Readins Response 10

Ray Privett & James Kreul, “A Cinema of Possibilities: Brian Frye Interview”

--How does Frye relate his work (including his film programming) to the following movements / concepts / genres:

Performance (and performance art)
Minimalism
Fluxus

Frye really only delved into performance art when he was at art school in Chicago. Performance was popular there, but Frye himself didn't take performance art seriously. He made a film entitled "Brian Frye Fails to Masterbate" in which he was filmed doing nothing. His joke was that performance art is just an opportunity for people to go out and "masterbate" on screen. Some of his work, like "The most Important Part of My Life (infinite Set)" resemble a fluxus film in that this one features Frye slowly turning his head.

--How does Frye respond to the question about what he “adds” to films such as Anatomy of Melancholy?

Frye wants to "do what the films are trying to do." with Anatamoy of Melancholy, he saw the perfect film, in that the material invited him in and "did what he was trying to do for 5 years."


Scott MacDonald, “Maintenance”

--What are some of the reasons for rental income growth at Canyon Cinema between 1980 and 2003? How did Canyon distinguish itself from the Filmmakers Cooperative and the Museum of Modern Art?

The increasing interest for AG films since the 80s came mainly from educational institutions.

--What problems and controversies did video distribution cause for Canyon in the 1990s? To what degree were the sides of the debate related to the age of the filmmakers on each side? Based upon the interview with Dominic Angerame at the end of the chapter, what was his position on the video debate?

The biggest problem/conroversy was when the organization was about to vote on whether of not any "videomaker" could become a voting member of the organization. The older generations involved with Canyon favored film, and viewed video as a separate medium unworthy of the organization's attention. The younger generations viewed things differently. Ultimately, the organization voted against the measure, and retained its status of being solely a "film" distributor.

Another problem Canyon experienced was the proliferation of DVD and HD distribution, which hurt their rental business. They continue to survive partly from donations from noteworthy patrons, such as Lucasfilms.

--What were the advantages and disadvantages to funding from the National Endowment from the Arts? What controversies developed related to the publication of Canyon Cinema Catalog #5?

The obvious advantage of associating with NEA is the financial aspect of it. However, when someone pays you, they tend to have decision making clout. They were unhappy with the pictures of nude boys and other graphic images in their Catalog #5.

Reading Response 9

Catching up from last week: Christie Milliken, "The Pixel Visions of Sadie Benning"

1. How is Sadie Benning's work related to general trends and characteristics in Riot Grrl subculture? How is Riot Grrl subculture similar to and different from punk subculture?

Sadie Benning fully encompassed the Riot Grrrl movement by using a lot of music from that movement in her videos. Also, her videos affirm her as a strong, liberated female, which is something the Riot Grrrl movement encouraged young women to be. Riot Grrrl is basically the female version of punk. Punk culture takes place a lot on the street which is typically prohibitive for females to participate in. Riot Grrrl takes traditionally female activities such as dressing up and the the consuming of pop culture and puts a punk spin to it.

2. Why does Milliken refer to Benning's work as visual essays? What are the advantages of viewing the work in relation to this genre? What is meant by "radical feminist essayistic" form?

They are visual essays in that they feel like they are notes torn from a diary, or are notes passed around during class. They are highly personal and autobiographical and are not confiined by the limits of genre. The radical femenist essaist means that her tapes are highly opinionated calls to action.


Keller and Ward, "Matthew Barney and the Paradox of the Neo-Avant-Garde Blockbuster"

3. What has changed in the gallery art world that allows Barney to describe his work as “sculpture”? In other words, how has the definition of sculpture changed since the 1960s, and why?

Artists have broadened the definition of sculpture over the decades. Someone could call a swath cut deep into a dessert ("Rift" 1969) a sculpture. Barney describes performance, film, and sculpture as if they existed within a "family" of objects.

4. Tricky but important question: Why was minimalist sculpture seen as a reaction against the “modernist hymns to the purity and specificity of aesthetic experience”? In other words: Why do they say that minimalist sculpture is post-modernist?

Minimalist sculpture tries to remove the obvious contributions of the artist to the experience of the work. It is postmodern in that its goals as a piece of art are in direct opposition to those of modernist art.

5. Describe the role of the body in the works of Vito Acconci and Chris Burden. You may wish to consult the following links to supplement the descriptions in the readings:

http://www.ubu.com/film/acconci.html

http://www.ubu.com/film/burden.html

The body of the performers is considered the sculpture, with it performing various acts physical endurance as the performance.

5. In the opinion of the authors, what are the key differences between performance art of the 1960s/1970s and Barney’s Cremaster cycle? What do they mean by the term "blockbuster" in relation to the gallery art world?

Barney's Cremaster cycle cares more about physical tests and accomplishment rather than flowery, visual performances of the body of the 60s and 70s. The "blockbuster" aspect of his productions lie within the fact that they have large budgets, and are exhibited in a fashion which almost ensures their financial success.o

Walley, "Modes of Film Practice in the Avant-Garde"

6. What is meant by “mode of film practice”? Give two well known examples of non-experimental modes of film practice. Why does Walley argue that the concept of the mode of film practice can help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art worlds?

A mode of film practice is sort of one step above genre in that it categorizes groups of films and filmmakers according to their specific dogma of filmmaking. Examples are Hollywood films, French New Wave, Soviet Montage, etc. Characteristics of Soviet Montage would include agitprop aesthetics, pro-communist agendas, and synechdoche, in which the absense of individual characters is replaced by nameless, stereotyped characters used to represent a certain idea or social class.


7. What are some of the key differences between the experimental and gallery art worlds in terms of production and distribution?

Gallery art films are highly exclusive and rare in quantity, so that they retain a modicum of high value. AG films are the reverse; often they are shown for free in makeshift theaters.

Reading Response 9

Note: The Sadie Benning article is missing from the reserves. I will correct this as soon as possible.


First, respond to Tribulation 99 in relation to Zryd's description of student responses in his own classes.

I kind of liked Tribulation 99. I appreciate the crazy science fiction storyline mixing with conspiracy theory. The film doesn't take itself seriously, with the fast paced narration and its intonations, outlandish theories, use of stock footage, and use of iconic cultural footage all used to question american foreign policy in the 60s-80s. My reaction is in tandem with that of the author's students who found the pace to be too fast, however, that it can become overwhelming.

Michael Zryd, “Found Footage Film as Discursive Metahistory: Craig Baldwin’s Tribulation 99”

1. Explain Paul Arthur's distinction between the "realist" use of found footage and the "figurative" use of found footage. Which becomes important in Tribulation 99 and why?

Realist found footage is footage bearing a direct relationship with the voice over narration, possibly actual footage of what is being discussed. Figurative footage is footage that serves to illustrate central argument of what is being discussed but may not be actually footage of what is being discussed. Tribulation 99 utilizes mainly realist footage and uses it in an ironic and metaphorical manner to drive the argument of his film. His use of realist footage in part makes the film historically relevant; he discusses real events in history and presents actual footage and newspaper prints of the events but adds his conspiratorial twist to their presentation. This isnot to say that there is no figurative footage in the film, which i would take to be the b movie footage, etc.

Marc Masters, “The Offenders: No Wave Cinema”

2. Name at least three similarities between the punk music scene and the punk/no-wave filmmaking scene, in terms of technology, style, and community.

In terms of technology, the no wave filmmakers' super 8 cameras were the equivalent to the musician's slide guitar, which both made their respective arts easy to make. Also, there was no work associated with talent, only through social circles, so the element of community was very important to the no wavers. The filmmakers also chose very easy subjects and methods to shoot their films; much of their stories were rehashes of previous ones. This is very much like the musicians' improvised music, which really consisted of them exploring the sounds of their instruments, not achieving any formal structure to their music.

William Wees, “Peggy’s Playhouse: Contesting the Modernist Paradigm”

4. According to Wees, what are the 5 characteristics of the modernist paradigm dominating North American avant-garde filmmaking before the 1980s?

They were 1) the concept of the autonomy of art, 2) the drive to discover and explore the unique properties of each artistic medium, 3) the moral and aesthetic superiority of "high art" over pop culture, 4) the desire of the artist to express themselves uniquely, and 5) endowing their work with universal and timeless (apolitical and ahistorical) qualities.

5. Given the 5 characteristics above, how does Awhesh reject or question each of them (give examples from throughout the article).

Peggy Ahwesh recontextualizes genres, like melodrama, horror, porn, and video games to "dismantle the Institutional Canon of Masterworks of the Avant-Garde." She refuses to tell her audiences how to handle her films, and instead takes a more open ended approach.

6. Why does Wees argue that The Color of Love subverts conventional wisdom about mainstream pornography?

The Color of Love deconstructs the phallocentric male view of pornography by placing a dead man in a lesbian porn, which is usually intended for male audiences, and he is unresponsive to their cutting him and trying to mount him. Ahwesh also uses cool visual fx like step printing and film scratching to attain a distinct visual style.

7. In what ways does Awhesh transform images from Tomb Raider in She Puppet?

Ahwehs recontextualizes and refamiliarizes the audience with the source material by inserting voiceovers of existentialist texts performed by various female orators. Another difference between Tomb Raider and She Puppet is the lack of interactivity. The film adopts the fixed perspective of an artist.

Response to Nostalgia

I found this film to be very intellectually engaging. I know that in class I said "what was the point of delaying the audio and video portions of the film?" but it took very little thinking on the subject to determine a number of responses. Firstly, as you view the picture that had previously been talked about (as a story-memory of the narrator), the film forces you to consider the memory of the experience of listening to the narrator relate his memory of the story behind the picture, thus creating an experience that sort of jumps outside of the viewing and into the psyche of the viewer, in a somewhat interactive sense. So in that regard, the film engages the viewer through the past.

However, in my opinion, the film engages the viewer with the future as well, because as you listen to the recording describe the picture, you are left imagining what the scene will look like. So while the narrator is relating to the viewer directly an experience of his past, the viewer uses the language symbols of the narrator to form their own rendition of the experience for themselves. Then, we get to see the actual scene being discussed in a photo, which will inevitably be very different from the scene the viewer has conjured up in his or her mind. This excercise demonstrates the entirely subjective experience of an individual which is impossible to directly and accurately communicate to another individual in exactly the way in which the experience was perceived.

I enjoyed this film because of how personal it was. One could ascertain the feelings of personal and artistic frustration the narrator felt through various stages of his life. The burning of the photographs exemplifies the feelings of regret and sentimentality the narrator has as he discusses each one as they burn. Overall the film's multilayered and multifunctional concept impressed me very much.

Reading Response

Reading Response 6: Due February 17 (Wednesday)



Response to Fuses
1. I enjoyed Fuses. It creates a representation of the inner experience of intercourse and the ecstasy of it. The intercutting of floral patterns, windows, a beach, film scratching, and a couple doing it, create the feeling of what it is like to be shall we say "naturally high." I totally saw and believed it. Too bad the link to the interview didn't work, I would liked to have read it.


Sitney, “Structural Film”

2. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics?

It aimed to be a cinema of the mind rather than the eye, so immediately the structural films throws out any techniques used to represent the perception of the eye. The films favor the structural shape of the films, using techniques like the fixed frame, film looping, rephotography off screen, and the flicker effect, to create its experience entirely inside in the mind of the viewer who thinks about the logic of the images he is seeing.

3. If Brakhage’s cinema emphasized metaphors of perception, vision, and body movement, what is the central metaphor of structural film? Hint: It fits into Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde that we have discussed previously in class.

The structural films emphasized metaphors of logic, recognition of shape, and general thinking about the film, all phenomenons which occur in the mind of the viewer. The structural film is an evolutionary synthesis of European graphic cinema, lyrical romanticism, and Andy Warhol (see: pg 349)

4. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film?

Warhol's art "exploded" the myths of temporal compression and the filmmaker himself. His methods ignored craftmanship in photography, direction, and saturation of meaning within the frame. He stepped outside the trance film's concern with dreams with the film "Sleep" where the camera films a man sleeping for 6 1/2 hours. Warhol did not actually expose 6 1/2 hours of film, he instead every 2 1/2 minutes of the film is repeated on a film loop, and the very last frame of the film holds for an extended duration of time. Thus the structural filmmakers used the structural techniques of Warhol to an entirely different effect.

Sitney says: "To the film-makers who first encountered these films in the mid-60s, these latent mechanisms must have suggested other conscious and deliberte extensions" that is, Warhol must have inspired, by opening up, and leaving unclaimed so much ontological territory, a cinema actively engaged in generating metaphors for the viewing or rather the perceiving, experience."

Warhol reversed the experience of the trance film by externalizing the state of dreaming with "Sleeping." The structural filmmakers parry and repost Warhol's attack on the conventions of the American Avant-Garde up to that point in history by using his newly developed techniques to advance the cinema of the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical back in the arch of their evolutionary progression.

Sitney says it perfectly: "The great challenge, then, of the structural film became how to orchestrate duration; how to permit the wandering attention that triggered ontological awareness while watching Warhol films and at the same time guide that awareness to a goal."

5. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:

a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?

Sitney calls Warhol anti-Romantic because he disregards the notion of the artistic vision and the highly technical and conceptual techniques the romantic artist would employ. In a fashion similar to his career in painting, Warhol aimed to create sameness and quantity. His films add a temporal quality to his notions of pop art and thus challenges the viewer's patience to endure the longetivity of his works.

b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?

The spiritual distance between the works of Snow + Gehr and Warhol cannot be reconciled because the structuralist filmmakers are basically a thesis/antithesis/synthesis amalgamation of the psychodrama, mythopoeic, and lyrical films (thesis), Warhol (antithesis), which leads to the synthesis of the structural film (to say the least about its romantic and graphic influences). The conceptual nature of Warhol's films are on the opposite end of the conceptual spectrum of the aims of the structural filmmakers. Their only commonality are the structural techniques pioneered by Warhol and reinvented through the structuralist.

c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films? pg351

I think the phrase means the viewer has to be aware of the technical and conceptual design of the film, and the hierarchal relationship they have with each other to define the film's perceptual impact on the viewer.

d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?

Structural films explore the human mind, as does the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical traditions, but does so in a way which uses Warhol's technical methods, which when used by himself were intended as oppositionary to his predecessors.


6. What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength?

They believe that the film is a metaphor for consciousness, in the arch from uncertainty to certainty; cognition to revelation. Every preceeding frame corresponds to a moment of memory and recollection on a journey where we can project where we are going but are uncertain of what it will look like.

Response to Chealsea Girls

I actually enjoyed the Chelsea girls to some extent. The multiscreen projection was a cool idea, especially for the first guy in the section we saw, because he was talking candidly about how he perceived the world and how he perceived the world to perceive him, and we got to see him in the context of a social interaction. As he sat with the other socialites we could imagine what was running through his mind, in the context of his interview, at the time. And I could ONLY imagine what was running through his mind at the time of his interview. He was a pretty funny guy, like when he said "I'm not gay but sometimes I groove on having sex with guys." If not a cool film in itself, the Chelsea Girls is certainly a timepiece for their era.

It was an overall interesting concept to point a camera at someone for half an hour and see how they would react. It was as if Warhol transformed the camera into an entity in itself. There were parts near the end of the second act where the interviewee wanted to leave but stayed to finish the piece. I don't know how I would react if a camera were pointed at me. The first guy was on acid so he just spat out random thoughts from his racing mind. The second guy was on something...heroin? but whatever it was it wasn't psychadelic so it didn't help his performance at all. Instead of engaging the camera directly, he ignored it and interacted with the elements of his surroundings. I like the concept of the Chelsea girls.

Reading Response 5

J. Hoberman, Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Underground

1. What were some of the venues associated with the early underground film movement in New York City? What were some of the unique characteristics of the Charles Theater and its programming?

Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 was an organization that brought underground cineastes together. The beatnik manifesto Pull My Daisy was premiered at the Fashion Industries Auditorium in New York city; Walter Langstorn and Ed Stein acquired the Charles Theater for film exhibition; other theaters that played offbeat films included the Thalia, the New Yorker, and Bleeker Street Cinema. Mekas tried to present the Film Culture's annual Independant Filmmaker Award to Jack Smith at the Tivoli Theater, but the management canceled the show at the last minute.

2. Which filmmakers did Jonas Mekas associate with the “Baudelairean Cinema”? Why did Mekas use that term, and what were the distinguishing characteristics of the films?

The filmmakers Mekas associated with "Baudelairean Cinema" were Jack Smith, Ron Rice, and Ken Jacobs with the films "Flaming Creatures," "Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man," "Blonde Cobra," and "Little Stabs at Happiness." Mekas was trying to legitimize these new filmmakers by applying to them a quality only previously known in literature by the late French poet Baudilaire, whose critics cited him with many of the same sensibilities that modern, "uninformed" critics had called Mekas' proteges, like perverse, uninhibited, and daring. Mekas praised these filmmakers because they were exploring the art of cinema uninhibited by social convention and were thus saving the artistic filmmaker's soul or whatever.

3. Why did underground films run into legal trouble in New York City in 1964? What film encountered legal problems in Los Angeles almost on the same day as Mekas’s second arrest in New York City?

The first legan troubles Mekas ran into were during NYC's preparation for the 1964 World Fair where the city was trying to "clean" itself up. Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and two othes were arrested during a screening of Flaming Creatures, along with the rushes from Normal Love. Ten days later Mekas was arrested for screening Un Chant D'Amour. That same day, Mike Gets was arrested in LA for showing Scorpio Rising in the Cinema Theater. Mekas and Jacobs received suspended prison sentences.

4. What were some of the defining characteristics of Andy Warhol’s collaboration with Ronald Tavel? What were some of the unique characteristics of Vinyl? How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl?

Tavel adapted "A Clockwork Orange" in a matter of a few days, renamed the story as "Vinyl," and the script only followed the bare bones plot points of the novel. Many of Tavels screenplays were like this - bad on purpose. Some of his screenplays that were written for Warhol and were never produced made it to the stage as theater performances which usually chose tabboo subjects for farce. Until Warhol got Edie Sedgewick on camera, the film consisted of an all-male cast. Edie ended up stealing the show with her trance like film presence.

5. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966? What films and venues were associated with the crossover? How were the films received by the mainstream New York press?

The film that most successfully crossed over into the mainstream was "The Chelsea Girls." It showed all over Manhatten, not just in the undergound basement theaters. The film also played in many other cities like Cambridge, Buffalo, Houston, Atlanta, and St louis, and was banned in Chicago and Boston (how was it banned in Boston...the most liberal city in the US lol). Mike Getz played a crucial role in getting these films shown in conventional theaters due to his uncle owning a string of them. Films include Hold Me While Im Naked, Peyote Queen, and Breathdeath. One New York film critic, Bowsley Crowther, who hailed himself as America's most influential film critic, gave the underground films a wag of his finger, saying that it was okay for them to project their "naugty boy plays" onto basement walls, but bringing their films to "carpeted venues" was going too far. This publication stunted the growth of the underground movement but it survived nonetheless.

6. Why was John Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground?

Because he (Mike Getz(?)) was able to distribute films through his business contact Louis Sher, who also happened to be his uncle, who owned a string of conventional movie houses.

7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films?

Warhol and The Factory took the baser aspects of the successful elements of their previous works and ran with it. Their films became increasingly shocking with their sexual and drug content, with taglines such as "Underground!! ...So You Think You've Seen Everything!" Everything aside, Rosenmbaum and Hoberman mark Warhol as a catalytic firgure in on-screen sexuality. After his attempted assassination, Warhol's influence in the art world and the underground film movement slowly waned.