American Avantgarde Cinema 1

Subject guarantor:

Henry Lyman HILLS

Name of lecturer(s):

Henry Lyman HILLS

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

Introduce top American avant-garde films to students, broadening their film knowledge.

Mode of study:

Seminars, screenings, discussion

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

None

Recommended optional programme components:

None

Course contents:

Viewing the dominance of narrative in film and the consequent hegemony of Hollywood as an historical anomaly owing to the economics of film production (an issue from the pre-digital past, now that filmmaking, like record collecting, has become essentially free), we will explore fringe work as an alternative reality which contains seeds of a positive future vision for moving imagery, i.e., avant-garde film will be viewed as a model of consciousness seeking expansion. 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. We will view as many films as possible, films that bounce off each other in different ways. Availability on DVD is redefining film history, and such access plays a major role in the structure of this course. Therefore outside screenings of films projected on film have been arranged and are an important component of this course.

Monday, 18 Feb: 10 am - 6 pm in Room 2

Tuesday, 19 Feb: 10 am - 1 pm in Room 2, 3 pm - 6 pm in Screening Room

Wednesday, 20 Feb: 10 am - 1 pm in Room 3, 8 pm PONREPO screening

Course American Avantgarde Cinema 1 contains following compulsory classes:

class 1:

Early Cinema and It?s Influence

Ken Jacobs HANKY PANKY

NYMPH

CAPITALISM:SLAVERY

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson EARLIEST EDISON FILMS

DICKSON EXPERIMENTAL SOUND FILM

Andy Warhol BLOW JOB

Edwin S. Porter WHAT HAPPENED ON 23RD STREET

PAN AMERICAN EXPOSITION AT NIGHT

DREAM OF A RAREBIT FIEND

AN AMERICAN BEAUTY

Billy Bitzer INTERIOR NEW YORK SUBWAY

IMPOSSIBLE CONVICTS

Fredrick Armitage DEMOLISHING THE STAR THEATRE

SEEING NEW YORK BY YACHT DOWN THE HUDSON

Ken Jacobs NEW YORK STREET TROLLEYS (Nervous System demo)

class 2:

20?s & 30?s

Man Ray LE RETOUR A LA RAISON

EMAK BAKIA

(Fernand Léger &) Dudley Murphy BALLET MÉCANIQUE (Antheil track)

Ralph Steiner H2O

Joseph Cornell ROSE HOBART

COTILLION

BY NIGHT WITH TORCH AND SPEAR

Busby Berkeley BY A WATERFALL

class 3:

40's & 50's

Maya Deren MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON

AT LAND

CHOREOGRAPHY FOR CAMERA

RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME

MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE

Helen Levitt IN THE STREETS

Rudy Burckhardt UNDER BROOKLYN BRIDGE

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

class 4:

Stan Brakhage

WAY TO THE SHADOW GARDEN

THE WONDER RING

WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING

MOTHLIGHT

SCENES FROM UNDER CHILDHOOD 1

RIDDLE OF LUMEN

THE DANTE QUARTET

DELICACIES OF MOLTEN HORROR SYNAPSE

COMINGLED CONTAINERS

CHINESE SERIES

class 5:

Marie Menken GLIMPSE OF THE GARDEN

ARABESQUE FOR KENNETH ANGER

EYE MUSIC IN RED MAJOR

GO! GO! GO!

Kenneth Anger INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME

SCORPIO RISING

class 6:

Wednesday evening, 8 pm:

Deborah Stratman in person at Ponrepo presenting work on 16mm (http://www.pythagorasfilm.com/)

Kino Ponrepo

Bartolomějská 11

100 00 Praha 1

Recommended or required reading:

Recommended films

+

screening at Skolska 28 Gallery, Thursday, 21 Feb, 8 pm

Deborah Stratman in person presenting adifferent program of work on video

Planned learning activities and teaching methods:

Assessment methods and criteria:

Assignment: 6 credits for 100% participation (Wednesday Ponrepo screening included!) + journal with commentary (3 pages)

As the primary focus of this class is analysis based on the direct experience of projected works, attendance is mandatory. Students must keep a JOURNAL of experimental films they see, both in class and outside. This should include sufficient information to convince me that you have seen the films, plus commentary indicating that some of what you have seen has given you some thoughts. Plagiarism from the internet is not acceptable and will result in failure and ridicule. These are due (e-mail to jitka.hejtmanova@famu.cz) by March 1, 2013. If you use Windows, please send as PDF file.

Course web page:

Note:

HENRY HILLS (http://www.henryhills.com/)

a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow, has been making dense, intensely rhythmic experimental films since 1975. Owing to a

personal involvement in film scenes in San Francisco in the 70´s & 80´s & in New York from the 80´s to the present, and his activities as a curator, he has a personal relationship with almost all the major figures in the Experimental Film movement. He is intimate with the evolving concerns and thus can present a first-hand history, both anecdotal and theoretical. His own work, which seeks abstraction within sharply-focused naturalistic imagery, the eternal within the temporal, and the ethereal within the mundane, promotes an active ttentiveness through a relentlessly concentrated montage. He brings a long association with various other art scenes as well, including „language“ poetry, the „downtown“ mprovised music scene, and post-Judson postmodern dance. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, was included in the Whitney Museum „The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-2000“ program, and screened in last year´s New York and San Francisco film festivals. A DVD of his 5 selected 16mm films is available on Tzadik (http://www.tzadik.com/) and his feature-length theater document JOHN ZORN/RICHARD FOREMAN - ASTRONOME - A NIGHT AT THE OPERA has just been released (also Tzadik). He is currently working on a multi-screen HD installation based on footage shot on his train commute between Vienna and Prague.

Further information:

This course is an elective for all students of this school

Schedule for winter semester 2012/2013:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2012/2013:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Erasmus (optional subject)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Directing (qualification subject)