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

Mon Mar 30 15:02:14 UTC 2015

It did strike me as odd that very few people mentioned anything recent.
>From the context described it would seem that you would want to show work
that could inspire people to immediately "do" and sometimes that's a more
contemporary film. Two good filmmakers for that kind of inspiration, from
a film perspective, are Ute Aurand and Helga Faenderl--for camerawork,
editing in camera and (for Ute) editing. It really depends on how fast you
want to get to the makin' stage.

On the flip, I think its tricky to rely on contemporary work to show the
way. I have students react very badly to work from the 90s that I loved
but didn't age well, while they were totally taken with that mid-century
modernism "crap" (wavelength, nostalgia et al.). They much preferred
watching Katzelmacher to Wall-E (which is what another teacher was showing
them). I think its really what you stand behind as a teacher and are able
to lead them through that's important--"use-value" above connection.

Two years ago, students couldn't stand a guy called Ryan Trecartin. Go
figure.

Chris

> Go Sasha!
>
> On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 12:56 PM, Gene Youngblood <atopia at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>> The original question is so absurd that I almost didnât respond, but i
>> did, only to make the point that, within such a restricted frame, you
>> donât
>> start with specific films, you start with possibilities: Isnât it
>> exciting
>> that you can make an âabstractâ work, or a minimal one, or you can
>> compose
>> an essay? What do those words mean? How have artists interpreted them?
>> And
>> isnât it exciting that you can combine all of them, which is the thin
>> edge
>> of the interventionist wedge today. Another point: mid-century isnât
>> synonymous with Modernism; itâs 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, âwant
>> to
>> kill themselves.â No one who is truly âcuriousâ and âexcitedâ
>> would have
>> such a response. Itâs 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡â¡
>>>
>>> Sasha Waters Freyer
>>> Chair, Department of Photography & Film
>>> VCU School of the Arts
>>> 325 N. Harrison St. / PO Box 843088
>>> Richmond, VA 23284
>>>
>>> tel. 804.828.2162
>>> email: swfreyer at vcu.edu
>>> http://www.arts.vcu.edu/photofilm/
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> FrameWorks mailing list
>>> FrameWorks at jonasmekasfilms.com
>>> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Andy Ditzler
>> www.filmlove.org
>> www.johnq.org
>> Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Emory University
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