[Frameworks] FrameWorks Digest, Vol 80, Issue 6

Sun Jan 8 20:14:40 UTC 2017

Hi Maxwell,

Your question about an introduction to experimental/avant-garde film is
quite interesting.

Basically, I find it difficult to recommend a text based on your request.
This task is uniquely difficult in this field because, in my opinion, the
historiography of experimental filmmaking as a whole perpetuates a number
of problematic assumptions. In the main, conventional histories of
experimental/avant-garde film tend to be wedded to a modernist-formalist
schema of historical progress, in which film appears to evolve (and then
die) according to its own internal dynamics, and the artist is postulated
as a quasi-heroic Romantic figure (usually with an unmarked body, which is
to say educated, white, hetero male).

The first "official" histories of avant-garde film emerged when the Western
art world was in thrall to a high modernist paradigm. High modernism led
historians to apply an extremely narrow lens to the object of their study.
Most "classic" accounts of experimental film, then, rely upon tools of
modernist-formalist historiography, such as artist biography, formalist
poetics, medium specificity, an avant-garde v. kitsch distinction-- the
presuppositions of which were inherited from German/Austrian art historians
working at the turn of the century.

This work has been enormously helpful in all kinds of ways. It has meant
that we can claim avant-garde film has a history. It can be taught in
thematic units, and it has given rise to a canon of works. It made film
intelligible as art, and therefore worthy of critical attention and
collection/preservation by organizations.

But, in my opinion, the formalist ethos of avant-garde film historiography
has also made it exceptionally hard to tell stories about art and film in
such a way that is relevant to the contemporary moment, with our concerns
about inequality, social crisis, immigration, public participation,
technological change, etc.

It may be easier to recommend a text, then, if you ask yourself what you
personally want to get out of avant-garde film/film history: Do you want to
know major figures, major debates that defined particular eras? Do you wish
to see how artists and artworks of the past have a connection to the
present day film- and art-worlds? Do you want a critical, institutional
history about how artists and organizations colluded to institutionalize
film as a commodity and work of art? There are many, many directions to go
in.

Good luck.
Ben

On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 7:00 AM, <frameworks-request at jonasmekasfilms.com>
wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Introductory books on experimental cinema (Maxwell di Paolo)
>    2. Re: Introductory books on experimental cinema (Chuck Kleinhans)
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Maxwell di Paolo <maxwell.dipaolo at gmail.com>
> To: frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com
> Cc:
> Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2017 00:03:36 -0500
> Subject: [Frameworks] Introductory books on experimental cinema
> Hello everyone,
> I have followed this thread for several years, but this is the first time
> I am posting. I am looking for some recommendations for books that may
> encompass at least a basic history of avant-garde cinema, rather than
> focusing on a specific artist or theory. You can assume that I know
> nothing, or at least very little. I have started with Jonas Mekas's Film
> Journals and Alternative Projections, both of which I am enjoying very
> much. I don't care how academic or informal the books are. I am more
> looking for something broad that will give a jumping off point for as many
> artists as possible, so that I may then pick and choose which to research
> individually.
>
> Thank you all for your time and consideration.
>
> Best wishes,
> Maxwell di Paolo
>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Chuck Kleinhans <chuckkle at northwestern.edu>
> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
> Cc:
> Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2017 09:48:40 +0000
> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Introductory books on experimental cinema
> Here’s a selection from the 20th Century:
>
> James, David E. *Allegories of Cinema: American Film in the Sixties. * Princeton
> Univ. Press.
>
> Battcock, Gregory, ed.  *The New American Cinema: A Critical Anthology*.
> NY: E. P. Dutton, 1967.
>
> Berger, John.  "The Moment of Cubism," in Berger, *The Moment of Cubism
> and Other Essays.  (2 hour reserve)*
>
> Clarke, Vèvè, et. al., *The Legend of Maya Deren, Volume 1, part two,
> Chambers, 1942-47*, NY: Anthology Film Archives, 1988.   [ISBN
> 0-911689-17-6]
>
> Dwoskin, Stephen.  *Film Is:  The International Free Cinema*.   Woodstock
> NY: Overlook Press, 1975.
>
> Ehrenstein, David.  *Film The Front Line, 1984*.   Denver: Arden Press,
> 1984.
>
> Gidal, Peter.  *Materialist Film*.   London: Routledge, 1989.
>
> Hanhardt, John G., ed.  *A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema*.
> NY: American Federation of Arts, 1976.
>
> James, David E.  *Allegories Of Cinema:  American Film in the Sixties*.   Princeton:
> Princeton U.P., 1989.
>
> Kirby, Michael.  "The Aesthetics of the Avant-Garde," in Kirby, *The Art
> of Time*.  1969 (2 hour reserve)
>
> LeGrice, Malcolm.  *Abstract Film and Beyond*.   Cambridge MA: MIT Press,
> 1977.
>
> Macdonald, Scott.  *A Critical Cinema:  Interviews with Independent
> Filmmakers*.   Berkeley: U of California, 1988.
>
> Macdonald, Scott.  * A Critical Cinema 2:  Interviews with Independent
> Filmmakers*.   Berkeley: U of California, 1992.
>
> Macdonald, Scott. *Avant-Garde Film: Motion Studies*.  Cambridge,
> Cambridge U.P. 1993.
>
> Mekas, Jonas.  *Movie Journal:  The Rise of a New American Cinema,
> 1959-1971*.   NY: Collier, 1972.
>
> O'Pray, Michael, ed.  *Andy Warhol:  Film Factory*.    London: British
> Film Institute, 1989.
>
> Renan, Sheldon.  *An Introduction to the American Underground Film*.   NY:
> E. P. Dutton, 1967.
>
> Rosenbaum, Jonathan.  *Film:  The Front Line, 1983*.   Denver: Arden
> Press, 1983.
>
> Rowe, Carol.  *The Baudelairean Cinema:  A Trend within the American
> Avant-Garde*.   Ann Arbor: UMI Research, 1982.
>
> Russett, Robert, and Cecile Starr.  *Experimental Animation:  An
> Illustrated Anthology*.   NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976.
>
> Schneemann, Carolee.  *More Than Meat Joy:  Complete Performance Works
> and Selected Writings*.   New Paltz, NY: Documentext, 1979.
>
> Sitney, P. Adams, ed.  *Film Culture Reader*.    NY: Praeger, 1970.
>
> Sitney, P. Adams, ed.  *The Essential Cinema:  Essays on the Films in the
> Collection of Anthology Film Archives.  Vol. 1*.    NY: New York U. P.,
> 1975.
>
> Sitney, P. Adams, ed.  *The Avant-Garde Film:   A Reader of Theory and
> Criticism*.    NY: New York U. P., 1978.
>
> Tyler, Parker.  *Underground Film:  A Critical History*.   NY: Grove,
> 1969.
>
> Vogel, Amos.  *Film As A Subversive Art*.   NY: Random House, 1974.
>
> Youngblood, Gene.  *Expanded Cinema*.   NY: Dutton, 1970.
>
>  Richter, Hans.  Dada: Art and Anti-Art
>  Stauffacher, Frank.  Art in Cinema.
> Curtis, David.  Experimental Cinema.
> Rabinovitz, Lauren, Points of Resistance: Women, Power and Politics in the
> New York Avant-garde Cinema, 1943-71.
>
>
> On Jan 6, 2017, at 9:03 PM, Maxwell di Paolo <maxwell.dipaolo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
> I have followed this thread for several years, but this is the first time
> I am posting. I am looking for some recommendations for books that may
> encompass at least a basic history of avant-garde cinema, rather than
> focusing on a specific artist or theory. You can assume that I know
> nothing, or at least very little. I have started with Jonas Mekas's Film
> Journals and Alternative Projections, both of which I am enjoying very
> much. I don't care how academic or informal the books are. I am more
> looking for something broad that will give a jumping off point for as many
> artists as possible, so that I may then pick and choose which to research
> individually.
>
> Thank you all for your time and consideration.
>
> Best wishes,
> Maxwell di Paolo
>
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-- 
Ben Ogrodnik
PhD student
K. Leroy Irvis Fellow
Department of Film Studies // History of Art and Architecture
University of Pittsburgh
BWO6 at pitt.edu
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