abkino wrote:What books about a-g film, historical, theory or otherwise, do people enjoy? I'm reading through Sitney's Visionary Film and Rees' History of Experimental film and both are fascinating. Is there any book which comprehensively covers the foreign avant garde? What is the definitive "History of the Avant Garde" book?
Also, what works of film theory engage the avant garde the best? As a fan of Gilles Deleuze's philosophical work, I'm finding his cinema books extremely applicable to the a-g, in a sense almost supplying a rationalization for it's existence (even if Deleuze's experience is more European art house). I've heard Beller's Cinematic Mode of Production and Rosen's Change Mummified are good too.
There is no definitive book.
There is an email list called Frameworks dedicated the experimental film in which the topic of books just passed. Here are replies to that, in addition to the two you already mentioned. These are all cut & pasted until the end:
Chuck Kleinhans had a good start:
Berger, John. "The Moment of Cubism," in Berger, The Moment of Cubism and Other Essays.
This is a useful key essay on modernism(s)
Rees, A. L., A History of Experimental Film and Video (London:British Film Institute, 1999) paperback
excellent brief history of US and UK, and both film and video art
Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film, Third edition (NY: Oxford UP, 2002) paperback
classic study on US New American Cinema avant garde, Deren on.
Kirby, Michael. "The Aesthetics of the Avant-Garde," in Kirby, The Art of Time. 1969
another useful reference point essay on modernism across the arts
It is especially useful to do some in-depth close studies (though you also need access to the films in some form)
Such as:
Roy Grundmann, Andy Warhol’s Blow Job, Temple U Press, 2002.
Outstanding close study, with terrific context
James Peterson, Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order: Understanding the Ameican Avant-Garde Cinema (Wayne State)
careful and detailed close analysis of a small number of films
Wees, William C. Light Moving in Time: Studies in the Visual Aesthetics of Avant-garde Film (Berkeley: U of CA Press, 1992)
very careful studies of key films
For large alternatives to the above titles:
James, David E. Allegories Of Cinema: American Film in the Sixties. Princeton: Princeton U.P., 1989.
an important contrast to and corrective of Sitney
Tyler, Parker, Underground Film: A Critical History (DaCapo 1995)
Tyler is often forgotten nowadays, but excellent for the period he covers
Macdonald, Scott. A Critical Cinema: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers. Berkeley: U of California, 1988.
This is the first of a series of interview books he has done: Macdonald does outstanding preparation forthe interviews which produce very illuminating discussions in most cases. Many filmmakers find this kind of work the most illuminating thing to read. The whole series is great.
Robin Blaetz, ed. Women's Experimental Cinema Duke: 2007)
essential corrective to the usual boys club version of the avant garde
These aren't "also rans" but equal but different than the previous titles:
LeGrice, Malcolm. Abstract Film and Beyond. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1977.
Macdonald, Scott. Avant-Garde Film: Motion Studies. Cambridge, Cambridge U.P. 1993.
Macdonald, Scott. The Garden in the Machine. U of California, 2003
Marks, Laura. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. (U of Minn?) 2000
Mekas, Jonas. Movie Journal: The Rise of a New American Cinema, 1959-1971. NY: Collier, 1972.
interesting collection of his weekly reviews, allows you to see historical progression week by week.
Russell, Catherine, Experimental Ethnography: The Work of Film in the Age of Video. 2000.
Sitney, P. Adams, ed. Film Culture Reader. NY: Praeger, 1970.
great collection of essays from the key magazine of the US experimental movement
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.
Youngblood, Gene. Expanded Cinema. NY: Dutton, 1970.
You should be aware that experimental film and video are often clumsily nation bound for several reasons. If you are in the US, it's very enlightening to make an extra effort to find out about Canadian, UK, European, Japanese, and other national traditions in both film and video
And video is its own complicated case, with an older single channel history now being overwhelmed by gallery pieces from people who tend to see themselves as "artists" rather than "video makers."
I'm sure others on this list would have other suggestions and refer to their own work: e.g. Fred Camper's writings on his website (there's a lot there), Jackie Hatfield's anthology Experimental film and video, etc.
-------
I added this:
James, David, The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles
Anker, Steve, Kathy Geritz, and Steve Seid, ed., Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000
Both eminently readable.
--------
David Tetzlaff:
It's hard to make a beginners bibliography for this field since most of the books have a fairly narrow focus, and thus fall in the 'good, but not essential' category. The only concensus 'must read,' I know of is Visionary Film by Sitney, a book you may love, or love to hate. It's not that user friendly. But that would be where I would send someone to start.
Next on my list would be two books Chuck didn't mention in his otherwise exhaustive list. "Film at Wit's End" by Stan Brakhage (highly readable reminiscences of other filmmakers), and "Bike Boys, Drag Queens, and Superstars: Avant-Garde, Mass Culture, and Gay Identities in the 1960s Underground Cinema" by Juan Suarez (for an intellectual approach very different from Sitney). Following those, I would go to Sitney's Film Culture Reader anthology, and one of the Critical Cinema volumes.
As I recall, there were some pretty good essays on experimental film published in 'Jump Cut' back in the day. Chuck's being modest not mentioning them. Perhaps he could point us to some of his faves from that corpus? And do read Peter Wollen's essay "The Two Avant Gardes".
good luck
djt
The documentary bios of Brakhage (by Jim Shedden), Deren, ("In the Mirror of...") and Jack Smith ("... and the destruction of Atlantis,") are also useful. I'd go with the one on Smith first for a newcomer.
--------------
Matt Helme:
http://www.amazon.com/Free-Cinema-Jonas ... 0691078947" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
--------------
Fred Camper:
I know you asked about books, but in my view any understanding of film
must start with viewing many key films, many times, and on film if at
all possible. Perhaps you have already done this, but I know of many
students who spend more time reading about cinema than viewing it.
There's a lot to be said for seeing key films three or six or ten
times. There's a lot to be said for seeing everything you can by key
filmmakers. The too-often-used approach of developing a sophisticated
"methodology" and then applying it to films not seen very many times
strikes me as highly dubious.
I endorse all of Chucks' and David's suggestions, or at least, all of
the ones that I know. The "Critical Cinema" volumes are especially
useful because they are interviews with filmmakers. And, do not
neglect other writings by filmmakers about their own filmmaking.
Specifically: "Brakhage Scrapbook," with its very good selections, and
all of "Metaphors on Vision" if you can get it; Kubelka's talks in the
Avant-Garde Film Reader of Theory and Criticism (which Chuck mentions)
and his interview in Film Culture (there's also one in one of the
Critical Cinema volumes that's quite good); all of Robert Breer's
"Film Culture" interviews, the great Film Culture interview with Ernie
Gehr, Maya Deren's essays (and her statements in the "Poetry in Film"
symposium published in "Film Culture").
Each great filmmakers defines and uses cinema in a different way, so I
don't think there's any one approach that works for all.
---------------
Ekram Serdar:
This one's a whole lotta fun to read: On the Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters <
http://www.amazon.com/Camera-Arts-Conse ... 701&sr=1-1> by Hollis Frampton.
For example, for experimental cinema from India, or rather, Cinema of Prayoga, this would be appropriate: Cinema of Prayoga <
http://www.amazon.com/Cinema-Prayoga-In ... 370&sr=8-1>
An older (than Visionary Film) overview of the scene is actually a free pdf now on archive.org <
http://archive.org> - An Introduction to American Underground Film <
http://www.archive.org/details/introductiontoam00rena> by Sheldon Renan
This is a thick tome of a book, with lots of writings by all the folk who were once or still are there, purdy pictures, and makes a good weapon: Buffalo Heads <
http://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Heads-Pra ... 412&sr=1-1> .
This is a short, sweet essay: Devotional Cinema <
http://www.amazon.com/Devotional-Cinema ... 666&sr=1-1> by Nathaniel Dorsky.
--------------------
Ken Paul Rosenthal:
I, for one, am always a sucker for the poetic, over the historical, and thus strongly endorse these slender yet sublime manifestos:
Devotional Cinema by Nathaniel Dorsky
Making Light of It by James Broughton
and two eminently readable books which blend the poetic with the theoretical:
Sculpting in Time: Reflections on Cinema by Andrey Tarkovsky
The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience by Jennifer M. Barker (my personal favorite)
------------------
And Jacob made a list:
http://making-light-of-it.blogspot.com/ ... -list.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
-----------------
Nicky Hamlyn:
A revised and updated edition of Al Rees' book is due out later this year. I would also recommend Rudolph Arnheim's Film as Art, which beautifully and simply sets out some key features of what film is and how it works. Malcolm LeGrice's Experimental Cinema in the Digital Age is an excellent collection of his writings, covering a large range of topics. I would also like to plug a new journal, Sequence, whose first issue was published by No.w.here, in London, and a second issue of which is due out later this year. Regarding Blow Job, which was mentioned in a previous post, Peter Gidal's monograph, published by Afterall in their "One Work" series, is excellent, as is the volume on (nostalgia) by Rachel Moore.
-------------------
Jonathan Thomas:
Nicky Hamlyn's 'Film Art Phenomena' is an excellent book. 'Essential Deren: Collected Writings' was a book I found inspirational as a student. Also, 'Art and the Moving Image' (published by Afterall) contains a fine selection of essays about work that leans more towards fine art.
------------------
James Kreul:
I don't know if anyone posted this yet, but Lux compiled this list of commercially available DVDs (let's not start a thread about the word "essential"):
http://www.lux.org.uk/blog/50-essential ... image-dvds" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Two older books have recently been posted in PDF form for easy access (regardless of legality):
Peter Gidal's Structural Film Anthology:
http://www.ubu.com/historical/gidal/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Sheldon Renan's Introduction to the American Underground Film:
http://www.archive.org/details/introductiontoam00rena" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
---------------
And I'd like to mention a few more. There's a brand new collection on Ken Jacobs:
Optic Antics: The Cinema of Ken Jacobs. edited by Michele Pierson, David E. James, and Paul Arthur
A Line of Sight: American Avant-Garde Film Since 1965, by Paul Arthur
Feelings Are Facts: A Life, by Yvonne Rainer
Women's Experimental Cinema, ed. by Robin Blaetz
This Is Called Moving: A Critical Poetics of Film, by Abigail Child
And there are three books on exhibitors & distributors by Scott MacDonald. His A Critical Cinema series of interviews is now five books.
That's all mostly American. Would love recs of books on Japanese, Brazilian, and Canadian experimental film.
I'd say the three leading American scholars on American experimental film are Sitney, James, and MacDonald, certainly in terms of amount published, and they are all thoughtful. Lots more.
That should keep you busy for a month or two.
