Diary Film in America and in Taiwan: Narrative, Temporality, and Changing Technology Ming-Yu Lee Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Theatre Film and Television Studies School of Culture and Creative Arts College of Arts University of Glasgow September 2015 © Ming-Yu Lee II Acknowledgement First I’d like to pay special thanks to Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange – the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for funding this research. I would also like to thank the Graduate School of Arts and Humanities Research Award and the School of Culture and Creative Arts School Research Award. This thesis would not exist without their financial supports. Secondly, I’d like to thank my supervisor Prof. Karen Lury, for your invaluable advice and guidance, and your understanding and incredible patience during these four years. Thanks to Prof. Deirdre Heddon, Dr. Ian Garwood, Philippa Lovatt, Yilei Yuan, Mikela Fotiou, Ryan Shand, and Graeme Spurr, for your help and generosities along the way. Also I’d like to pay special thanks to my Viva examiners and convener, Prof. Laura Rascaroli, Dr. Timothy Barker, and Prof. Dimitris Eleftheriotis. Finally, I thank my family and friends, for their great supports. My mother Jing-ying Lu, my sisters Cathy Hong and Kelly Lee, my nephew Toby Lin, and my aunt Yan-jing Lee; my mentor Lung-zin Chi, Yung-Hao Liu, and Chung-li Kao, and Tony Wu; my friends in Paris, Jean-Claude Mouton, An-Chi, Tsao, Yushin, and ZenZoo; my friends in Taiwan, Cydney Chang, Caraman Lai, and Hao-Ron Su; also thanks to my cat friend, Miller. This thesis is for my father Ji-Hao Lee and my grandmother Li-Ching Tsai, who left too soon, but I know you are proud. III Abstract The diary film as a unique, personal, and private cinematic genre for a long time has not received its fair share of attention in academic research. This thesis therefore focuses mainly on the historical development, characteristics, and aesthetics of the diary film per se, conducting a critical dialogue between them in order to explore a field of study that should be clarified instead of staying ambiguous. The discussion of this thesis can be divided into two parts: first, I pay specially attention to the historical context of the diary film in the 1950s to 1960s in America. Combing through different film theories regarding amateurism and different personal filmmaking approaches proposed by Marie Menken, Maya Deren, and Jonas Mekas, the first part of the thesis aims to locate the origins of the diary film. Moreover, with the discovering of the early historic material of the avant-garde film movement and the diary film in Taiwan, a transnational connection of the diary film between America and Taiwan has been established. The second part of the thesis focuses on the analyses of the diary film texts from various filmmakers in America and in Taiwan across different periods of time: they include Jonas Mekas, Hollis Frampton, Saul Levine, George Kuchar, Shine Lin, and myself. By the close reading of these films, I provide concepts from different perspectives as analytic tools in the diary film research: the parenthetical structure of the voice-over and the image in the diary film, and the different modes of diary filmmaking (perceptive, retrospective, and access) in terms of temporality and technology. To conclude, this thesis not only wishes to suggest forward-looking views on this marginal field, but also to reconstruct and reinvent the research of the diary film in Taiwan. IV Table of Contents Acknowledgement …………………………………………………………………………… II Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………. III Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………………. IV List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………………..VIII List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………………….VIII Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter 1 – What is Diary Film? Literature Review and Context …………………….. 12 1.1 Literature Review …………………………….…………………………………………. 18 1.1.1 Structure in the Written Diary ……………………………………………………. 24 1.1.2 Continuity in the Written Diary ………………………………………………….. 26 1.1.3 Discontinuity in the Written Diary ………………………………………………. 27 1.1.4 Repetition in the Written Diary …………………………………………………… 30 1.2 Primary Characteristics of the Diary Film ……………………………………………… 34 1.2.1 The Identification of Author in the Diary Film …………………….…………..… 34 1.2.2 The Notion of Entry in the Diary Film…………………………………………….. 35 1.2.3 Continuity in the Diary Film……………………………………..………………… 39 1.2.4 Discontinuity in the Diary Film ………..…………………………………………. 41 1.2.5 Repetition in the Diary Film ……………………………………………………… 43 1.3 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………… 46 Chapter 2 – Historical Review of the Diary Film ……………………………………… 49 2.1 The Diary Film in North America: from 1950s to 1960s …………………………………49 2.1.1 Intersections ……………………………………………………………………… 49 2.1.2 From Conventional, Personal, to the Reflective Mode: from Europe to America … 53 2.1.3 Amateurism Reinvented …………………………………………………………. 57 V 2.1.4 Marie Menken Reinvented………………………………………………………… 61 2.1.5 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………… 66 2.2 Historical Review of the Diary Film in Taiwan ………………………………………… 68 2.2.1 Five Phases of the Diary Film in Taiwan …………………………………………. 68 2.2.1.1 Phase One: Na’Ou Liu in the 1930s …………………………………………… 70 2.2.1.2 Phase Two: Theatre Quarterly in the 1960s …………………………………… 83 2.2.1.3 Phase Three: Golden Harvest Awards and Chung-li Kao in the 1980s ………... 92 2.2.1.4 Phase Four: the Academic Teaching of Experimental Film since 2003 - Yung-Hao Liu, Chung-li Kao, and Tony Chun-hui Wu ……………………….. 97 2.2.2 Conclusion: Young Generation of the Taiwanese Diary Filmmakers since 2007 …100 Chapter 3 – the Voice-Over in the Diary Film ………………………………………….. 102 3.1 Hollis Frampton’s (nostalgia) …………………………………………………………. 102 3.1.1 The Voice-Over in the Diary Film ……………………………………………….. 102 3.1.2 Eisenstein and Vertical Montage Theory ………………………….……………. 107 3.1.3 Bazin and Horizontal Montage ……………………………………….………… 110 3.1.4 Jonas Mekas and Spontaneity …………………………………………………… 112 3.1.5 Hollis Frampton’s (nostalgia): Visual and Audio Levels ……………………….. 114 3.1.6 The Identification of Author …………………………………………………….. 117 3.1.7 Asynchronization and Delay of Audiovisual Montage in (nostalgia) …………… 118 3.1.8 Parenthetical Structure of the Voice-Over and the Images in (nostalgia) ………. 121 3.1.9 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 124 3.2 The Absent Images and the Visible Voices in Jonas Mekas’s The Song of Avila ……… 126 3.2.1 Parenthesis: Negative and Positive Perspectives ………………………………… 128 3.2.2 Parenthetical Structure and Sonic Interstices …………………………………….. 134 3.2.3 The Missing Images and the Unspoken Words in The Song of Avila …………… 136 VI 3.2.4 Parenthetical Interstices …………………………………………………………. 138 3.2.5 Impossible Retrospection ………………………………………………………… 140 3.2.6 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 142 Chapter 4 – Temporality in the Diary Film ……………………………………………. 151 4.1 The Diary Film in the Perceptive Mode ……………………………………………….. 151 4.1.1 Filming While Walking …………………………………………………………. 152 4.1.2 Saul Levine’s Notes of an Early Fall, Parts 1&2 ……………………………….. 159 4.1.3 Continuity, Repetition, and Discontinuity: the Phonographic Record, the Bird, and the Bears ……………………………… 162 4.1.4 Inscription, Perception and Preservation ………………………………………... 165 4.1.5 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 168 4.2 The Diary Film in the Retrospective Mode: Jonas Mekas’s Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas …………… 169 4.2.1 The Notion of Retrospection in the Diary ……………………………………….. 170 4.2.2 The Notion of Added Narrative …………………………………………………. 172 4.2.3 Zefiro Torna: the Life of George Maciunas and Jonas Mekas …………………… 173 4.2.4 The Structure of Zefiro Torna: the Voice-Over, the Written Diary, and the Images …………………………… 173 4.2.5 Three Temporal Starting Points in Zefiro Torna: 1952, 1977, and 1992 ………… 174 4.2.6 Chronology and Analepsis: the Third Present …………………………………… 184 4.2.7 Analepses on Analepses and Prolepses on Analepses …………………………… 185 4.2.8 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 190 Chapter 5 – The Diary Film and Changing Technology ………………………………. 193 5.1 Video Diary: George Kuchar’s Weather Diary 5 ……………………………………... 193 5.1.1 George Kuchar and His Weather Diary Series …………………………………… 196 VII 5.1.2 Video: Capture and Transmission ……………………………………………….. 199 5.1.3 Video: the Mirror Machine, Safe Space, and Private Secret ……………………. 201 5.1.4 Variation: Off-Screen Soliloquy ………………………………………………… 208 5.1.5 The Mirror Machine and the Imagined Audience ………………………………. 210 5.1.6 In-Camera Editing: the Access Mode …………………………………...………. 214 5.1.7 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 217 5.2 Digital Video Diary-Film: Shine Lin’s Blues Biyori ………………………………….. 218 5.2.1 Analogue Video and Digital Video ……………………………………………… 218 5.2.2 A Route from North America to Taiwan …………….………………………….. 220 5.2.3 The Home: Friends, Bands, and Music …………………………………………. 224 5.2.4 Video Selfie ……………………………………………………………………… 226 5.2.5 Drifting Self-Portrait ……………………………………………………………. 228 5.2.6 Going Back Home: Mother and I, Past and Present ……………………………… 234 5.2.7 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………... 236 5.3 Mixed Formats and the Incorporations in the Digital Age: Ming-Yu Lee’s Going Home ………………………………………………………….. 237 5.3.1 Amateur, Personal, and Diary Filmmaking …………………………………….. 238 5.3.2 From Amateur to Digital Video-Diary Filmmaker ……………………………… 241 5.3.3 Going Home …………………………………………………………………….. 242 5.3.4 Wandering and the Absence of Home ………………………………………….