Course details

Name: ENFL - 490

Title: SPECIAL TOPICS: AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE FILM

Section: 02

Semester: Spring - 2011

Credits: 3

Description:
Think of the movies and most people think of Hollywood, from its classical era when the famous studios dominated production to the contemporary scene of corporate-independents and globalization. But there has always been another type of filmmaking, less concerned with profits, more likely to be made by a single artist or small crew, a movie-making devoted to experimenting with film form, challenging conventions and redefining what is cinema. This is the film avant-garde and ENFL 490/Special Topics in the spring semester will survey the history of experimental film in the American context. From amateur filmmakers in the pre-WWII era (there were 30,000 of them in 1928) and their film clubs (there were over 100 that year) to the post-war flowering of the avant-garde breaking free of European models, to the underground film of the 1960s to the structuralist filmmakers of the 1970s, to contemporary experiments of today, this course will study some of the most provocative and challenging films to emerge from beyond the commercial industry. Filmmakers to be screened include Jay Leyda, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, Bruce Conner, and Lewis Klahr, among many others.

Schedule: Thursday From 2:30 pm To 5:15 pm

Graduation requirements:

• Genre Study (Film)
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Teaching Faculty: Simon Arthur (simona)

Is course canceled: No