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The Zapruder Film As Representational Crisis Andrew Covert a Thesis in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema Presented in Partia

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The Zapruder Film As Representational Crisis Andrew Covert a Thesis in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema Presented in Partia The Zapruder Film as Representational Crisis Andrew Covert A Thesis In The Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Film and Moving Image Studies) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada November 2018 © Andrew Covert, 2018 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Andrew Covert Entitled: The Zapruder Film as Representational Crisis and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy (Film and Moving Image Studies) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Chair Dr. Elena Razlogova External Examiner Dr. Will Straw External to Program Dr. Mary Esteve Examiner Dr. Luca Caminati Examiner Dr. Katie Russell Thesis Supervisor Dr. Martin Lefebvre Approved by Dr. Masha Salazkina, Graduate Program Director January 18, 2019 Dr. Rebecca Taylor Duclos, Dean Faculty of Fine Arts iii ABSTRACT The Zapruder Film as Representational Crisis Andrew Covert, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2018 Abraham Zapruder's 26-second film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is an indisputably unique piece of cinema. Despite its incredible currency in the world of national political history, and the shadowy world of conspiracy, it has a checkered past with regards to its assimilation into the discourse of film studies. Looked at, variably, as a piece of documentary, reportage or abstract fragment, it has been discussed largely for its cultural, historical or legal impact. This dissertation will chart its deeper implications when considered as a discrete film text and theoretical object, and will contend that, in this light, the Zapruder film participates in a fundamental disruption of the cinematic apparatus’ promise of a holistic representation of reality. This disruption will be fundamentally connected to the film’s interaction with the primary theoretical concepts of attraction, indexicality and contingency as they are understood in the discipline. An investigation of the Zapruder film’s formal and structural similarities to the earliest cinematic products and the disruptions connected to the cinema of attractions and early types of “event” filmmaking will be essential. Connections to the use of attractions in experimental film will also show productive comparisons. Fiction film’s connection to these issues and their engagement with the disruption proposed by the Zapruder film will also be important. Here it will be necessary to chart the way narrative can act as both a palliative and intensifying force for the epistemological uncertainty of the images proposed. Finally, we must understand the extent to which the dynamic and ever-changing context of digital remediation has affected the disruptions of the Zapruder film. All of these considerations are not intended to fix the meaning of the Zapruder film or to detract from its impact in other realms. The key intervention of this dissertation is to open a space for it, not as an orphan child of circumstance, but deeply connected to the process and fundamental structure of cinematic representations as such. This work then is not so much recuperative as it is meant to fully understand and appreciate the depth to which film texts on the borders of the discipline can speak to its very core. iv Acknowledgements Apart from being a talented amateur filmmaker, Abraham Zapruder was an avid tinkerer. He would rig up all kinds of gadgets around the house and play with the wiring to the point where a family friend mused that she was afraid that one day she would ring the doorbell and the house would blow up. I have likewise tinkered with this dissertation, in one form or another, for almost a decade. What kept the house from blowing up was the kind and supportive network of my friends and family. My wife and two children have not known a world in which their husband or father is not working on this project. They have braved innumerable stresses and tensions, exasperated howls as I have worked my way through this material. The sheer length of the project and my constant tinkering has defined their lives and not always for the better. I thank them unreservedly and apologetically for their patience, their strength and their support. To my mother and father who have helped in innumerable ways at every stage and have braved anguished phone calls and vitriolic tirades on the nature of academic writing, I likewise thank them and apologize. Professionally, this work has been immeasurably aided by my supervisor Dr. Martin Lefebvre. Our innumerable and wide-ranging conversations gave shape to the shapeless and direction to the lost elements of this work. I would also like to thank all the members of the faculty that gave me advice and support over the years. Likewise, the staff and graduate program assistants at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema have braved untold bureaucratic hurdles in my defense. Though this work bears my name, it should really include all of theirs as well. It as much a product of their efforts as it is of mine. I can confidently state as the literal and unvarnished truth that what you read here would not have been possible without them. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 AN AMATEUR FILMS A MURDER .............................................................................................. 5 CONCLUSIONS: THE EVIDENTIARY VALUE OF THE ZAPRUDER FILM ...................................... 14 Chapter 1: A Conceptual Introduction ................................................................................... 16 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 16 ATTRACTION .......................................................................................................................... 19 The Cinema of Attractions .............................................................................................. 20 Gunning: Temporal Rupture of Attraction ..................................................................... 24 INDEXICALITY ........................................................................................................................ 26 Kracauer’s View of Indexicality ..................................................................................... 27 CONTINGENCY ....................................................................................................................... 30 Kracauer, Contingency and the “Contingent Detail” ...................................................... 33 RISK ................................................................................................................................... 35 CINEMA AND DEATH .............................................................................................................. 39 Gaudreault on Circularity and Repetition ....................................................................... 41 André Bazin: Death Every Afternoon............................................................................. 44 Laura Mulvey and the “Uncanny” Nature of Cinematic Time ....................................... 48 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................ 50 Chapter 2: The Zapruder Film, Early Film and Attractions ............................................... 53 FRAMING THE EVENT ............................................................................................................. 54 THE ZAPRUDER FILM AS “EVENT” ......................................................................................... 57 Attraction and Eros: What Happened on 23rd Street .................................................... 60 Attraction and Threat: Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat .................................................. 66 vi Death as Attraction: Electrocuting an Elephant (1903) ................................................. 69 Cinema, Death and the Myth of Visibility ....................................................................... 74 CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................................. 75 Chapter 3: Cinematic Time Reloaded: Zapruder and the Avant-garde ............................. 79 THE AVANT-GARDE(S): A HISTORY OF ATTRACTIONS ........................................................... 80 INTRODUCTION TO THE ANALYSIS .......................................................................................... 86 ATTRACTION AND REVELATION: TOM, TOM, THE PIPER’S SON BY KEN JACOBS (1969) ......... 87 ATTRACTION AND DESECRATION: THE ZAPRUDER FOOTAGE: AN INVESTIGATION OF CONSENSUAL HALLUCINATION (1999) .............................................................................................. 94 ATTRACTION AND PERFORMANCE: THE ETERNAL FRAME BY THE ANT FARM COLLECTIVE (1976) .............................................................................................................................. 99 ATTRACTIONS AS FREE AGENTS: SANTIAGO ALVAREZ’S LBJ (1968) .................................
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