[Frameworks] Avant Garde Film and Meditative Practice

[Jonathan Walley]

James Broughton might be worth looking into with respect to yoga and meditation. He makes references to both in Seeing the Light, later re-printed as Making Light of It (easy to find online). The Golden Positions (1970) references yoga positions, and if I’m not mistaken he practiced yoga. But a steak of meditative, Zen philosophy runs through the book, which is also just a delight to read.

JW

Dr. Jonathan Walley
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Cinema
Denison University
https://denison.edu/people/jonathan-walley


> On Oct 26, 2025, at 10:09 AM, Heath Iverson <heathiverson0 at gmail.com> 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 <mailto: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).
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>> 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.”
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>> 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.
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>> Here you can find more about Transit(ive): https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3775230/3775231
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>> (chapter “Lungs to Ears”)
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>> -----------------------------------------
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>> Hon. Prof. Mag. Dr. Gabriele Jutz
>> Universität für angewandte Kunst
>> Abteilung für Medientheorie
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>> T +43 699 12 10 81 44
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>> dieangewandte.at <http://dieangewandte.at/>
>> medientheorie.ac.at <http://medientheorie.ac.at/>
>> Postsparkasse
>> 
>> Georg-Coch-Platz 2
>> 
>> HP Raum 022
>> 1010 Wien / Austria
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>> https://dieangewandte.academia.edu/GabrieleJutz
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>> Von: Frameworks <frameworks-bounces at film-gallery.org <mailto:frameworks-bounces at film-gallery.org>> im Auftrag von Dave Tetzlaff <djtet53 at gmail.com <mailto:djtet53 at gmail.com>>
>> Antworten an: Frameworks posts <frameworks at film-gallery.org <mailto:frameworks at film-gallery.org>>
>> Datum: Sonntag, 26. Oktober 2025 um 06:23
>> An: Frameworks posts <frameworks at film-gallery.org <mailto: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"]
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>> Paul Sharits: Mandala Films
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>> Ernie Gehr: Serene Velocity*
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>> John and James Whitney 
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>> (and others germane to The Center for Visual Music)
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>> Scott Bartlet: Off/On
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>> Anthony McCall
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>> Several shorts in The FluxFilm anthology, though 'Zen for Film' might not qualify depending on how you take it. 😉
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>> 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...
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>> 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 <mailto:Frameworks at film-gallery.org> https://mail.film-gallery.org/mailman/listinfo/frameworks_film-gallery.org
>> 
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