Screenings

Un chien andalou, Luis Bunuel
Belle de jour, Luis Bunuel
Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene
Meshes in the Afternoon, Maya Deren
At Land, Maya Deren
Meditations on Violence, May Deren
Shadows, John Cassavetes
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes, Stan Brakhage
Window, Water, Baby, Moving, Stan Brakhage
Moth Light, Stan Brakhage
wavelength for those who don't have the time, Michael Snow
News From Home, Chantal Akerman
Birthday Suit, Lisa Steele
Joan + Steve, Monique Moumblow
100 videos, Steve Reinke
The Middle Distance, Yudi Sewraj
Letters from Home, Mike Hoolboom

and others...

Monday, September 3, 2007

Soviet Avant-garde

Our eyes see very little and very badly--so people dreamed up the microscope to let them see invisible phenomena; they invented the telescope...now they have perfected the cinema camera to penetrate more deeply into the visible world, to explore and to record visual phenomena so that what is happening now, which will have to be taken account of in the future, is not forgotten. Dziga Vertov, 1926

Dziga Vertov or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov

(Two of Twelve) Principles of Kinoki (Camera Eye)
The Cameraman uses many specific devices to 'attack' reality with his camera and to put facts together in a new structure; these devices help him to strive for a better world with more perceptive people.

Knowing that 'in life nothing is accidental', the cameraman is expected to grasp the dialectical relationships between disparate events occurring in reality; his duty is to unveil the intrinsic conflict of life's antagonistic forces and lay bare the 'cause and effect' of life's phenomenon.


Man with a Movie Camera or http://www.25hrs.org/vertov.htm


Bolshevik revolution


soviet montage vs. continuity editing


Discussion:

1 Discuss how Vertov made his audience aware of the cinematic apparatus in his film The Man with a Movie Camera.
2 Discuss Vertov’s theoretical points in relation to the film.
3 Discuss the use of montage in The Man with a Movie Camera
4 Discuss the ‘reality’ of the film.
5 Is the juxtaposition of disparate elements to create a third meaning a truthful depiction of the world which the film records? As a re-contextualization of actual events, is it still realistic?

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