Reading Response # 3

For this response, I chose Scott MacDonald's "Introduction to Avant-Garde Film". This article particularly appealed to me because I have been studying the Avant-Garde movement this semester in my Film History course. It was familiar subject matter, yet informed me about a few other developments I didn't learn in class.

MacDonald often speaks of Avant-Garde film arising as a way for filmmakers to communicate outside of the Hollywood structure. All countries at one point in early 1900s had to compete with the large Hollywood machine and many directors ended up working for it at the end of their careers. The differences between surrealist movies and abstract movies are also discussed; both of these film genres had a common goal however: to make human's internalizations external. MacDonald jumps backwards at this point to talk about Muybridge's extraordinary work in the movement of film with a grid system and the Lumiere Brothers' single-shot films focusing on every day events in our world. Though this is clearly an excerpt from a much larger book, MacDonald does a great job of introducing us to what we're encounter further.

The Avant-Garde movement has always interested me as a filmmaker and as a writer. It was an amazing time in the film world: a time which I fear can never be repeated. I've always wanted to make abstract films, though the soundwalks were useful for recording more dynamic, independent material. Perhaps at some point I will rethink the footage I've collected and apply a more surrealist approach to it. But for now I am happy with my work.