“it wasn’t love” by sadie benning and “l’age d’or” by bunuel.
I think it is about time Criterion released more Avant-Garde films ( I know they have Brakhage) especially Deren you can’t get them anywhere!
Kino has Avant garde DVD’S and Unseen Cinema-great box set
check out www.filmpreservation.org-avant garde coming out next March
im not usually a huge fan of the avante-garde, but adore maddin. i looked at brakhage whilst doing my degree too.
Hey Criterion-how about a disc of Maya Deren films?
Please resond
favorite… I’m torn between Brakhage and Cornell. While Brakhage may well be one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Cornell only did films as a side.If he had devoted all his energy into this then God only knows.Oh! I’m sorry did I forget Bruce Baillie. So many great filmmakers so little time…
Yeah, Sadie Benning! I totally forgot about her! I totally dug her personal “diary” style films. I have to track her stuff down again!
Coming from the antipodes I’d have to say the “direct animation” innovator Len Lye is one of my favorite “avant garde” filmmakers, some film highlights include: “Tulsalava” (1929), “Kaleidoscope” (1935), “A Colour Box” (1935), “Birth of a Robot” (1936), “Swinging the Lambeth Walk” (1940) and “Free Radicals” (1959) … all available in one form or another on youtube.
Michael Snow is another avant garde master! “Wavelength”, “Standard Time” …
Len Lye is amazing. So is George Kuchar.
i’ve got an old vhs tape of sadie’s films that i copied from one of my professor’s old vhs tapes. i’ve got almost all of her stuff on that tape. they’re pretty rare. surely not on dvd anywhere i’ve seen or heard of.
I’m going to include video arts as well.
I like most that has been mentioned here: Deren, Man Ray, Brakhage, Lye, Snow (though he isn’t avant-garde per se), etc.
Others (all might not have been strictly avant-garde): Bill Viola, Carolee Schneeman, Hollis Frampton, Kenneth Anger, Courtney Egan, Pipilotti Rist, etc.
I love alejandro jodorowsky and fernando arrabal!
I’ll give props to Brakhage. But has anyone seen any John Smith? I like his stuff.
Jonas mekas, Nathaniel Dorsky, Marie Menken, Robert Beavers, Larry Jordan. If we add expanded cinema, then I’d say Stan Douglas. Bruce Conner of course. Warhol. Abigail Child. I don’t know Sadie Benning. Is her stuff available?
i’ve been looking for wavelength for years. anyone know the best way to get a copy now?
sadie benning is the daughter of james benning. she started making experimental videos when she was given one of those old fisher-price pixelvision cameras for her birthday. she usually shot these videos in her room, or around her house. they usually deal with her identity as a young lesbian. she only made a handful of videos, then gave it up and started performing in an underground band, which i think she still does.
her short video “it wasn’t love” is a masterpiece to me. it’s one of my favorites of all-time.
as far as i know, her stuff is very rare. but video data bank may still distribute her work. she needs to be known more. i’ve only found one piece written on her, by chris chang for film comment many years ago. if you find anything new on her, please share it with the group!
You canget Wavelength at Robart’s Library University of Toronto -but you’ll need a student number-great film also Snow’s Back Forth is excellent hallucinatory
Does Lynch count as Avant-Garde? I love Mulholland Dr. beyond recognition.
There is a great dvd on the short films of David Lynch pretty wild stuff
also there is Jan Svankmajer and Ken Russell
the shorts of david lynch are for sure avant-garde. i’d say his features have a strong avant-garde/surreal influence, but they’re still narrative for the most part. i think a true avant-garde work has to be a non-narrative/non-feature length work.
It’s all in one own’s interpretation – you can extrapolate interpret an avant garde film with a narrative-even if it’s a fragmented narrative at best—a good example of a feature avant garde film is L’age Do’r running time approx one hour anti-clericism -with it’s attack on religion-Dali-and Bunuel were also into entomology-Can you interpret Bunuel’s feature length surrealistic films-The Milky Way-Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise etc as avant-garde?-I was also taught that Dreyer’s Passion of Joan of Arc-the flatness of space-canted camera angles-proximity of close-ups and religous iconography constituted ‘avant-garde’
there is also the debate -what is the difference between Dada and surrealism? Rene Clair’s The Straw Hat?
Cheers Dave
Well i think the great avant-garde films have mainly come from Europe in the 20s and 30s, whereas there may have been a tendency to overrate, or inflate the innovative qualities of, post-war US underground/avant-garde films, as not Hollywood but still American and therefore influential. Still, i’m glad to have had the Sadie Benning It Wasn’t Love recommendation here. And of course as already mentioned it all depends on definitions of avant-garde- the 20s experimentation now seems more mainstream.
Anyway, assuming Vertov, Kuleshov, Eisenstein and the Soviets are famous enough as are Cocteau, Clair and Bunuel, film-makers like Epstein, Germaine Dulac, Fischinger, Len Lye deserve more attention.
Jean Cocteau
glad you liked “it wasnt love”. the film struck me very deeply. it needs more admirers. its one of my personal favorite films, regardless of length or genre.
The hand painted works of Brakhage are probably my favorite so far, but I have to admit that I have not explored avant garde as much as I should have. That will change soon
The hand painted works of Brakhage are probably my favorite so far, but I have to admit that I have not explored avant garde as much as I should have. That will change soon
Ryan, have you seen the earlier hand-painted films of Len Lye and Norman Mclaren, which make very interesting fits of music and image- whereas i think Brakhage preferred the visuals to speak for themselves
La Cicatrice Interieure — Philippe Garrel
Carriage Trade — Warren Sonbert
Rameau’s Nephew By Diderot (Thanx to Denis Young) By Wilm Schoen — Michael Snow
A Movie — Bruce Conner
Rose Hobart — Joseph Cornell
Star Spangled to Death — Ken Jacobs
Normal Love — Jack Smith
Eros O Basileus — Gregory Markopoulos
Norman McLaren, hands down. I could go on forever about the avant-garde, but I won’t.
Oh, and Michael Snow. his film Wavelength (1967) is a masterpiece.
There are some- er, well, most!- mentioned by David i could do with seeing but i would certainly second Rose Hobart
as far as I’m concerned, Leighton Pierce is on another planet in regards to experimental filmmaking. Hell, even normal filmmaking. He gets some of the most stunning imagery I’ve ever seen (with only a DV cam!) and couples it with amazing soundtracks. I believe he studied jazz, and tries to add a musical element to it. His works are like short but densely layered songs made up of imagery and sound. My favorites would be “Wood”, “The Back Steps”, “Water Seeking its Level”, and “Viscera”. All are less than ten minutes but can be watched again and again.
Dave Britnell
Your Favourite Avant-Garde film and fimaker?
Marker-Bunuel-Dali-Brakhage-Deren-Maddin-Dreyer-McLaren-Leger-ManRay-Clair-Richter-
the list goes on,,,,,,,,