This course is a survey of the history and aesthetics of the international film Avant-Garde from the 1920s to the present. The course explores the development of a range of experimental film forms and practices, situating them in relation to the larger artistic, social, and intellectual contexts in which they arise. We look at the ways artists have not only created new film languages in order to express their unique ideas and vision, but also how they inverted alternative modes of production, distribution, and exhibition for their work. We examine the major formal modes of Avant-Garde cinema, moving between historical and current developments.

“Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all!”–Andre Breton This class approaches the idea of Avant-Garde Cinema as filmmaking without a safety net; a risk taking approach to creative expression and a philosophical position that emphasizes Cinema as exploration and invention rather than as product and professional mastery. The course studies the rich and varied history of films made by visual artists who are experimenting with the poetic, perceptual and material elements of film, video, and other expanded forms of moving image media. We look at the ways film and media artists have created new cinematic forms that challenge the dominant mainstream cinema and its often narrow conceptions of story and representation—especially of race, gender and sexuality in order to more freely express their own visions and place in the world. Through weekly screenings, the reading of word texts, talking to visiting artists, discussing and writing about the films as well as making short creative artworks, we move back and forth between historical and contemporary practices, sampling from the garden of underground, personal, poetic, queer, surrealist cinemas, feminist, and activist video art, found films, love films and blow-your-mind-films!

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills