Experimental film, or "experimental cinema," is a term that describes a range of filmmaking styles that are generally quite different from, and often opposed to, the practices of mainstream commercial and documentary filmmaking. "Avant-garde" is also used to describe this work, and "underground" has been used in the past, though it has also had other connotations. While "experimental" covers a wide range of practice, an "experimental film" is often characterized by the absence of linear narrative, the use of various abstracting techniques (out of focus, painting or scratching on film, rapid editing), the use of asynchronous (non-diegetic) sound or even the absence of any sound track. The goal is often to place the viewer in a more active and more thoughtful relationship to the film. At least through the 1960s, and to some extent after, many experimental films took an oppositional stance toward mainstream culture. Most such films are made on very low budgets, self-financed or financed through small grants, with a minimal crew or, quite often, a crew of only one person, the filmmaker. It has been argued that much experimental film is no longer in fact "experimental," but has in fact become a film genre and that many of its more typical features - such as a non-narrative, impressionistic or poetic approaches to the film's construction - define what is generally understood to be "experimental". A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... The first use of the term underground film occurs in a 1957 essay by American film critic Manny Farber, Underground Films. ... According to Gerald Prince in A Dictionary of Narratology, diegesis is (1) The (fictional) world in which the situations and events narrated occur; (2) Telling, recounting, as opposed to showing, enacting. ... In film theory, genre refers to the primary method of film categorization. ...

History

The European avant-garde

Two conditions made Europe in the 1920s ready for the emergence of experimental film. First, the cinema matured as a medium, and highbrow resistance to the mass entertainment began to wane. Second, avant-garde movements in the visual arts flourished. The Dadaists and Surrealists in particular took to cinema. René Clair's Entr'acte took madcap comedy into nonsequitur, and artists Hans Richter, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp, Germaine Dulac and Viking Eggeling all contributed Dadaist/Surrealist shorts. The most famous experimental film is generally considered to be Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's Un chien andalou. Hans Richter's animated shorts and Len Lye's G.P.O films would be excellent examples of more abstract European avant-garde films. DaDa is a concept album by Alice Cooper, released in 1983. ... Max Ernst. ... René Clair (November 11, 1898 – March 15, 1981) was a French filmmaker. ... Entracte is French for between the acts. It can have the meaning of a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonym to intermission, but is more often used to indicate that part of a theatre production that is performed between acts as an intermezzo or interlude. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker. ... Marcel Duchamp (pronounced ) (July 28, 1887 – October 2, 1968) was a French artist (he became an American citizen in 1955) whose work and ideas had considerable influence on the development of post-World War II Western art, and whose advice to modern art collectors helped shape the tastes of the... Germaine Dulac, born 17 November 1882 in Amiens, France, died 20 July 1942, was a French film director and early film theorist. ... Viking Eggeling, born October 21, 1880, died May 19, 1925, was a Swedish artist and filmmaker. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), was a Spanish surrealist painter of Catalan descent born in Figueres, Catalonia (Spain). ... Un Chien Andalou (English: An Andalusian Dog) is a 16-minute[1] surrealist film made in France in 1928 by Spanish writer/directors Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, and released in 1929 in Paris. ... Len Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye (July 5, 1901 - May 15, 1980), was a New Zealand sculptor, artist, writer and film-maker. ...

Working in France, another group of filmmakers also financed films through patronage and distributed them through cine-clubs, yet they were narrative films not tied to an avant-garde school. Film scholar David Bordwell has dubbed these French Impressionists, and included Abel Gance, Jean Epstein, Marcel L'Herbier and Dimitri Kirsanov. These films combines narrative experimentation, rhythmic editing and camerawork, and an emphasis on character subjectivity. David Bordwell is a film scholar. ... Abel Gance (October 25, 1889 - November 10, 1981) was a world-renowned French film director, producer, writer, actor and editor. ... Jean Epstein, born 25 March 1897, died 3 April 1953, Paris, France, was a film director and early film theoretician. ... Marcel LHerbier Marcel LHerbier, Légion dhonneur (April 23, 1888 or 1890 – November 26, 1979) was a French writer, producer and director. ...

In 1950, the Lettrists avant-garde movement in France, caused riots at the Cannes Film Festival, when Isidore Isou's "Treatise on Slime and Eternity" was screened. After their criticism of Charlie Chaplin there was a split within the movement, the Ultra-Lettrists continued to cause disruptions when they announced the death of cinema and showed their new hypergraphical techniques. The most notorious film of which is Guy Debord's "Howlings in favor of de Sade " (Hurlements en Faveur de Sade) from 1952. The Lettrist International (LI) was the first breakaway group from Isidore Isous Lettrist Movement (LM). ... The Cannes Film Festival (French: le Festival de Cannes), founded in 1939, is one of the worlds oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals. ... Isidore Isou (born Ioan-Isidor Goldstein, 1925, in Botoşani) is a Romanian-French Jewish poet, film critic, visual artist and founder of Lettrisme. ... Charles Chaplin redirects here. ... This section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Guy Ernest Debord (December 28, 1931, in Paris – November 30, 1994, in Champot) was a writer, film maker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International (SI). ...

The Soviet filmmakers, too, found a counterpart to modernist painting and photography in their theories of montage. The films of Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov, Alexander Dovzhenko and Vsevolod Pudovkin were instrumental in providing an alternate model from that offered by classical Hollywood. While not experimental films per se, they contributed to the film language of the avant-garde. Soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing (montage is French for putting together). Although Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s disagreed about how exactly to view montage, Sergei Eisenstein marked a note of accord in A Dialectic Approach to Film Form when... Dziga Vertov Dziga (Dzyga) Vertov (Russian: , Ukrainian: ) January 2, 1896–February 12, 1954) was a Russian pioneer documentary film and newsreel director. ... Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн) (January 23, 1898 – February 11, 1948) was a revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and Oktober. ... Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov (1899 - 1970) was a Russian filmmaker known for his work on film editing and the impact it has on the viewers. ... Alexander Dovzhenko was a Soviet filmmaker. ... Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (Russian: ) (February 16, 1893–June 20, 1953) was a Russian film director who developed influential theories of montage. ... Classical Hollywood cinema designates both a visual and sound style for making motion pictures and a mode of production that arose in the Los Angeles film industry of the 1910s and 1920s. ...

The postwar American avant-garde

The U.S. had some avant-garde filmmakers before World War II, but much pre-war experimental film culture consisted of artists working in isolation. In Rochester, New York, James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber directed The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) and Lot in Sodom (1933). Harry Smith, Mary Ellen Bute, artist Joseph Cornell, and painter Emlyn Etting (1905-1993) made early masterpieces in the 1930s, and Christopher Young made several European-influenced experimental films. This article is about the city of Rochester in Monroe County. ... James Sibley Watson, Jr. ... The Fall of the House of Usher is a 1928 horror film based upon the work of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe. ... Lot in Sodom is a 1933 short silent experimental film, based on the Biblical tale of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. ... Cover of Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith -- Selected Interviews; Singh, Rani, editor Seattle: Elbow/Cityful Press, 1999. ... Mary Ellen Bute (November 21, 1906 – October 17, 1983) was a pioneer film animator who did much of her work in visual music. ... A photograph of Joseph Cornell Joseph Cornell Untitled (Dieppe) c. ...

In 1946, the "Art in Cinema" film series began under the direction of Frank Stauffacher at the San Francisco Museum of Art (now the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which screened a number of significant experimental films. Frank Stauffacher (1917 - 24 July 1955, San Francisco, California) was an experimental filmmaker best known for directing the cinema series Art in Cinema at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from 1946 to 1954. ... San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2004). ...

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid is considered to be one of the first important American experimental films. It provided a model for self-financed 16mm production and distribution, one that was soon picked up by Cinema 16 and other film societies. Just as importantly, it established an aesthetic model of what experimental cinema could do. Meshes had a dream-like feel that hearkened to Jean Cocteau and the Surrealists, but equally seemed personal, new and American. Early works by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, Gregory Markopoulos, Willard Maas, Marie Menken, Curtis Harrington and Sidney Peterson followed in a similar vein. Significantly, many of these filmmakers were the first students from the pioneering university film programs established in Los Angeles and New York. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a short experimental film directed by husband and wife team, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. ... Maya Deren Maya Deren (April 29, 1917 – October 13, 1961), born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s. ... Alexandr Hackenschmied (17 December 1907, Linz - 26 July 2004, New York City) was a leading avant-garde photographer and filmmaker in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars. ... A film society is a membership club where people can watch Private screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream cinemas. ... Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born February 3, 1927 in Santa Monica, California as Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer) is an underground avant-garde film-maker and author. ... Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) Stan Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American non-narrative filmmaker. ... Shirley Clarke (* 2 October 1919, New York City - 23 September 1997, Boston) was a major american filmmaker. ... Gregory Markopoulos (March 12, 1928 - November 12, 1992) was an American experimental filmmaker. ... Willard Maas was an American experimental filmmaker. ... Marie Menken (1909-1970) was an experimental filmmaker, actress, painter, and New York socialite who appeared in several Andy Warhol films. ... Curtis Harrington (born 1928) is an American filmmaker who started his career with experimental films and than moved on to horror films. ... Title card from The Petrified Dog Sidney Peterson (November 15, 1905 - April 24, 2000) was an American author, artist, and noted avant-garde filmmaker. ...

They set up "alternative film programs" at Black Mountain College (now defunct) and the San Francisco Art Institute. Arthur Penn taught at Black Mountain College, which points out the popular misconception in both the art world and Hollywood that the avant-garde and the commercial never meet. Another challenge to that misconception is the fact that late in life, after each's Hollywood careers had ended, both Nicholas Ray and King Vidor made avant-garde films. This article is in need of attention. ... Founded in 1871, the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) is one of the U.S.’s older and more prestigious schools of higher education in contemporary art. ... Arthur Penn (born September 27, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a film director of thoughtful films that dont always find an audience. ... Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle) (August 7, 1911–June 16, 1979) was an American film director. ... King Vidor King Wallis Vidor (February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director. ...

The New American Cinema and Structural-Materialism

The film society and self-financing model continued over the next two decades, but by the early 1960s, a different outlook became perceptible in the work of American avant-garde filmmakers. As P. Adams Sitney has pointed out, in the work of Stan Brakhage and other American experimentalists of early period, film is used to express the individual consciousness of the maker, a cinematic equivalent of the first person in literature. Brakhage's Dog Star Man exemplified a shift from personal confessional to abstraction, and also evidenced a rejection of American mass culture of the time. On the other hand, Kenneth Anger added a rock sound track to his Scorpio Rising in what is sometimes said to be an anticipation of music videos, and included some camp commentary on Hollywood mythology. Jack Smith and Andy Warhol incorporated camp elements into their work, and Sitney posited Warhol's connection to structural film. P. Adams Sitney (born August 9, 1944 in New Haven, Connecticut)[1], is an historian of American avant-garde cinema. ... Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) Stan Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American non-narrative filmmaker. ... Stan Brakhage (January 14, 1933 - March 9, 2003) was an American filmmaker. ... Dog Star Man is a series of short dramatic films, all directed by Stan Brakhage: Prelude: Dog Star Man {1961) Dog Star Man: Part I (1962) Dog Star Man: Part II (1963) Dog Star Man: Part III (1964) (listed in the National Film Registry) Dog Star Man: Part IV (1964... Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born February 3, 1927 in Santa Monica, California as Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer) is an underground avant-garde film-maker and author. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... For other persons named Jack Smith, see Jack Smith (disambiguation). ... Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987), better known as Andy Warhol, was an American artist who was a central figure in the movement known as Pop art. ...

Some avant-garde filmmakers moved further away from narrative. Whereas the New American Cinema was marked by an oblique take on narrative, one based on abstraction, camp and minimalism, Structural-Materialist filmmakers like Hollis Frampton and Michael Snow created a highly formalist cinema that foregrounded the medium itself: the frame, projection, and most importantly time . It has sometimes been argued that by breaking film down into bare components, they sought to create an anti-illusionist cinema, but this is an oversimplifaction: Frampton's late works, for example, owe a huge debt to the photography of Edward Weston, Paul Strand, and others, and in fact celebrate illusion. Further, while many filmmakers began making rather academic "structural films" following the publication of P. Adams Sitney's landmark article in Film Culture in the late 1960s, most or possibly all of the filmakers he named in his article objected to the term. Hollis Frampton (1936-1984) was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, and a pioneer of digital art. ... Interior of the Eaton Centre showing one of Michael Snow and Joyce Wielands best known sculptures, called Flightstop, which depict Canada Geese in flight. ... The term formalist can have many applications: The Chambers 1994 edition Dictionary indicates a pejorative quality, a person having an exaggerated regard to rules or established usages. In the philosophy of mathematics a formalist is a person who belongs to the school of formalism, a certain mathematical-philosophical doctrine which... Edward Weston (March 24, 1886 - January 1, 1958) was an American photographer, and co-founder of Group f/64. ... Wall Street, 1915 Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. ... P. Adams Sitney (born August 9, 1944 in New Haven, Connecticut)[1], is an historian of American avant-garde cinema. ... Film Culture is an American film magazine started by Adolfas Mekas his brother Jonas Mekas in 1954. ...

A review of the structuralists appeared in a 2000 edition of the art journal "Art In America". The review was devastating: cold, a little alienated perhaps a product of its time at the end of the Vietnam War, and in the midst of the Cold War, the work seemed dated, and perhaps too inward. it reflected a yearning for a simpler view of both communism and the U.S. The review examined the ways in which structural-formalism is actually quite a conservative philosophy of filmmaking. (Art In America.)

Main article: Structural film Structural film was an American experimental film movement. ...

The 1970s and time arts in the conceptual art landscape

Conceptual art in the 1970s pushed even further. Robert Smithson, a California-based artist, made several films about his earthworks and attached projects. Yoko Ono made conceptual films, the most notorious of which is Rape, which finds a woman and invades her life with cameras following her back to her apartment as she flees from the invasion. Around this time a new generation was entering the field, many of whom were students of the early avant-gardists. Leslie Thornton, Peggy Ahwesh, and Su Friedrich expanded upon the work of the structuralists, incorporating a broader range of content while maintaining a self-reflexive form. Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs (1965) Conceptual art is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. ... Smithsons Spiral Jetty set in Great Salt Lake, Utah. ... Earthworks can refer to: Civil engineering earthworks based on moving massive quantites of soil; The Earthworks audio equipment company; The novel Earthworks by Brian Aldiss; The earthworks style of art. ... Yoko Ono Lennon (小野 洋子 Ono Yōko), born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese-American artist and musician. ...

Feminist avant-garde and other political offshoots

Laura Mulvey's writing and filmmaking launched a flourishing of feminist filmmaking based on the idea that conventional Hollywood narrative reinforced gender norms and a patriarchal gaze. Their response was to resist narrative in a way to show its fissures and inconsistencies. Chantal Akerman and Sally Potter are just two of the leading feminist filmmakers working in this mode in the 1970s. Video art emerged as a medium in this period, and feminists like Martha Rosler and Cecelia Condit took full advantage of it. In the 1980s feminist, gay and other political experimental work continued, with filmmakers like Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Tracy Moffatt, Sadie Benning, Moira Sullivan and Isaac Julien among others finding experimental format condusive to their questions about identity politics. Laura Mulvey (born August 15, 1941) is a British feminist film theorist. ... Chantal Akerman (born June 6, 1950) is a Belgian filmmaker and director based in Paris, who is known for her deconstructive style and pessimistic humor. ... Sally Potter (1949-) is a British film director and writer. ... Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and is comprised of video and/or audio data. ... Martha Rosler was born in Brooklyn, New York, where she now lives. ... Cecelia Condit is an internationally renowned filmmaker whose work focuses on the contrast between the everyday world and the realm of fairytales. ... Barbara Hammer is a lesbian filmmaker in the genre of experimental films. ... Su Friedrich (born December 12, 1954 in New Haven, Connecticut[1]) is an American avant-garde filmmaker. ... Sadie Benning is a video maker, visual artist, and musician. ... Moira Sullivan Moira Sullivan is an international lecturer, film critic, and experimental filmmaker based in Stockholm, San Francisco and Paris. ... Isaac Julien (born 1960 in London, England) is a filmmaker whose work often deals with black gay politics. ...

Experimental Film and the Academy

With very few exceptions, Curtis Harrington among them, the artists involved in these early movements remained outside of the mainstream commercial cinema and entertainment industry. A few taught occasionally, and then, starting in 1966, many became professors at universities such as the State Universities of New York, Bard College, California Institute of the Arts, the Massachusetts College of Art, and the San Francisco Art Institute. Many of the practitioners of experimental film do not in fact possess college degrees themselves, although their showings are prestigious. Some have questioned the status of the films made in the academy, but longtime film professors such as Stan Brakhage, Ken Jacobs, Ernie Gehr, and many others, continued to refine and expand their practice while teaching. On the other hand, the work of some more recent filmmaker-professors, as well as of some students, is, more than one critic has argued, rather derivative. The inclusion of experimental film in film courses and standard film histories, however, has made the work more widely known and more accessible. Curtis Harrington (born 1928) is an American filmmaker who started his career with experimental films and than moved on to horror films. ... Not to be confused with University of the State of New York. ... For other meanings of the word Bard, see Bard (disambiguation). ... Entrance to CalArts on McBean Parkway The California Institute of the Arts is commonly referred to as CalArts. ... MassArt, August 2005 Massachusetts College of Art (also known as MassArt) is a publicly funded college of visual and applied art, founded in 1873. ... Founded in 1871, the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) is one of the U.S.’s older and more prestigious schools of higher education in contemporary art. ... Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) Stan Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American non-narrative filmmaker. ... Ken Jacobs [1] is an American experimental filmmaker and director of Tom, Tom, The Pipers Son (1969, USA). ... Still frames from Serene Velocity Ernie Gehr (born 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American experimental filmmaker closely associated with the Structural film movement of the 1970s. ...

Exhibition

From 1947 to 1963, the New York-based Cinema 16 functioned as the primary exhibitor and distributor of experimental film in the United States. Under the leadership of Amos Vogel and Marcia Vogel, Cinema 16 flourished as a nonprofit membership society committed to the exhibition of documentary, avant-garde, scientific, educational, and performance films to ever-increasing audiences.

In 1962 Jonas Mekas and about 20 other film makers founded The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York City. Soon similar artists cooperatives were formed in other places: Canyon Cinema in San Francisco, the London Film-Maker's Co-op, and Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center. Jonas Mekas (1922 - ) is a Lithuanian filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called the godfather of American avant-garde cinema. ... The Film-Makers Cooperative aka. ... Canyon Cinema logo Canyon Cinema is a San Francisco based filmmakers cooperative specializing in the distribution of avant-garde and experimental film. ... The lux (symbol: lx) is the SI derived unit of illuminance or illumination. ...

Following the model of Cinema 16, experimental films have been exhibited mainly outside of commercial theaters in small film societies, microcinemas, museums, art galleries, archives and film festivals. A film society is a membership club where people can watch Private screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream cinemas. ... Microcinema has two meanings. ... A museum is a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, the tangible and intangible evidence of people and their environment. ... An art gallery or art museum is a space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art, and usually primarily paintings and sculpture. ... A film festival is a mostly annual festival showcasing films, usually of a recent date, sometimes with a focus on a specific genre (e. ...

Several other organizations in both Europe and North America helped develop experimental film. These included Anthology Film Archives, The Millennium Film Workshop, the British Film Institute in London, the National Film Board of Canada and the Collective for Living Cinema. The Anthology Film Archives Building, New York City. ... The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and... The National Film Board of Canada (usually National Film Board or NFB) is a Canadian public filmmaking organization established to produce and distribute films that inform Canadians and promote Canada around the world. ...

Some of the more popular film festivals, such as Ann Arbor Film Festival, the New York Film Festival's "Views from the Avant-Garde" Side Bar and the International Film Festival Rotterdam have in the past prominently featured experimental works. Many of these, other than the New York Film Festival, espouse that they no longer really support this type of filmmaking.^{[citation needed]} The Ann Arbor Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Ann Arbor in the U.S. state of Michigan. ... The New York Film Festival is the one of the United Statess most prestigious film festivals, first held in 1962 in New York. ... IFFR logo The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is one of the larger film festivals in Europe (arguably in the Big Five, alongside Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Locarno). ...

The New York Underground Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, the LA Freewaves Experimental Media Arts Festival, MIX NYC, Toronto's Images Festival and the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival still support this work and provide venues for films which would not otherwise be seen. There is some dispute about whether "underground" and "avant-garde" truly mean the same thing and if challenging non-traditional cinema and fine arts cinema are actually fundamentally related. Founded in 1994, the New York Underground Film Festival occurs each March at Anthology Film Archives in New York City. ... Founded in 1994, the Chicago Underground Film Festival (popularly known by the acronym CUFF) occurs each August at various venues in Chicago, Illinois in the USA. The festivals stated goal is to focus on the artistc, aesthetic and fun side of independent filmmaking. ... The LA Freewaves logo LA Freewaves is a Los Angeles based nonprofit organization that advocates for and exhibits uncensored independent new media from around the world. ... MIX NYC is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City and dedicated to queer experimental film. ... MIX NYC is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City and dedicated to queer experimental film. ...

Venues such as Anthology Film Archives in New York City, the San Francisco Cinematheque in San Francisco, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, CA, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris often include historically significant experimental films and contemporary works. Screening series no longer in New York that featured experimental work include The Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, Ocularis and The Collective for Living Cinema. This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is the visual arts center at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the largest university art museums in the United States, both in size and attendance. ... The Pompidou Centres famous external skeleton of service pipes. ... The Collective for Living Cinema was an outpost of avant-garde cinema located on White Street in Lower Manhattan. ...

Recently Pacific Film Archive eliminated their experimental Tuesday night program. The new curator (since 2000) of the Whitney stated in a 2001 interview on Charlie Rose that he believed it was the responsibility of the Anthology Film Archives to show the work because the work is essentially unsellable and the Whitney was not interested in "renting" video art and films. He went on to intimate that it would fall out of favor in coming biennials. (PBS/Charlie Rose).

Some distributors of experimental film today include Light Cone in Paris, Canyon Cinema in San Francisco, Canadian Filmmaker's Distribution Centre, The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York, and Lux in London. 16mm prints are still available through these organizations. Canyon Cinema logo Canyon Cinema is a San Francisco based filmmakers cooperative specializing in the distribution of avant-garde and experimental film. ... The Film-Makers Cooperative aka. ...

Influences on commercial media

Though experimental film is known to a relatively small number of practitioners, academics and connoisseurs, it has influenced and continues to influence cinematography, visual effects and editing. ‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ... Visual effects (or VFX for short) is the term given in which images or film frames are created and manipulated for film and video. ... Editing is the process of preparing language, images, or sound for presentation through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications. ...

The genre of music video can be seen as a commercialization of many techniques of experimental film. Title design and television advertising have also been influenced by experimental film. A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. ... From the earliest days of the medium, television has been used as a vehicle for advertising in some countries. ...

Many experimental filmmakers have also made feature films, and vice versa. Notable examples include Kathryn Bigelow, Curtis Harrington, Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman, Jean Cocteau, Isaac Julien, Sally Potter, David Lynch, Gus Van Sant and Luis Buñuel, although the degree to which their feature filmmaking takes on mainstream commercial esthetics differs widely. ARSE FACE!(born 27 November 1951) is an American film director. ... Curtis Harrington (born 1928) is an American filmmaker who started his career with experimental films and than moved on to horror films. ... Peter Greenaway, CBE (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh-born English [1] film director. ... Derek Jarman Derek Jarman (January 31, 1942 – February 19, 1994) was an English film director, stage designer, artist, and writer. ... Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker. ... Isaac Julien (born 1960 in London, England) is a filmmaker whose work often deals with black gay politics. ... Sally Potter (1949-) is a British film director and writer. ... For other persons named David Lynch, see David Lynch (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

See also

• List of film formats
• Microcinema
• New media art
• Performance art
• Underground film
• Video art
• Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941
• Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920's and 1930's

This is a list of film formats known to have been developed for shooting or viewing motion pictures since the development of such photographic technology towards the end of the 19th century. ... Microcinema has two meanings. ... New media art (also known as media art) is a generic term used to describe art related to, or created with, a technology invented or made widely available since the mid-20th Century. ... This article is about Performance art. ... The first use of the term underground film occurs in a 1957 essay by American film critic Manny Farber, Underground Films. ... Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and is comprised of video and/or audio data. ... Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s is a 2-disc, 6-hour DVD collection, released in August 2005 by Kino International which includes the following titles: Le Retour la raison (Return to Reason) (France, 1923) directed by Man Ray, 2 minutes Emak-Bakia (Leave Me...

Key critical texts

• A. L. Rees, A History of Experimental Film and Video (BFI, 1999).
• Malcolm Le Grice, Abstract Film and Beyond (MIT, 1977).
• Scott MacDonald, A Critical Cinema, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988, 1992 and 1998).
• Scott MacDonald, Avant-Garde Film: Motion Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
• James Peterson, Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order: Understanding the American Avant-Garde Cinema (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994).
• Jack Sargeant, Naked Lens: Beat Cinema (Creation, 1997).
• P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).
• Michael O’Pray, Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions (London: Wallflower Press, 2003).
• David Curtis (ed.), A Directory of British Film and Video Artists (Arts Council, 1999).
• David Curtis, Experimental Cinema - A Fifty Year Evolution. (London. Studio Vista. 1971)
• Wheeler Winston Dixon, The Exploding Eye: A Re-Visionary History of 1960s American Experimental Cinema. (Albany, NY. State University of New York Press, 1997)
• Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (eds.) Experimental Cinema - The Film Reader, (London: Routledge, 2002)
• Stan Brakhage. Film at Wit's End - Essays on American Independent Filmmakers. (Edinburgh, Polygon. 1989)
• Stan Brakhage. Essential Brakhage - Selected Writings on Filmmaking. (New York, McPherson. 2001)
• Parker Tyler, Underground Film: A Critical History. (New York: Grove Press, 1969)

Jack Sargeant (12 March 1968) is the author of several books on underground film, including: Deathtripping: The Cinema of Transgression, about Cinema of Transgression filmmakers such as Richard Kern and Nick Zedd, Naked Lens: Beat Cinema, and Cinema Contra Cinema, a collection of essays on alternative film. ... Wheeler Winston Dixon in 1969 Wheeler Winston Dixon was born March 12, 1950 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and is best known as a writer of film history, theory and criticism. ... Wheeler Winston Dixon in 1969 Wheeler Winston Dixon was born March 12, 1950 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and is best known as a writer of film history, theory and criticism. ... Cover of Fosters newest book, Class Passing. ... Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) Stan Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American non-narrative filmmaker. ... Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) Stan Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American non-narrative filmmaker. ... Harrison Parker Tyler, better known as Parker Tyler was born March 6, 1904, in New Orleans and died in 1974. ...

External links

• Hi-Beam: site for experimental cinema
• Ann Arbor Film Festival - Worlds Premier Experimental Film Fest
• Retrospective about X Films, an experimental production company founded in Spain in the sixties
• Anthology Film Archives
• Film-Makers Coop
• (German) (English) (Spanish) (French) Exprmntl.net: mediawiki website for experimental film and video art
• Cinovid, database for experimental film and video art
• San Francisco Cinematheque, showcasing experimental film and video since 1961
• Canyon Cinema, excellent source for experimental film rentals
• GreenCine primer on Experimental/Avant-Garde film
• British Artists' Film & Video Study Collection
• Flicker, which includes many resources on experimental film and links to the online discussion group FrameWorks
• Fred Camper's archive - articles on Stan Brakhage and other experimental film
• Avant-garde/Experimental Film Webring: some two dozen sites related to experimental film