Pramaggiore, experimental cinema, fall 09 p.9
experimental film
Prelude, Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1961)
fall 2009
th 6-10pm
dr. maria pramaggiore
office: tompkins 233
email:
office hours: H 3-5 pm and by appointment; email is the best way to contact me outside of class meetings or office hours.
film lab hours (g116 tompkins): M 3-7; W 10-2; H 3-5
Students are responsible for making up missed film screenings. Some (but not all) films are available in the film lab and at DH Hill Library at the main circulation desk.
this course
This course examines the practice of experimental cinema from its roots in the 1920s to contemporary manifestations in digital media. American avant garde film, which will be our primary but not our exclusive focus, raises intriguing questions about the way film can function not only as a form of mass entertainment, but also as a mode of personal exploration, as a platform for subcultural expression and political intervention, and as an occasion for aesthetic and technological innovation.
This course asks what it means to develop and to express an avant garde sensibility--a radically different way of looking at art, technology, and experience. Through lectures, discussion, film screenings and readings, we will engage with several subgenres of avant garde cinema (surrealist and trance films, abstract films, compilation films, and structural films) and encounter captivating figures such as Kenneth Anger, Bruce Connor, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Su Friedrich, Marie Menken, Jonas Mekas, Jack Smith, Michael Snow, Chick Strand, and Andy Warhol.
course texts
Hollis Frampton (nostalgia) by Rachel Moore—available at NCSU bookstore and on line
Other required readings are available on E-RES (you must join the class ENG 492-002) or by following the links in the syllabus.
useful websites
ubuweb (film)
jonas mekas.com
anthology film archives
canyon cinema
filmmakers’ cooperative
assignments/evaluation
class participation: 20 points (this may include pop quizzes)
screening journal: 20 points
city symphony project (due oct 15): 15 points
paper (due nov 12): 20 points
final exam: 25 points
grad students: you will write a research paper of approximately 25 pages and give a brief class presentation on December 3, in place of the screening journal and paper. The paper and oral presentation will be worth 30 and 10 points, respectively.
Final grade will be determined by totaling all points earned on assignments, using the following scale: A+=97-100, A=93-96, A-=90-92, B+=87-89, B=83-86, B-=80-82, C+=77-79, C=73-76, C-=70-72, D+=67-69, D=63-66, D-=60-62, F= below 60.
description of assignments
screening journal
Discuss at least one film from each class meeting in your screening journal, devoting 250-500 words to each film (the equivalent of 1-2 typed, double spaced pages). Keep up with the entries and bring journals to class every week. I will collect them at several points throughout the term.
The journal should not consist of undigested personal responses to the films, but rather, a distillation of ideas, class discussion, and your research. They may include poems, drawings, collage, or other creative approaches to the films as well. My suggestion is that you write in your journal on Friday or Saturday after class on Thursday night—permitting yourself some time to assimilate the class, but not allowing too much time to pass.
city symphony project (due oct 15; 15 points)
Choose one of the following:
1. Participate in the Global Remake of Man With the Movie Camera by uploading a shot to the website and writing a 2-3 page paper explaining your creative decisions (why did you choose the shot you did? what is the relationship between your submission and the original image, and the other images of that shot on the website?)
2. Create a Raleigh city symphony film (with or without sound) of no more than 1 minute (you may use any technology at your disposal). Upload it to You Tube and send the link to me.
3. Working exclusively with found objects, produce a visual or sculptural collage that represents and/or comments on Raleigh’s urban life.
paper (due nov 12; 20 points)
6-8 pages; assignment sheet with paper topics will be distributed.
class meeting schedule
with so many short films and the prospect of lively, unpredictable discussions, this schedule is subject to revision--coming to class is the best way to keep up!
aug 20 beyond narrative form: “experimental” impulses in cinema
Abstraction and Musicality: “synaesthesia”
Film No. 3: Interwoven (1947-49 Harry Smith; 3 min)
Surreal Animation
Hamfat Asar (1965 Lawrence Jordan; 13 min)
Found Footage
Eden End (2008 Enrique Baixeras; 10 min)
read for aug 27:
1. Fred Camper’s "Defining Avant Garde Cinema"
2. Alexander Graf’s “Paris-Berlin-Moscow: On the montage aesthetic in the 1920s City Symphony” (2007) (E-RES)
optional:
3. Stavros Alifragkis and François Penz, “Spatial dialectics: montage and spatially organized narrative in stories without human leads,” Digital Creativity (2006)(E-RES)
aug 27 site seeing: Vertov’s city symphony, then and now
Man with the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov 1929; 68 min)
Perry Bard's Global Remake Project
Vertov
for sep 3
read Juan Suarez, “City Space, Technology, Modern Culture,” Journal of American Studies vol. 36 (2002)(E-RES)
sep 3 the modern city, the first american avant garde and beyond
Manhatta (Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand 1921; 11 min)
Bronx Morning (Jay Leyda 1931; 11 min)
Bridges Go Round (Shirley Clarke 1958; 4 min)
Go Go Go (Marie Menken 1962-4; 11 min)
Necrology (Standish Lawder 1969-70; 11 min)
for sep 10
1. read Ramona Fotiade’s “From Ready Made to Moving Image” (E-RES)
2. screen Chien Andalou/Andalusian Dog (Dali/Bunuel 1927), if you have not already (available in the DH Hill Library and in the film lab)
sep 10 dada, surrealism, and the european avant garde
Rhythmus 21 (Hans Richter 1923; 3 min)
Anemic Cinema (Marcel Duchamp 1926; 6 min)
Retour À la Raison (Man Ray 1923; 2 min) and excerpts
Ballet Mechanique—(Fernand Léger, with Dudley Murphy and Man Ray 1924; 12 min)
Entr’acte (René Clair 1924; 22 min)
Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau 1930)—excerpts
Man Ray, rayograph
for sep 17
1. see Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren 1943) if you have not seen it (available in DH Hill and film lab)
2. read Deren’s “Cinematography: The Creative Use of Reality” (E-RES)
3. read excerpt from Stan Brakhage: filmmaker (E-RES)
sep 17 poetic/personal/diary films
Maya Deren selections
Stan Brakhage selections
Notes on the Circus (Jonas Mekas 1966; 12 min)
Jonas Mekas website
Little Stabs at Happiness (Ken Jacobs 1960; 15 min)
for sep 24
read “Fallout: Some Notes on the Films of Bruce Conner” by William Moritz and Beverly O’Neill, Film Quarterly 31.4
sep 24 experimental history: imagining apocalypse
Crossroads (Bruce Conner 1976; 30 min)
The End (Christopher MacLaine, 1953; 34 min)
Crossroads (Bruce Conner 1976)
for oct 1
1. Janet Staiger “Finding Community in the Early 1960s: Underground Cinema and Sexual Politics” (Physical Reserve—1 day--at DH HILL)
2. see Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963; 42 min) at ubuweb if you have not already seen it
3. Read Taylor Mead, “The Movies Are a Revolution,” Film Culture 29 (1963)
oct 1 underground film: New York revisited
Fireworks (Kenneth Anger 1947; 20 min)
Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger 1964; 28 min)
Chumlum (Ron Rice, 1964; 23 min)
“Foundation for the Invention and Creation of Absurd Movies” (Rice)
Fuses (Carolee Schneeman, 1965; 18 min)
for oct 15
1. read brief definition of structural film
2. watch paul sharits films on ubu
Wrist Trick (Paul Sharits 1965; 1 min)
Unrolling Incident (Paul Sharits 1965; 1 min)
oct 8—no class, fall break
oct 15 structural film
Arnulf Rainer (Peter Kubelka 1960; 7 min)
Wavelength (Michael Snow 1967; 45 min)
WVLNT (Michael Snow 2003; 15 min)
**creative project due**
for oct 22
1. read “Su Friedrich” by Janet Curtin (E-RES)
2. Review of "Sink or Swim" by Fred Camper
oct 22 women’s avant garde cinema
Odds and Ends (Jane Conger Belson Shimane 1959; 4 min)
Four (Yoko Ono 1966; 6 min): Ono's films on Ubu web
Mayhem (Abigail Child 1987; 20 min): Child’s films on Ubu Web
Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich 1991; 48 min)
Four (Yoko Ono 1966)
for oct 29
read Hollis Frampton (nostalgia) by Rachel Moore
oct 29 hollis frampton, filmmaker/philosopher
Nostalgia (Hollis Frampton 1971; 36 min)
Zorn’s Lemma (Hollis Frampton 1970; 60 min)—FMC 16mm
for nov 5
watch Warhol’s Cinema: A Mirror for the Sixties (1989; 64 min)
nov 5 andy warhol and other experimental nonfiction modes
Mario Banana (No. 1) (Andy Warhol, 1964; 4 min); and tba
Note to Pati (Saul Levine 1969; 7 min)
Coffee Colored Children (Ngozi Onwurah, 1988; 15 min)
Crow Film (Edward Davee 2002; 10 min)
for nov 12:
1. read Michael Zyrd “Found Footage Film as Discursive Metahistory” (E-RES)
2. read Interview with Craig Baldwin from Senses of Cinema
nov 12 the aesthetics and politics of found footage
Unreal Newsreels and Rose Hobart (Joseph Cornell 1920s-30s)
Tribulation 99 (Craig Baldwin 1991 48 min)
**paper due**
nov 19 deconstructing the image
Decasia (Bill Morrison 2002; 70 min)
Phil Solomon, excerpts
Decasia (Bill Morrison 2002)
nov 26—no class, Thanksgiving break
dec 3
graduate student presentations
review
final exam:
Thursday, December 10, 6-9 pm
additional information and course policies
late assignments
. . . may be accepted, with a penalty of at least one point per day. It is always advisable to contact the instructor BEFORE the due date to discuss an extension.
academic (dis)honesty
The sanctions for plagiarism or cheating of any kind in this course are a failing grade for the course and the reporting of the incident to the Student Conduct office.
NCSU university policies state, “plagiarism and cheating are attacks on the very foundation of academic life, and cannot be tolerated within universities” (NCSU Code of Student Conduct, part 7.4).
To avoid any misunderstandings, ask your instructor about appropriate procedures for citing the work of others and familiarize yourself with the definition of academic dishonesty at the university’s Code of Student conduct.
attendance
Come to class to learn from, and also to contribute to the learning of, your peers and your instructor! Take advantage of this unique opportunity to engage in lively and civil discussions about art and ideas—in other words, about subjects you are presumably interested in or you would not be in this course.
Students are required to attend every class meeting, every discussion, and every film screening. This class meets only once a week; therefore more than one absence will adversely affect the class participation grade. Students who encounter emergencies or illnesses that prevent class attendance for several weeks should contact the instructor to discuss the advisability of remaining in the course.
Students are responsible for locating and screening any films missed. I advise students who miss class to borrow notes from fellow students.
for students with disabilities
Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with verifiable disabilities. In order to take advantage of available accommodations, students must register with Disability Services for Students at 1900 Student Health Center, Campus Box 7509, 515-7653. For more information on NC State's policy on working with students with disabilities, please see the Academic Regulations for Accommodations for Students with Disabilities.
course evaluations
Online class evaluations will be available for students to complete during the last 2 weeks of the term: 8 a.m. November 19 through 8 a.m. December 9.
Students will receive an email message directing them to a website where they can login using their Unity ID and complete evaluations. All evaluations are confidential; instructors will not know how any one student responded to any question, and students will not know the ratings for any instructors.
Evaluation website: https://classeval.ncsu.edu/
Student help desk :
More information about ClassEval: http://www.ncsu.edu/UPA/classeval/
Pramaggiore, experimental cinema, fall 09