DOCSLIB.ORG

Canyon Collective Artists: Micropolitics in West Coast Experimental Film, 1960-79

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Canyon Collective Artists: Micropolitics in West Coast Experimental Film, 1960-79 University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2015 Canyon Collective Artists: Micropolitics in West Coast Experimental Film, 1960-79 Ekin Pinar University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, and the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Pinar, Ekin, "Canyon Collective Artists: Micropolitics in West Coast Experimental Film, 1960-79" (2015). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1118. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1118 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1118 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Canyon Collective Artists: Micropolitics in West Coast Experimental Film, 1960-79 Abstract In 1961, filmmakers Bruce Baillie, Chick Strand, Larry Jordan, and film critic Ernest Callenbach founded Canyon Cinema for weekly film screenings of a diverse selection of avant-garde, experimental and art- house films, newsreels, cartoons and animations as well as commercial Hollywood movies. Canyon screenings took place on locations expanding from San Francisco into Oakland, San Jose, and Berkeley as many as three times a week. This gravitation toward mobility, variation and flexibility also showed itself in the prolific film oductionpr of the members of the collective. Through use of methods such as appropriation, fragmentation, and reflexivity, Canyon filmmakers developed more intimate (memory), immediate (experience), and imaginative (fantasy) ways of engaging with the past. At the same time, their search for historic and ethnographic "realities" constantly question the conventional methods, genres, and medium-specific elements of filmmaking. In my dissertation, I re-evaluate the ways in which Canyon filmmakers approached the ethical, political, and cultural issues inherent in the representation of culture and history through the help of three concepts: performance in Strand's ethnographies and found footage films, allegory in Baillie's newsreels, and indexicality in Jordan's animations. In the first chapter, I focus on the evocation of issues of sexuality, minority politics, and history in Bruce Baillie's films. Reflecting on Baillie's approaches to representation of race, culture, and gender, I consider how and what type of minority movement allegories transpired in Baillie's cinema. My second chapter concentrates on Chick Strand's films in its entirety comprising both found footage and documentary works. I analyze Strand's citational, reflexive, and performative uses of pleasure, desire, and humor as productive strategies of bridging the then-wide gap between experimental and feminist cinemas. Larry Jordan's animations and live-action films, which explore the dynamic tensions between still and moving imagery, visual and tactile sensations, and surrealist, lyrical and ethnographic modes of filmic expression, constitute the focus of the third chapter. Considering the notions of repetition, transformation, layering, and materiality that dominates Jordan's films, I question how his filmsesist r linear narratives by revealing alternative paths, multiple voices, and cyclical repetitions of histories. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History of Art First Advisor Christine Poggi Second Advisor Karen Beckman Keywords Canyon Cinema, ethnographic film, experimental film, historiography in film, San rF ancisco Subject Categories Film and Media Studies | History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1118 CANYON COLLECTIVE ARTISTS: MICROPOLITICS IN WEST COAST EXPERIMENTAL FILM, 1960-79 Ekin Pinar A DISSERTATION in History of Art Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Supervisor of Dissertation Co-Supervisor of Dissertation _____________________ ________________________ Christine Poggi Karen Beckman Professor of History of Art Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Endowed Professor in Film Studies Graduate Group Chairperson _______________________ David Brownlee, Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of 19th Century European Art Dissertation Committee Christine Poggi, Professor of History of Art Karen Beckman, Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Endowed Professor in Film Studies Timothy Corrigan, Professor of English, Cinema Studies, and History of Art ! ii! To my dear mom ! iii! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my dissertation supervisors Professor Karen Beckman and Professor Christine Poggi for the incredible amount of support and mentorship they have generously provided me during my time at the History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Without their guidance, mentorship, and valuable suggestions, this project would not come to life. I would also like to thank my committee member Professor Timothy Corrigan for his rather constructive feedback on the drafts of this study. Faculty at the History of Art department and the Cinema Studies program, especially Professor David Brownlee, Associate Professor Andre Dombrowski, Professor Holly Pittman, Professor Kaja Silverman, and Dr. Meta Mazaj created a vibrant intellectual atmosphere that contributed immensely to the theoretical foundation of this study. Dr. Christopher Donovan at the Gregory College House allowed me to run residential film series and discussions related to my areas of research every semester for the past four years. The staff at Anthology Film Archives, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Academy Archives in Los Angeles, University of California in Los Angeles Film and Video Archives, Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley, and the Berkeley film libraries were extremely helpful and welcoming. The film and discussion series on experimental film and animated documentaries I ran at the Philadelphia Museum of Art proved to be thought- ! iv! provoking and I would like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Milroy and Dr. Anna Vallye for giving me the opportunity. I appreciate the fascinating conversations I have had with the students at the History of Art department and the Cinema Studies program, including but not limited to Julia Perratore, Alexandra Davis, Gregory Tentler, Pushkar Sohoni, Theodore Van Loan, Ruth Erickson, Nathaniel Prottas, Lacey Baradel, Iggy Cortez, and Claudia Consolati. My good friend Tim Boom accompanied me at film festivals and screenings and his insight on cinema has always been inspiring. My dear friends and neighbors at the Gregory College House: Daira Nocera, Omar Al-Ghazzi, Jennifer Wu, Skylar Alison, and Emily LaDue made my life more durable throughout this entire process. Even from miles away, my mother and my grandmother managed to make me feel their constant moral support and patience and I cannot possibly express my gratitude to them for always being there for me. Finally, I would like to thank Michael Edwards for our intellectually stimulating conversations, as well as the encouragement, support, incredible warmth, and affection he relentlessly offered since the first day I met him. ! v! ABSTRACT CANYON COLLECTIVE ARTISTS: MICROPOLITICS IN WEST COAST EXPERIMENTAL FILM, 1960-79 Ekin Pinar Christine Poggi Karen Beckman In 1961, filmmakers Bruce Baillie, Chick Strand, Larry Jordan, and film critic Ernest Callenbach founded Canyon Cinema for weekly film screenings of a diverse selection of avant-garde, experimental and art-house films, newsreels, cartoons and animations as well as commercial Hollywood movies. Canyon screenings took place on locations expanding from San Francisco into Oakland, San Jose, and Berkeley as many as three times a week. This gravitation toward mobility, variation and flexibility also showed itself in the prolific film production of the members of the collective. Through use of methods such as appropriation, fragmentation, and reflexivity, Canyon filmmakers developed more intimate (memory), immediate (experience), and imaginative (fantasy) ways of engaging with the past. At the same time, their search for historic and ethnographic “realities” constantly question the conventional methods, genres, and medium-specific elements of filmmaking. In my dissertation, I re-evaluate the ways in which Canyon filmmakers approached the ethical, political, and cultural issues inherent in the representation of culture and history through the help of three concepts: ! vi! performance in Strand’s ethnographies and found footage films, allegory in Baillie’s newsreels, and indexicality in Jordan’s animations. In the first chapter, I focus on the evocation of issues of sexuality, minority politics, and history in Bruce Baillie’s films. Reflecting on Baillie’s approaches to representation of race, culture, and gender, I consider how and what type of minority movement allegories transpired in Baillie’s cinema. My second chapter concentrates on Chick Strand’s films in its entirety comprising both found footage and documentary works. I analyze Strand’s citational, reflexive, and performative uses of pleasure, desire, and humor as productive strategies of bridging the then-wide gap between experimental and feminist cinemas. Larry Jordan’s animations and live-action films, which explore the dynamic tensions between still and moving imagery, visual and tactile sensations, and surrealist, lyrical and ethnographic
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Michael Mcdermott
    LANDSCAPES AND THE MACHINE: ADDRESSING WICKED VALUATION PROBLEMS WHEN NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND WEST MEET A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy by Michael McDermott Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building University of Technology, Sydney Supervisors: Associate Professor Jason Prior and Professor Spike Boydell 2015 Landscapes and the Machine: Addressing Wicked Valuation Problems when North, South, East and West Meet. i ABSTRACT This thesis is about engaging with the dynamic relationship between “landscapes”, “land tenure”, and the “machine”. The first term can be so broad as to mean every process and thing encountered, the second means the way that land is held by a person or group of persons, and the third means things both put together and used by humans to fulfil their wants and needs from the landscape. As a professional valuer I have been traditionally trained to engage at arms-length with the normative behaviour of persons or groups at the intersection of these three concepts, wherein those people and groups were willing but not compelled to engage. Such traditional valuation approaches are increasingly recognised as being insufficient to address wicked valuation problems of the diverse peoples and groups that inhabit the globe from North, South, East to West. This thesis develops a means of engaging with these wicked valuation problems in a suitably knowledgeable and prudent way. To do so the thesis adopts an exploratory approach guided by Whitehead’s process philosophy injunction of a creative advance into novelty. This approach is enacted through a range of data collection and analysis methods.
    [Show full text]
  • The Roots of Middle-Earth: William Morris's Influence Upon J. R. R. Tolkien
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2007 The Roots of Middle-Earth: William Morris's Influence upon J. R. R. Tolkien Kelvin Lee Massey University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Massey, Kelvin Lee, "The Roots of Middle-Earth: William Morris's Influence upon J. R. R. olkien.T " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2007. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/238 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Kelvin Lee Massey entitled "The Roots of Middle-Earth: William Morris's Influence upon J. R. R. olkien.T " I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. David F. Goslee, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Thomas Heffernan, Michael Lofaro, Robert Bast Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Kelvin Lee Massey entitled “The Roots of Middle-earth: William Morris’s Influence upon J.
    [Show full text]
  • Mr Trumble.Pdf
    REVIEW OF EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA SUBMISSION BY ANGUS TRUMBLE I wish to make the following submission in connection with DCITA’s 2003 Review of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. My thoughts about the NMA are largely the product of having for many years visited dozens museums all over the world, either out of interest or through my work as Curator of European Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide (1996 to 2001). However, I should also make it clear that I have had no professional contact with the NMA staff other than as an ordinary visitor, and it is in that capacity, not so much as an art museum curator, that I wish to comment on the building and aspects of the display, which I have studied carefully in the course of five visits in February and March this year. Despite the robust nature of many of my criticisms, I should say that I welcome the long-awaited arrival of the NMA. I believe it has a vital role to play in the cultural life of the nation, and the many problems that it must now solve are no more than temporary setbacks. None, apart from the terrible building, is insoluble, and even the building can be improved, I think, beyond measure. The architecture The design of the new NMA building is very poor and will not, I think, serve the long-term exhibition needs of the NMA. Nor will it open up new possibilities for public programming in the long term.
    [Show full text]
  • Not Even Past NOT EVEN PAST
    The past is never dead. It's not even past NOT EVEN PAST Search the site ... Of How a Hopi Ancient Word Became a Famous Experimental Film Like 65 Tweet by Montserrat Madariaga The theater is at its full capacity. The musicians are in place as the orchestra conductor starts to wave his arms in time with the image on the screen. There, little red dots emerge from a black background. They slowly widen and turn into capital letters: The word KOYAANISQATSI takes over. Keyboard notes evoking a church organ underline the mystery of the term and suit the dramatic hard-edged-typography. It is a Friday afternoon, February 23, 2018, in the Bass Concert Hall of the Texas Performing Art Center of The University of Texas, at Austin. The occasion is the screening of Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 lm, accompanied by the live performance of The Philip Glass Ensemble playing its original score music. Featured for the rst time to an ample public in the 1982 New York Film Festival, Koyaanisqatsi is an audiovisual art piece without dialogue or voiceover, deprived of any explicit narrative, that is nowadays a cult classic. It opens with a shot of the Holy Ghost Panel in Horseshoe Canyon, Utah, a human trace dated between 400 AD and 1100 AD. Then, footage of imposing natural landscapes and wildlife of the United States’ Southwest is followed by images of urban spaces: construction, crowded streets, demolitions, technology of the time, and so on. The collage escalates in its pace along with the music: utes, clarinet, trombone, viola, tuba, keyboards and vocals from time to time repeat the word “koyaanisqatsi” in a low pitched ceremonial tone that creates an apocalyptic atmosphere.
    [Show full text]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    AFTERIMAGES AND AFTERTHOUGHTS ABOUT THE AFTERLIFE OF FILM A MEMORY OF RESISTANCE Gerda Johanna Cammaer A Research-Creation Thesis In the Department of Communication Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada December 2009 © Gerda Johanna Cammaer, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-67380-5 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-67380-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Cinema of the Dark Side Atrocity and the Ethics of Film Spectatorship
    Cinema of the Dark Side Atrocity and the Ethics of Film Spectatorship Shohini Chaudhuri CHAUDHURI 9780748642632 PRINT.indd 1 26/09/2014 16:33 © Shohini Chaudhuri, 2014 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ www.euppublishing.com Typeset in Monotype Ehrhardt by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 4263 2 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 0042 8 (paperback) ISBN 978 0 7486 9461 7 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 0043 5 (epub) The right of Shohini Chaudhuri to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). CHAUDHURI 9780748642632 PRINT.indd 2 26/09/2014 16:33 Contents Acknowledgements iv List of Figures viii Introduction 1 1 Documenting the Dark Side: Fictional and Documentary Treatments of Torture and the ‘War On Terror’ 22 2 History Lessons: What Audiences (Could) Learn about Genocide from Historical Dramas 50 3 The Art of Disappearance: Remembering Political Violence in Argentina and Chile 84 4 Uninvited Visitors: Immigration, Detention and Deportation in Science Fiction 115 5 Architectures of Enmity: the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict through a Cinematic Lens 146 Conclusion 178 Bibliography 184 Index 197 CHAUDHURI 9780748642632 PRINT.indd 3 26/09/2014 16:33 Introduction n the science fiction film Children of Men (2006), set in a future dystopian IBritain, a propaganda film plays on a TV screen on a train.
    [Show full text]
  • Feminisms 1..277
    Feminisms The Key Debates Mutations and Appropriations in European Film Studies Series Editors Ian Christie, Dominique Chateau, Annie van den Oever Feminisms Diversity, Difference, and Multiplicity in Contemporary Film Cultures Edited by Laura Mulvey and Anna Backman Rogers Amsterdam University Press The publication of this book is made possible by grants from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Cover design: Neon, design and communications | Sabine Mannel Lay-out: japes, Amsterdam Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 90 8964 676 7 e-isbn 978 90 4852 363 4 doi 10.5117/9789089646767 nur 670 © L. Mulvey, A. Backman Rogers / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2015 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Contents Editorial 9 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 15 Introduction: 1970s Feminist Film Theory and the Obsolescent Object 17 Laura Mulvey PART I New Perspectives: Images and the Female Body Disconnected Heroines, Icy Intelligence: Reframing Feminism(s) and Feminist Identities at the Borders Involving the Isolated Female TV Detective in Scandinavian-Noir 29 Janet McCabe Lena Dunham’s Girls: Can-Do Girls,
    [Show full text]
  • Visual Ethnography of Everyday Life (01:070:373) Tuesday 2:15-5:15Pm BIO 205 -- 3 Credits Pilar K
    Visual Ethnography of Everyday Life (01:070:373) Tuesday 2:15-5:15pm BIO 205 -- 3 credits Pilar K. Rau – [email protected] Office: RAB 308 Office hours: Tuesday 1:00-2:00pm or by appointment Course Description This course explores the poetics and politics of producing ethnographic images using commonly-owned digital media. Students will analyze ethnographic, documentary, vernacular and fine art media and gain competence in the aesthetic and technical dimensions of digital image production. The course explores narrative, observational and anti-narrative experimental shooting and editing, as well as the ethical, political, ethnographic, semiotic, and philosophical concerns such decisions entail Learning Outcomes Students will be able to: • Analyze the relationship of innovations in film and digital media on the production of vernacular, documentary and ethnographic visual representations • Identify and critically analyze different approaches to creating visual representations of cultural difference • Critically asses ethical, political, semiotic and philosophical consequences of technological, formal, and aesthetic choices in ethnographic image production • Learn basic technical skills of film and video production that are applicable to a variety of media • Produce short ethnographic videos Department Learning Goals - http://anthro.rutgers.edu/undergrad-program/department-learning-goals 1. Students gain knowledge that will allow them to identify, explain, and historically contextualize the primary objectives, fundamental concepts, modes of analysis, and central questions in Cultural and Visual Anthropology and demonstrate proficiency in their use of this knowledge 2. Students are able to demonstrate proficiency in the use of critical thinking skills 3. Students are able to demonstrate proficiency using current methods in Cultural and Visual anthropology, including library research skills 4.
    [Show full text]
  • African Slavery in Documentary Films Why Now?
    Journal of Global Slavery 5 (2020) 1–21 brill.com/jgs African Slavery in Documentary Films Why Now? Francesca Declich University of Urbino Carlo Bo [email protected] Marie Rodet SOAS, University of London [email protected] The last two decades have witnessed much scholarly debate around discursive and non-discursive legacies of African slavery, as well as a growing interest in memories of slavery from the African continent.1 At the same time, an increas- 1 A large body of publications has emerged on slavery in the African continent, including among others: Martin A. Klein, “Studying the History of Those Who Would Rather Forget: Oral History and the Experience of Slavery,”History in Africa 16 (1989): 215; Edward A. Alpers, “Recollecting Africa: Diasporic Memory in the Indian Ocean World,”African Studies Review 43 (1) (2000): 83–99; Rosalind Shaw, Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imag- ination in Sierra Leone (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002); Eric E. Hahonou and Baz Lecocq, “Introduction: Exploring Post-Slavery in Contemporary Africa,”International Journal of African Historical Studies 48, no. 2 (2015): 181–192; Alice Bellagamba, Sandra E. Greene, Martin A. Klein, African Slaves, African Masters. Politics, Memories, Social Life (Trenton NJ: Africa World Press, 2017); Alice Bellagamba. “Yesterday and today. Studying African slav- ery, the Slave Trade and their Legacies through Oral Sources,” in Alice Bellagamba, Sandra E. Greene, Martin A. Klein, eds., African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade. Vol 2: Sources and Methods (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 174–197; Alice Bellagamba. “Living in the shadows of slavery”, OPEN DEMOCRACY (2016) https://www.opendemocracy .net/beyondslavery/alice‑bellagamba/living‑in‑shadows‑of‑slavery, accessed on 10 Novem- ber 2019; Marie Rodet, “Escaping Slavery and Building Diasporic Communities in French Soudan and Senegal, ca.
    [Show full text]
  • DEPARTMENT of MODERN LANGUAGES and LITERATURES WOMEN FILMMAKERS Sp 3901G / Film 3311G / WS 3375G Winter 2018
    1 DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES WOMEN FILMMAKERS Sp 3901G / Film 3311G / WS 3375G Winter 2018 INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Constanza Burucúa - [email protected] OFFICE: AHB 3R16B OFFICE HOURS: Tuesday, 10.30 to 11.30 and Wednesday, 12.30 to 1.30 COURSE TIMETABLE Tuesday 9.30 to 10.30 – LECTURE / PRESENTATIONS AHB 1B06 Thursday 9.30 to 11.30 – TUTORIAL / CLASS DISCUSSION AHB 1B06 Screenings (voluntary): Friday 10.30 to 1.30 – AHB 3B15 AIMS OF THE COURSE This course will explore the notion of film authorship in relation to its utterances and implications when associated to the praxis of contemporary women film directors, from the early 1960s to the present. While troubling the notion of women’s cinema, its definition, limits and limitations, a wide range of case studies – films emerging from dissimilar contexts of production and reception – will be mostly read and discussed in the light of feminist approaches to questions about gender and representation. In this sense, the course will also offer a historical and critical overview of feminist scholarship within film studies and of the ongoing debates in this area of study. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the course, students will be able to: 2 1. Critically reflect upon questions concerning women and film, both in terms of their involvement in production and in the processes of reception. 2. Ponder the key notions involved in the debates around, and the study of, feminist film theory, gendered representations and considerations on point of view. REQUIRED READINGS All the bibliography listed under the title of the film/s that will be screened each week is compulsory reading.
    [Show full text]
  • GODFREY REGGIO (Director, Koyaanisqatsi) Is a Pioneer of a Film Form That Creates Poetic Images of Extraordinary Emotive Impact
    GODFREY REGGIO (Director, Koyaanisqatsi) is a pioneer of a film form that creates poetic images of extraordinary emotive impact. Reggio is best known for the Qatsi Trilogy – essays of image and music, speechless narrations which question the world in which we live. Born in New Orleans in 1940, Reggio entered the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic Pontifical Order, at age 14 and remained as a monk until 1968. In 1963, he co-founded Young Citizens for Action, a community organization of juvenile street gangs. Reggio co-founded La Clinica de la Gente and La Gente, a community organizing project in Northern New Mexico’s barrios. In 1972, he co- founded the Institute for Regional Education in Santa Fe, a nonprofit organization focused on media, the arts, community organization and research. In collaboration with the New Mexico Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Reggio co- organized a multimedia public interest campaign on the invasion of privacy and the use of technology to control behavior. Reggio’s collaboration on Koyaanisqatsi with Ron Fricke (Director of Photography) and Philip Glass (Composer) gained an international audience, critical acclaim and launched the Qatsi Trilogy. Koyaanisqatsi has been played live over 200 times in venues worldwide. Reggio’s collaborations with Philip Glass, include: Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988), Naqoyqatsi (2002), Anima Mundi (1992), Evidence (1995) and Visitors (2013). In 1993, Reggio was invited by Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani to develop a new school “to smell the future” – an enterprise of exploration and production in the arts, technology and mass media. Called Fabrica – Futuro Presente, it opened in the middle of the ‘90s in Treviso, Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • FIRST CENTURY AVANT-GARDE FILM RUTH NOVACZEK a Thesis
    NEW VERNACULARS AND FEMININE ECRITURE; TWENTY- FIRST CENTURY AVANT-GARDE FILM RUTH NOVACZEK A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2015 Acknowledgements Thanks to Chris Kraus, Eileen Myles and Rachel Garfield for boosting my morale in times of great uncertainty. To my supervisors Michael Mazière and Rosie Thomas for rigorous critique and sound advice. To Jelena Stojkovic, Alisa Lebow and Basak Ertur for camaraderie and encouragement. To my father Alfred for support. To Lucy Harris and Sophie Mayer for excellent editorial consultancy. To Anya Lewin, Gillian Wylde, Cathy Gelbin, Mark Pringle and Helen Pritchard who helped a lot one way or another. And to all the filmmakers, writers, artists and poets who make this work what it is. Abstract New Vernaculars and Feminine Ecriture; Twenty First Century Avant-Garde Film. Ruth Novaczek This practice-based research project explores the parameters of – and aims to construct – a new film language for a feminine écriture within a twenty first century avant-garde practice. My two films, Radio and The New World, together with my contextualising thesis, ask how new vernaculars might construct subjectivity in the contemporary moment. Both films draw on classical and independent cinema to revisit the remix in a feminist context. Using appropriated and live-action footage the five short films that comprise Radio are collaged and subjective, representing an imagined world of short, chaptered ‘songs’ inside a radio set. The New World also uses both live-action and found footage to inscribe a feminist transnational world, in which the narrative is continuous and its trajectory bridges, rather than juxtaposes, the stories it tells.
    [Show full text]