¹t start
> with specific films, you start with possibilities: Isn¹t it exciting that you
> can make an ³abstract² work, or a minimal one, or you can compose an essay?
> What do those words mean? How have artists interpreted them? And isn¹t it
> exciting that you can combine all of them, which is the thin edge of the
> interventionist wedge today. Another point: mid-century isn¹t synonymous with
> Modernism; it¹s simply when the new American cinema began in full force.
> 
> I showed Wavelength and Nostalgia for 38 years, in both fine arts and
> mainstream contexts, and never once did my students, as a group, ³want to kill
> themselves.² No one who is truly ³curious² and ³excited² would have such a
> response. It¹s an admission of failure (if not laziness, cowardice or outright
> betrayal) as a teacher. Your responsibility is to make them curious, to make
> them excited. Out of  60 students every semester from the late 90s on, I could
> count on at least 10 percent of them writing term papers on one or both of
> those films, and these were people who thought Spielberg is a genius.
> 
> 
> 
>> On Mar 29, 2015, at 9:37 AM, Andy Ditzler <andy at andyditzler.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Without getting into questions of "essential," I would say that this is not
>> my experience at all with screening Wavelength. My students - definitely
>> curious and excited people - generally loved watching it, and there was much
>> productive discussion. I've also shown it publicly in my film series on
>> several occasions, again with good results and much discussion afterward
>> (though of course the reactions were not uniformly positive). You see it as
>> mid-century high modernism (thus presumably representing a fixed, "major"
>> tradition), whereas I see it as a film particularly vulnerable to attacks
>> based precisely upon its difference, which is perhaps one reason I'm
>> sympathetic to it. In any case, there's no reason that screenings of this
>> film cannot be deeply sensuous and engaging experiences, especially for
>> artists. 
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Andy Ditzler
>> 
>> On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 9:11 AM, Sasha Waters Freyer <swfreyer at vcu.edu>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> If you want to take a group of curious, excited young artists and basically
>>> make them want to kill themselves, by all means, show them "Wavelength."  I
>>> call shenanigans on equating "essential" with mid-century high modernism
>>> which is but one of many 'major traditions.'  Another, more engaging legacy
>>> might be the fascinating intersections between art history, critical theory,
>>> politics and popular culture that coalesces and build in the '90-s and early
>>> 00s, exemplified in different but totally exciting and unique ways by:
>>> 
>>> "It Wasn't Love" - Sadie Benning
>>> "November" - Hito Steyerl
>>> "A Little Death" - Sam Taylor-Wood
>>> 
>>> So much richness here!  Relationships between realism and (high/post)
>>> modernism; identity/queer performance pre-youtube/selfie era; the explosion
>>> of new tech in the 90s on and their formal implications; post-9/11
>>> everything; the 'Celebrity-artist' career trajectory of STW, etc., etc,
>>> etc....
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Sasha
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 


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