Guest post by Alex Svensson. I first experienced the work of filmmaker David Gatten in 2010, at a weeknight screening of experimental short films held at Emerson College in Boston, MA. I remember the films that night were well suited for the bitter chill and absent sun of the city in February; though memory escapes with… Read more »
Tag: underground film
Complicating a Simpler Time: Lewis Klahr’s Collage Films
U.S. pop culture in the postwar era often presented a tidy world. TV moms vacuumed in heels and full skirts. Superman’s hair was always neat and presentable, despite flying around the city faster than a speeding bullet. And media preferred to avoid moral ambiguities. Collage animator Lewis Klahr draws from mid-twentieth-century pop culture –… Read more »
The Beginnings of the City Lights and Underground Film Series
Last semester I did a blog post on the Lilly Library’s David Bradley Collection, a resource used in the selection of titles screened in the City Lights Film Series at the IU Cinema. In my explorations of this wonderful collection I discovered that not only does it have a rich history, but so too… Read more »
Wash Out Your Eye
Since the earliest days of avant-garde cinema, experimental filmmakers have interrogated vision. They have defied or ignored norms of cinematography to create images that appear distorted, abstract, fantastical, or visually confusing. Historically, the reasons why individual filmmakers distort the image have been diverse. Some seek a “pure” cinema akin to classical music. Others feel… Read more »
In Favor of Imperfect Films
Cinematic detritus: bits of unused film from projects years ago, with scratches and dust, out of focus, overexposed. Found footage with faded color. The mic catching wind. A man singing to us as these disparate images flitter past. In 2006, experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas made forty films for his newly launched website in order to… Read more »
Experimental Film and Fostering Creativity: An Interview with Filmmaker and IU Student Russell Sheaffer
I’ve been a student here at IU for going on three years now, and I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Russell Sheaffer as a fellow Communication and Culture (CMCL) PhD student. It didn’t take long for me to discover how willing Russell is to help others experiment with media and explore interesting issues using it…. Read more »