HNAR-335: Avant-Garde Film 2

Avant-Garde Film 2 continues the film screenings and readings of Avant-Garde Film 1, however the first is not a prerequisite for this course. In one course it is not possible to show the entirety of avant-garde film history, but only a slender chunk of it, like a core sample taken from a tree commonly thought to be dead. Unfortunately, history (in the guise of the market economy's triumph) has not been very kind to the avant-garde canon: films have fallen out of distribution; texts have gone out of print; whole careers have disappeared. In spite of these depredations, idealists still believe that alternative film practices have not yet exhausted themselves. Avant-Garde Film's screenings and readings may even suggest possible strategies for an independent cinema that conceives of itself as more than just a fawning poor relation of Hollywood. Attendance is particularly important in this class, as many of the films are not available on DVD.