[Frameworks] Avant Garde Film and Meditative Practice

[Fred Camper]

Brakhage would not normally be associated with any of this, but you 
might consider his two minute silent film/ Angels' — /no specific 
reference to your topic, but//almost empty of images, almost emptying of 
the viewer too.

On 10/26/2025 9:09 AM, Heath Iverson wrote:
> Thanks for the thoughts all!
>
> I am indeed curating a program around this concept. The Sharits and 
> Whitney catalogs are already in the mix--especially Whitney's work as 
> it relates to sacred number and geometry. There's also Jordan Belson's 
> SAMHADI. I've got the formal, abstract/metaphoric angle covered; now I 
> am looking for films with literal ("pro-filmic" like they say in the 
> biz) instances of these practices and their material culture and 
> expression. Im interested not just in the formal representation of 
> subjective yogic/meditation states, but how these practices are 
> metabolized by a largely western avant-garde form. Given the strong 
> counter-cultural overlap of the mid century 
> underground/experimental/artist film world and the adjacent new 
> age/new spiritualist movements I expect there'd be some good examples 
> but, not much comes to mind... there are some hare krishnas 
> accidentally in Mekas' films...
>
> On Sun, Oct 26, 2025 at 3:49 AM Gabriele Jutz 
> <gabriele.jutz at uni-ak.ac.at> wrote:
>
>     I suggest /Transit(ive)/by//Canadian filmmaker Sarah Bliss (HD
>     video created from 16mm projection performance with digital sound,
>     recorded on digital video. 06:36. 2017).
>
>     In her artist statement, Sarah Bliss describes herself as “a
>     filmmaker, artist, educator, and Buddhist practitioner who
>     facilitates presence and attunement with the sensate, desiring body.”
>
>     /Transit(ive) /is//the result of the artist’s manual interaction
>     with the projector lens, while the soundtrack presents a
>     cell-phone recording of her father’s dying breath. The act of
>     expiration, literally “breathing out,” is associated with death.
>     /Transit(ive) /is a video document of death and loss, as well as a
>     techno-spiritual reunion with the artist’s father following his death.
>
>     Here you can find more about Transit(ive):
>     https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3775230/3775231
>
>     (chapter “Lungs to Ears”)
>
>     -----------------------------------------
>
>
>     *Hon. Prof. Mag. Dr. Gabriele Jutz*
>     Universität für angewandte Kunst
>     Abteilung für Medientheorie
>
>     T +43 699 12 10 81 44
>
>     dieangewandte.at <http://dieangewandte.at>
>
>     medientheorie.ac.at <http://medientheorie.ac.at>
>     Postsparkasse
>
>     Georg-Coch-Platz 2
>
>     HP Raum 022
>     1010 Wien / Austria
>
>     https://dieangewandte.academia.edu/GabrieleJutz
>     <https://dieangewandte.academia.edu/GabrieleJutz>
>
>     *Von: *Frameworks <frameworks-bounces at film-gallery.org> im Auftrag
>     von Dave Tetzlaff <djtet53 at gmail.com>
>     *Antworten an: *Frameworks posts <frameworks at film-gallery.org>
>     *Datum: *Sonntag, 26. Oktober 2025 um 06:23
>     *An: *Frameworks posts <frameworks at film-gallery.org>
>     *Betreff: *Re: [Frameworks] Avant Garde Film and Yoga
>
>     Well, there are a fair number of avant garde films that ARE
>     yogic/meditative/spiritual practices in form somehow without
>     PHOTOGRAPHING such practices as they exist in the real world [or
>     as we say in the biz (sic) "the pro filmic event"]
>
>     Paul Sharits: Mandala Films
>
>     Ernie Gehr: Serene Velocity*
>
>     John and James Whitney
>
>     (and others germane to The Center for Visual Music)
>
>     Scott Bartlet: Off/On
>
>     Anthony McCall
>
>     Several shorts in The FluxFilm anthology, though 'Zen for Film'
>     might not qualify depending on how you take it. 😉
>
>     In some cases the artists expressed some meditative/spiritual
>     intent. In others, it kinds works out that way regardless. The
>     cited above are just what comes to my mind at the moment. There
>     are more for sure...
>
>     If you were curating a program on your stated theme, you might mix
>     these formal examples with representational ones in interesting
>     ways an audience might appreciate.
>
>     -- Frameworks mailing list Frameworks at film-gallery.org
>     https://mail.film-gallery.org/mailman/listinfo/frameworks_film-gallery.org
>
>
>     -- 
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>
>
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