FAMU

History of American Experimental Film

Fall 2005

Instructor: Henry Hills

Contact: henry@henryhills.com

Class times: Wednesday 13:30-16:30 (with special screenings on alternate Mondays)

Course description

Taking the dominance of narrative in film and the consequent hegemony of Hollywood as an historical anomaly owing to the economics of film production (now an issue from the pre-digital past, as filmmaking, just as record collecting, has become essentially free), we will explore fringe work as an alternative reality containing seeds of a positive future vision for moving-imagery. Ideally this will be a study of works in which form and content are perfectly merged, the focus being on film as a thing itself, not films “about” something. Beginning with some of the very earliest films, works by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson for the Edison Corporation & other “actuality” pieces among the often anonymous works preserved in the Paperprint Collection of the Library of Congress, we will seesaw through the history, following more a thematic than a chronological approach. Such early works, for example, would be juxtaposed with pieces by Andy Warhol and Ken Jacobs which explore similar concerns. We will view as many films as possible, films that bounce off each other in different ways, and certain key works will be viewed several times. A large emphasis will be placed on the films of Stan Brakhage, but we will cover a wide range of works, from the “cameraless” films of Man Ray in the late 20s, Joseph Cornell’s original “detournement” of stock footage beginning in the 30s & the psychodramas of Maya Deren in the 40s, to the classic period of the mid 50s through the early 70s with its unlikely evolution from Beat improvisations to Structuralist film (including such diverse makers as Marie Menken, Kenneth Anger, Robert Breer, Bruce Conner, Christopher MacLaine, Jack Smith, George Kuchar, Paul Sharits, Michael Snow and Pat O’Neill), up to Post-modern works from the 80’s to the present. Avant-garde film will be explored as a model of consciousness seeking expansion.

Recommended texts:

ESSENTIAL BRAKHAGE

ESSENTIAL DEREN

AVANT GARDE READER (Anthology Film Archives)

FILM DIARIES Jonas Mekas

VISIONARY FILM P.Adams Sitney

A CRITICAL CINEMA (Scott McDonald interviews 1-4)

Assessment:

There will be six screenings on alternate Monday evenings at Ponrepo auditorium of films loaned by the Austrian Filmmuseum so that you might see these works on film projected on the big screen. Attendance at these screenings is mandatory. Otherwise students will be evaluated by their participation in seminars and by the quality of a final project which may either be a paper or a video.

Week 1: Beginnings

a. intro to me (NORTH BEACH, KINO DA!, SSS)

b. beginnings: Edison films by Dickson, Billy Bitzer & other Paperprints, excerpt from D.W. Griffith’s INTOLERANCE

c. re-beginnings: Warhol KISS & BLOW JOB, excerpt Jacobs’TOM TOM THE PIPERS SON

Week 2:

October 10 Ponrepo screening

Marie Menken GO, GO, GO (11)

Len Lye RHYTHM & FREE RADICALS (5)

Robert Breer FIST FIGHT (9)

Kenneth Anger SCORPIO RISING (31)

Paul Sharits T:O:U:C:H:I:N:G (12)

George Kuchar HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED (15)

Ken Jacobs PERFECT FILM (22)

Week 3: introduction to Stan Brakhage

Screenings of DESISTFFILM, CATS CRADLE, WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING, PRELUDE:DOG STAR MAN, MOTHLIGHT, THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE’S OWN EYES, THE DANTE QUARTET, & COMMINGLED CONTAINERS, and samples of his writing & talks

Week 4:

October 24 Ponrepo screening

Stan Brakhage WONDER RING / GNIR REDNOW (10)

Stan Brakhage ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT (42)

Gregory Markopoulos GAMMELION (54)

Week 5: introduction to Maya Deren

Screening (on 16mm) of MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON & AT LAND, plus a screening of Martina Kudlacek’s IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN.

Week 6:

November 7 Ponrepo screening

George Landow FILM IN WHICH THERE APPEAR EDGE LETTERING, SPROCKET HOLES, DIRT PARTICLES, SPROCKET HOLES, ETC. (5)

Bruce Baillie ALL MY LIFE (3)

Michael Snow WAVELENGTH (41)

Pat O’Neill TROUBLE IN THE IMAGE (38)

Week 7: early avant-gardes

Screenings of D.W.Griffith’s THOSE AWFUL HATS, Man Ray’s EMAK BAKIA & LE RETOUR A LA RAISON, Dudley Murphy/Man Ray/Ferdnand Leger’s BALLET MECANIQUE, Roubin Mamoulian & Martha Graham’s THE FLUTE OF KRISHNA, Watson & Webber’s FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, Ralph Steiner’s H20, Joseph Cornell’s ROSE HOBART

Week 8: introduction to Jack Smith

November 21 Ponrepo screening

Ken Jacobs BLOND COBRA (25)

Ron Rice CHUMLUM (23)

Jack Smith FLAMING CREATURES (43))

Week 9: The Beats

Screenings of Harry Smith EARLY ABSTRACTIONS, Alfred Leslie LAST CLEAN SHIRT, Christopher MacLaine THE END, William Burroughs TOWERS OPEN FIRE, Bruce Conner A MOVIE, COSMIC RAY, BREAKAWAY & REPORT, Andy Warhol VINYL

Week 10: introduction to the diary film

December 5 Ponrepo screening

Marie Menken LIGHTS (7)

Peter Hutton IMAGES OF ASIAN MUSIC (29)

Warren Sonbert CARRIAGE TRADE (60)

Week 11: recent work

Screenings of works by Leslie Thornton, Abby Child, Lewis Klahr, Peggy Ahwesh, & others.

Week 12:

January 9 Ponrepo screening

Stan Brakhage SCENES FROM UNDER CHILDHOOD (136)

Week 13: the influence of video

Screenings include Scott Bartlett’s OFF/ON, FLO ROUNDS CORNER & other digital works by Ken Jacobs, THE ZAPRUDER FILM: A CONSENSUAL HALUCINATION by Keith Sanborn, works by Joe Gibbons &Vincent Grenier, & selections from EMMAS DILEMMA by Henry Hills.