The Experimental Film List Project

[zedz]

THE EXPERIMENTAL FILM LIST PROJECT

This is a long-form list project designed to encourage exploration and immersion, so it will be a little bit different to your standard list project.

WHAT IS EXPERIMENTAL FILM?
We’re going with the established definition of experimental film built up over a century of experimental and avant-garde filmmaking, not whatever any random voter thinks is, like, really wild, man.

The Wikipedia entry provides a solid starting point:
Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, particularly early ones, relate to arts in other disciplines: painting, dance, literature and poetry, or arise from research and development of new technical resources.

While some experimental films have been distributed through mainstream channels or even made within commercial studios, the vast majority have been produced on very low budgets with a minimal crew or a single person and are either self-financed or supported through small grants.

There are lots of narrative feature films, documentaries or essay films that are formally adventurous, but that doesn’t necessarily push them over the edge into the tradition of experimental film. That would generally require any example to be radically different in form to other narrative features, documentaries, or essay films. It’s complicated, because there are lots of filmmakers who have made both regular documentaries and narrative films as well as clearly experimental (e.g. non-narrative) works, but use your common sense.

So, for the purposes of this project, narrative feature films, documentaries and essay films are NOT ELIGIBLE, unless they’re discussed in the thread and specifically ruled in.

There are thousands of experimental filmmakers out there waiting to be discovered. Please don’t expend all your energy trying to get your favourite commercial filmmaker in on a technicality. That’s not the spirit of this project. Excessive or incessant relitigation of border disputes may lead to the filmmakers involved being excluded entirely.

Some examples follow of the kind of films that would be ruled in. It’s also significant that all of these films were immediately understood to be part of the tradition of experimental film, made by established experimental filmmakers:

Narrative Features:
The Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey / Peter Wollen, 1977): The long central section of the film relates a realist narrative about Louise and her child, but it’s inset in a multi-layered work that also incorporates the essay film (Mulvey explaining the theory behind the film) and documentary travel and performance footage, and the narrative component is related in a structuralist form radically different from commercial cinema: 13 long continuous 360 degree panning shots in which the rigorous camera movements are independent of the actions of the characters.

Documentaries:
RR (James Benning, 2007): Strictly speaking, every shot of this film is documentary, but its extreme minimalism (it consists exclusively of shots of landscapes before, during and after a train passes through), absence of narrative structure and voiceover, and place in Benning’s oeuvre of experimental landscape films marks it as unambiguously experimental. An even better comparison might be between Benning’s Casting a Glance (also 2007), an experimental film documenting environmental artist Robert Smithson’s work Spiral Jetty, and Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Rivers and Tides (2001), a documentary about environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. The two films have similar documentary subject matter, but it’s the form that marks one as an experimental film and the other as a (very fine) documentary.

Essay Films:
(nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton, 1971): An essay film is kind of a slippery category at the best of times: it usually takes a semi-documentary form, with the filmmaker adopting a more prominent than usual presence in order to make an argument, present a case, elaborate ideas or just express an opinion. They are often formally playful and may be completely or partially fabricated. Welles’ F for Fake and Marker’s Sans Soleil are classic examples of essay films. I’d argue that they represent a genre unto themselves and are not a subset of either documentary or experimental film (there are plenty of essay films that are not formally innovative). Frampton’s film adopts the form of the personal essay film (he’s talking us through a collection of photographs he’s taken over the years), but it adopts a rigidly formal structure and is more preoccupied with exploring image / sound disjunction and the operation of memory than its ostensible subject matter.

HOW DO YOU VOTE? WHEN DO YOU VOTE?

TL, DR: 100 FILM LISTS. DUE 20 MARCH 2024.

Because most experimental films are short – sometimes very short – and there are likely to be fewer consensus choices than usual, this is a long list List Project. Contributors are encouraged to submit ranked lists of 100 films, with 50-film lists the minimum that will be accepted. You can also submit lists of 60, 70, 80 or 90 films. All lists will be equally weighted (i.e. every number one will score 100 points). PM lists to me any time in 2024 before the deadline. Lists submitted before 1 January 2024 or that contain the wrong number of films will be ritually burned on a hotplate while I consider the following list.

Because of the longer lists and the comparative rarity of experimental films on disc / in cinemas / online, this List Project will run longer than usual, winding up on next year’s first Vernal / Autumnal Equinox: 20 March 2024 (unless extended by acclamation).

WHAT ELSE?

A list of discs containing experimental films will be posted below. It will be incomplete, and deliberately omits discs by borderline experimental filmmakers so that the inclusion or not of specific films can be discussed in the thread rather than just making a blanket assumption about inclusion or exclusion.

Report your findings in this thread. You may be the first person on the forum to see or discuss the film, but you don’t have to be the last.

Happy explorations!

CODA: FILMS THAT ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS PROJECT EVEN THOUGH THEIR MAKERS WEREN'T (ALWAYS) EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKERS

5 Dedicated to Ozu, Shirin, 24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami)
Six Men Getting Sick, The Alphabet, The Grandmother, Premonition Following an Evil Deed (David Lynch)
La Jetee (Chris Marker)
Historia Naturae, Jabberwocky, The Fall of the House of Usher (Jan Svankmajer)

FILMS THAT AREN'T ELIGIBLE FOR THIS PROJECT

Inland Empire (Lynch) - director statement

[zedz]

LIST OF DVDS AND BLURAYS FEATURING EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA

If an earlier release has been completely superceded by a subsequent / superior one (i.e. every film has been accounted for), I’ve omitted it.

B is for BluRay

MULTIPLE-FILMMAKER COLLECTIONS

AnimateTV: 20 Years of Experimental Animation from the UK (Lux)
Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation (PWA)
Anxious Animation (Other Cinema)
As She Likes It: Female Performance Art from Austria (Index)
Aurora Edition 1 (Aurora)
Aurora Edition 2 (Aurora)
Avant-Garde 1927-1937 (Cinematheque Royale)
Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s (Kino)
Avant-Garde 2: Experimental Cinema 1928-1954 (Kino)
Avant-Garde 3: Experimental Cinema 1922-1954 (Kino)
Cine a Contracorriente (Cameo)
Cinemad Almanac 2009 (Microcinema)
Conditioned (lowave)
Contre-Oeil (ICPCE)
Dada Cinema (Re:Voir)
De Stijl / Mondrian: Architectures de Film (Centre Pompidou)
Different Cinema (lowave)
Different Cinema 2 (lowave)
Experimental Films from the Lowlands (Re:Voir)
Five Experimental Films of the 1950s (Flicker Alley) B
Flux Film Anthology (Re:Voir)
Human Frames (lowave)
Incarnation (ICPCE)
In/Flux: Mediatrips from the African World Vols. 1-3 (lowave)
Just Say No to Family Values (Index)
Made by Hand: Experimental Workds from Educational Environments (CFMDC)
Masterworks of the American Avant-Garde Experimental Film 1920-1970 (Flicker Alley) B
Le Mouvement des images (Centre Pompidou)
New Contemporaries Moving Image 1968-2010 (New Contemporaries)
OHM+: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music (Ellipsis Arts)
Re:Frame: Scanning Time / Documenting Change (lowave)
Resistance(s): Experimental Films from the Middle East and North Africa, Vols. 1-3 (lowave)
Rewind + Play: an Anthology of Early British Video Art (Rewind)
Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! (Re:Voir)
Silent Avant-Garde (Kino Lorber) B
Sonic Fiction: Synaesthetic Videos from Austria (Index)
Super Super 8: Experimental Workds from Educational Environments (CFMDC)
Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film 1947-1986 (Image)
Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894-1941 (Image)
La Ville moderne (Centre Pompidou)
Visionary: Contemporary Short Documentaries and Experimental Films from Austria (Index)
Visions of Warhol (Re:Voir)
Visual Music 1947-1986 (CVM)
Xperimental Eros (Other Cinema)

SINGLE-FILMMAKER COLLECTIONS

Kenneth Anger:
The Magic Lantern Cycle (BFI) B

Dominic Angerame:
Cityscapes (Re:Voir)

Animal Charm:
Golden Digest (Other Cinema)

Roberto Ariganello:
Roberto Ariganello (CFMDC)

Martin Arnold:
The Cine-Seizure (Index)

Adolphe Arrietta:
La Trilogie de l’ange (Re:Voir)

John Baldessari:
Films Transferred to Video

George Barber:
Beyond Language (Barber)

Serge Bard:
Détruisez-vous (Re:Voir)
Fun and Games for Everyone (Re:Voir)
Ici et Maintenant (Re:Voir)

Matthew Barney:
The Order (Palm)

Bertold Bartosch:
L’Idee (Re:Voir)

Raphael Bassan:
Le Critique filmeur (Re:Voir)

Christina Battle:
Christina Battle (CFMDC)

Jordan Belson:
5 Essential Films (CVM)

James Benning:
American Dream (Lost and Found) / Landscape Suicide (Edition Filmmuseum)
California Trilogy (Edition Filmmuseum)
casting a glance / RR (Edition Filmmuseum)
Deseret / Four Corners (Edition Filmmuseum)
11 x 14 / One Way Boogie / 27 Years Later (Edition Filmmuseum)
Grand Opera / O Panama (Edition Filmmuseum)
natural history / Ruhr (Edition Filmmuseum)

Patrick Bokanowski:
Courts-metrages (Re:Voir) B
L’Ange (Re:Voir) B
Un Reve solaire (Re:Voir) B

Walerian Borowczyk:
Short Films (Arrow) B

Jurgen Bottcher:
Frau am Klavichord / In Georgian (Edition Filmmuseum)

Stan Brakhage:
Anticipation of the Night (Re:Voir) B
By Brakhage (Criterion) B

Ian Breakwell:
Ian Breakwell (BFI)

Robert Breer:
A-Z (Re:Voir)

Dietmar Brehm:
Black Garden (Index)
Praxis Selection (Index)

David Brooks:
The Wind Is Driving Him Toward the Open Sea (Re:Voir)

James Broughton:
The Films of James Broughton (Facets)

Igor & Ivan Buharov:
Slow Mirror (Re:Voir)

Luis Bunuel:
L’Age d’Or (BFI) B

Rudy Burckhardt:
Films (Microcinema)

Tim Cawkwell:
Light Years: The Film Diaries of Tim Cawkwell

Jack Chambers:
The Films of Jack Chambers 1965-70 (CFMDC)

Linda Christanell:
The Nature of Expression (Index)

Shirley Clarke:
The Magic Box (Milestone)

Pierre Clementi:
Integrale Pierre Clementi (Potemkine) B

Bastian Cleve:
Journeys (RedAvocado)

Paul Clipson:
Landscape Dissolves (Re:Voir)

Stephen Connolly:
Spatial Cinema (Lux) B

Maia Conran:
Term (Filmarmalade)

Joseph Cornell:
The Magical Worlds of Joseph Cornell (Voyager)

Pierre-Yves Cruaud:
Un Regard en mouvement / Eyeshift (lowave)

Lutz Dammbeck:
Filme und Mediencollagen 1975-1986 (Edition Filmmuseum)

Nina Danino:
Rupture / Rapture / Jouissance: The Religious Trilogy 1990-1997 (Lux)
Temenos (BFI)

Jim Davis:
Horizons of Light (Anthology)
Silent Light (Anthology)
Visible Energy (Anthology)

Storm De Hirsch:
Mythology for the Soul (Re:Voir)

Aukje Dekker:
Versus (Filmarmalade)

Kristina De La Riva (and Emily Russell):
Do We Have to Play This Game? (Filmarmalade)

Maya Deren:
The Maya Deren Collection (Kino) B

Gustav Deutsch:
Film ist. (1-12) (Index)
Not Home. Picturing the Foreign (Index)

Patrick Deval:
Acephale (Re:Voir)

Vivienne Dick:
Afterimages 4 (Lux)
Between Truth and Fiction (Lux)

Sandy Ding:
Psychoecho (Re:Voir)

Julia Dogra-Brazell:
‘Plot’ (Filmarmalade)

Jacques Drouin:
Jacques Drouin (ONF / NFB)

Stephen Dwoskin:
Central Bazaar (BFI)
Dyn Amo (Re:Voir)
Age Is. . . (Re:Voir)

Dziga Vertov Group:
Godard + Gorin: Five Films 1968-1971 (Arrow) B

Valie Export:
3 Experimental Short Films (Index)
Unsichtbare Gegner (Index)

Helga Fanderi:
Fragil(e) (lowave)

Mounir Fatmi:
Hard Head (lowave)

Oskar Fischinger:
Ten Films (CVM)
Visual Music (CVM)

Holly Fisher:
Bullets for Breakfast (Re:Voir)

Richard Foreman:
Once Every Day (Re:Voir)

Olivier Fouchard & Mahine Rouhi:
Films alchimiques et Carnets d’atelier (Re:Voir)

Beth Fox:
A Marvellous Negative Capability (Marmalade)

Hollis Frampton:
A Hollis Frampton Odyssey (Criterion) B

Su Friedrich:
The Ties That Bind (Outcast)
Sink or Swim (Outcast)
Hide & Seek (Outcast)
Damned If You Don’t (Outcast)
The Odds of Recovery (Outcast)

Siegfried A. Fruhauf:
Exposed (Index)
Nature and Abstractions (Re:Voir) B

Ivan Ladislav Galeta:
Obsession: Structuring Time and Space (Index)

Philippe Garrel:
Marie pour memoire (Re:Voir) B
Le Revelateur (Re:Voir)
Le Lit de vierge (Re:Voir)

Jean Genet:
Un Chant d’amour (Cult Epics)

Peter Gidal:
Afterimages 2 (Lux)
Condition of Illusion (Re:Voir)
Performance of Sorts with Brecht / Volcano / Denials (Lux)

H.C. Gilje:
Cityscapes (lowave)

Paolo Gioli:
The Complete Filmworks (Raro)

Peter Emanuel Goldman:
Echoes of Silence (Re:Voir)
Wheel of Ashes (Re:Voir)

Larry Gottheim:
Fogline (Re:Voir)

Granular Synthesis:
Remixes for Single Screen (Index)

William Greaves:
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (Criterion) B

Grzinic / Schmid:
A Selection of Video Works from 1990-2003 (Index)

Nicky Hamlyn:
Selected Works 1974-2012 (Lux)

Inger Lise Hansen:
Trilogy (Lux)

Hilary Harris:
The Films of Hilary Harris (Mystic Fire)

W + B Hein:
Materialfilme 1968 - 76 (Edition Filmmuseum)

Neil Henderson:
Three Studies in Geography (RGB)

John Hofness:
Palace of Pleasure (Black Zero) B

Takahiko Iimura:
60s Experiments (Re:Voir)
Filmmakers (Iimura)
Seeing through the Body (Iimura)
Early Film Poems 1962-1971 (Iimura)
For Filmic Meditation (Iimura)
On Duration in Film (Iimura)
On Time in Film (Iimura)
On Time in Film / DVD (Iimura)
Early Conceptual Videos (Iimura)
Observer/ Observed (Iimura)
Talking Picture (Iimura)
A I U E O NN (Iimura)
Air’s Rock (Iimura)
Performance / Myself (Or Video Identity) (Iimura)
Seeing / Hearing / Speaking (Iimura)
Sky and Ground (Iimura)
Writing with Light: White Calligraphy (Iimura)

Isidore Isou:
Traite de bave et d’eternite (Re:Voir)

Takashi Ito:
Film Anthology (Image Forum)

Ken Jacobs:
Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1 (Kino) B
Star Spangled to Death (Jacobs)
Celestial Subway Lines / Salvaging Noise (Tzadik)
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World (Jacobs)
Return to the Scene of the Crime (Jacobs)
Anaglyph Tom (Jacobs)
3 x 3D (Jacobs) B

Christoph Janetzko:
Lowlands (RedAvocado)

Derek Jarman:
Derek Jarman Volume One (BFI) B
Volume Two (BFI) B

Al Jarnow:
Celestial Navigation: the Short Films of Al Jarnow (Numero Group)

Lawrence Jordan:
The Lawrence Jordan Album (Facets)

Alfred Kaiser:
Decomposing Nazi Praseology (Index)

Jo Ann Kaplan:
Body of Work (Lux)

Jeff Keen:
GAZWRX (BFI) B

Maria Klonaris / Katerina Thomadaki:
The Angel Cycle (Re:Voir)

Darius Kowalski:
Optical Vacuum (Index)

Kurt Kren:
Action Films (Index)
Structural Films (Index)
Which Way to CA? (Index)

Friedl Kubelka vom Groller:
Photography & Film (Index)
One Is Not Enough. Photography & Film (Index)

Mike Kuchar:
Sins of the Fleshapoids (Re:Voir)

Maria Lassnig:
Animation Films (Index)
Film Works (Index)

John Latham:
Films 1960-1971 (Lux)

Caroline Leaf:
Out on a Limb / Handcrafted Films (ONF / NFB)

Jean-Jacques Lebel:
Les Avatars de Venus (Re:Voir)
Sunlove (Re:Voir)

Christian Lebrat:
Vibrations (Re:Voir)

Malcolm LeGrice:
Afterimages 1 (Lux)

Maurice Lemaitre:
Le Film est deja commence (Re:Voir) B
Films Imaginaires (Re:Voir)
Nos Stars / Le Petit Dieu (lowave)

Alfred Leslie:
Cool Man in a Golden Age (Lux)

Jorgen Leth:
Anthropological Films (Danish Film Classics)
Experimental Films (Danish Film Classics)

Arthur Lipsett:
Strange Codes (Black Zero) B

Sasha Litvintseva:
Evergreen (Filmarmalade)

Keith Lock:
Everything Everywhere Again Alive (Black Zero) B

Marie Losier:
Hello Happiness (Re:Voir)

Rose Lowder:
Bouquet d’images (Re:Voir)

James Lowne:
Our Relationships Will Become Radiant (Filmarmalade)

Len Lye:
Colour Box: 19 Films by Len Lye (Len Lye Foundation)

Christopher Maclaine:
Beat Films (Re:Voir)

Marcel Marien:
L’Imitation du Cinema (La Maison d’a cote)

Mara Mattuschka / Chris Haring:
Iris Scan (Index)
Burning Down the Palace (Index)

Dora Maurer:
Thinking in Proportions (Index)

Alain Mazars:
Rouges Silences (Re:Voir)

Norman McLaren:
Norman McLaren: The Master’s Edition (HVE)

Taylor Mead:
Home Movies (Re:Voir)

Wrik Mead:
Wrik Mead (CFMDC)

Adolfas Mekas:
Hallelujah the Hills (Re:Voir)

Adolfas & Jonas Mekas:
The Brig (Re:Voir)

Jonas Mekas:
Diaries, Notes & Sketches Vol. 1-8 (Re:Voir) B
Guns of the Trees (Re:Voir)
Scenes from Allen’s Last Three Days (Re:Voir)
A Letter from Greenpoint (Re:Voir)
Sleepless Nights Stories (Re:Voir)
He Stands in the Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (Re:Voir)

Marie Menken:
Visual Variations

Mirza / Butler:
When a Straight Line Meets a Curve (Filmarmalade)
The Exception and the Rule (Filmarmalade)

The Modern Language Experiment:
Imagining a Re-Synchronizing (The Phantom Twin) (Filmarmalade)

Michelle Mohabeer:
Michelle Mohabeer (CFMDC)

Bill Morrison:
Selected Films 1996-2014 (BFI) B
The Miners’ Hymns (BFI)

Gertrude Moser-Wagner:
Concept & Coincidence (Index)

Laura Mulvey / Peter Wollen:
Riddles of the Sphinx (BFI) B

Solomon Nagler:
Cinema des Ruines (ICPCE)

Werner Nekes:
Uliisses (Nekes)

Gunvor Nelson:
Departures (Re:Voir)
Light Years (Re:Voir)
Call to Mind (Re:Voir) B

Manfred Neuwirth:
[ma] Trilogy (Index)

Dore O:
Figures of Absence (Re:Voir)

Etienne O’Leary:
Films 1966-1968 (ICPCE)

Pat O’Neill:
Seven Three Six Two (Lookout Mountain)
Five Films (Lookout Mountain)
Silent Works (Lookout Mountain)
Trouble (Lookout Mountain)
Water and Power (Lookout Mountain)
Starting to Go Bad (Lookout Mountain)

Vivian Ostrovsky:
Plunge (Re:Voir)

Priit Parn:
Integrale 1977-2010 (Chalet Pointu)

Simon Payne:
Systems Cinema (Lux)

Jacques Perconte:
Corps (Re:Voir)
Paysages (Re:Voir) B

Jan Peters:
. . . But I Still Haven’t Figured Out the Meaning of Life (Index)

Ingo Petzke:
Northern Lights (RedAvocado)

Norbert Pfaffenbichler:
Notes on Notes on Film (Index)

Pil & Galia Kollectiv:
Co-operative Explanatory Capabilities in Organizational Design and Personnel Management (Filmarmalade)

Michael Pilz:
Facts for Fiction / Parco delle Rimembranze (Index)

Suzan Pitt:
Animated Films (Re:Voir)

Lisl Ponger:
Travelling Light (Index)

Sarah Pucill:
Early Shorts (Pucill)
Selected Films 1990-2010 (Lux)
Magic Mirror (Lux)
Confessions to the Mirror (Lux) B

Purrer / Scheirl / Schipek:
Super-8-Girl Games (Index)
Flaming Ears (Index)

The Quay Brothers:
Inner Sanctums (BFI) B

William Raban:
William Raban (BFI)

Man Ray:
Les Films de Man Ray (Centre Pompidou)

Jackie Raynal:
Deux Fois (Re:Voir)

Jurgen Reble:
Passion (Re:Voir)
Der Goldene Tor (Re:Voir)

Joost Rekveld:
11 Films (Re:Voir) B

Oliver Ressler:
This Is What Democracy Looks Like! / Disobbedienti (Index)

Lis Rhodes:
Afterimages 3 (Lux)

Ron Rice:
The Flower Thief (Re:Voir)

Emily Richardson:
6 Films (Stour Valley Arts)

Hans Richter:
Early Works (Re:Voir)
Dreams That Money Can Buy (BFI)

David Rimmer:
The Films of David Rimmer (CFMDC)

Ben Rivers:
Two Years at Sea (Soda)
The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers (Drakes Avenue)

Ben Rivers & Ben Russell:
A Spell to Ward Off Darkness (Soda)

Jozef Robakowski:
The Energy Manifesto! (Index)

Adam Roberts:
Remake (Filmarmalade)

Peter Rose:
Analogies (Re:Voir)

Constanze Ruhm:
Video Works from 1999-2004 (Index)

Zbigniew Rybczynski:
Zbig Rybczynski: Film & Video (Raro)

Leo Schatzl:
Farrago (Index)

Alexander Schellow:
Still Lives (Filmarmalade)

Jeff Scher:
Reasons to Be Glad (Re:Voir)

Hans Scheugl:
The Seconds Strike Reality (Index)

Joel Schlemowitz:
Short Experimental Films (Microcinema)

Ernst Schmidt Jr.:
Stones & 20 Action and Destruction Films (Index)
Wienfilm 1896-1976 (Index)

Georges Schwizgebel:
The Films of Georges Schwizgebel (ONF / NFB)

Semiconductor:
Worlds In Flux

MM Serra:
Art(core) (Re:Voir)

Paul Sharits:
Mandala Films (Re:Voir)

Guy Sherwin:
Optical Sound Films 1971-2007 (Lux)
Short Film Series 1975-2014 (Lux)
Messages (Lux)

Petr Skala:
A Hidden Experimenter (NFA)

John Smith:
John Smith (Lux)

Vicky Smith:
Grainy Realism: Abstract Animated Films by Vicky Smith (Smith)

Michael Snow:
Presents (Re:Voir)
Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Denis Young) by Wilma Schoen (Re:Voir)

Barbara Sternberg:
Barbara Sternberg (CFMDC)

Mika Taanila:
Tectonic Plate (Taanila) B

Margaret Tait:
Selected Films 1952-1976 (Lux)

Franciszka & Stefan Themerson:
The Films of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson (Lux)

Robert Todd:
Interior Landscapes (Re:Voir)

Garine Torossian:
Garine Torissian (CFMDC)

Peter Tscherkassky:
Films from a Dark Room (Index)
Attractions, Instructions and Other Romances (Index)
Exquisite Ecstasies (Index)

Sarah Turner:
Perestroika / Perestroika: Reconstructed (Turner) B

Johanna Vaude:
Hybride (lowave)

Jose Val de Omar:
Elemental de Espana (Cameo)

Stan Vanderbeek:
Visibles (Re:Voir)

Volks stohnende Knochenschau:
A Historic Video News Project (Index)

Wernher von Mutzenbecher:
Film Is a Mystery (Re:Voir)

Andy Warhol:
Andy Warhol Anthology (Raro)
The 13 Most Beautiful. . . (Plexifilm)

William Wegman:
Video Works 1970-1999 (ArtPix)

Peter Weibel:
Depiction Is a Crime: Video Works 1969-1975 (Index)
Korperaktionen Bodyworks 1967 - 2003 (Index)

Chris Welsby:
Chris Welsby (BFI)

Miranda Whall:
Samuel and I / Simon and I / Ladybirds (Filmarmalade)

Virgil Widrich:
Short Films (Re:Voir)

Joyce Wieland:
The Complete Works of Joyce Wieland 1963-86 (CFMDC)

Paul Winkler:
Australian Icons (RedAvocado)

Stephen Woloshen:
Stephen Woloshen (CFMDC)

John Woodman:
Landscape Films 1977-1982 (Lux)

Luciano Zubillaga:
Things to Come (Filmarmalade)

[swo17]

Gulp

[zedz]

Gulp

Who directed that? If it's a Kurt Kren action film, I might just avoid it.

[swo17]

I was thinking more of this

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks for the effort, zedz, really looking forward to this! I'd be interested to get any off-the-cuff lists of which films/discs above to prioritize - especially those that may not belong to the major labels releasing them (i.e. Re:Voir) so as to get a jump start on international orders

[denti alligator]

Yeah, this is amazing! Thanks, zedz. Looking forward to diving in, watching, rewatching, discovering, being delighted, dismayed, dumbstruck, daunted, drained, etc.

There are some BIG NAMES not on the list whose work is not and in some cases cannot be (made) available on home video. I may start with by talking about one or two of those, especially one I saw recently.

[senseabove]

Also, I’m sure if anyone’s hunting specific things, there are some of us who can try to help.

Also also, the Kevin Jerome Everson BD set from Second Run isn’t listed above.

[zedz]

Yeah, this is amazing! Thanks, zedz. Looking forward to diving in, watching, rewatching, discovering, being delighted, dismayed, dumbstruck, daunted, drained, etc.

There are some BIG NAMES not on the list whose work is not and in some cases cannot be (made) available on home video. I may start with by talking about one or two of those, especially one I saw recently.

Yeah, there are a number of filmmakers who consider their work so format-specific that they will not sanction digital versions of it. Peter Kubelka is top of that list, and he has a point with a film like Arnulf Rainer. Nathaniel Dorsky seems to be of the same mind, and most of the structural films that established Michael Snow's reputation remain exclusively analogue.

George Kuchar has also steadfastly resisted digitization, but I don't know if that is a matter of formalist principle or something else.

And then there are filmmakers like Yvonne Rainer who does circulate her works in digital form, but only at punitive institutional rates. Big art names that retain currency, like Andy Warhol and Yoko Ono, protect their work for presentation in an exhibition context, hence the dearth of home video.

[denti alligator]

Kubelka was indeed who I was thinking of, primarily. But Christian Marclay‘s museum installation videos also come to mind. Any reason Svankmajer didn‘t make your list?

[swo17]

Kubelka was indeed who I was thinking of, primarily.

His beer commercial gets my vote

[zedz]

Also also, the Kevin Jerome Everson BD set from Second Run isn’t listed above.

Some of the films in that set may qualify, but in general I would have placed him on the documentary side of the ledger (poetic sub-branch).

[zedz]

Kubelka was indeed who I was thinking of, primarily. But Christian Marclay‘s museum installation videos also come to mind. Any reason Svankmajer didn‘t make your list?

Most of his output is narrative features, or narrative shorts (if the scripts had been realized by Chuck Jones or Pixar, nobody would recognize them as experimental films). There are a bunch of films that don't have a conventional narrative structure and would be eligible, though, such as Historia Naturae or Jabberwocky, and The Fall of the House of Usher strikes me as a narrative film that's definitely experimental in its form, as it tells a familiar story while eliding its human characters. He's a classic case-by-case director.

In general, I'm much more relaxed about short films being classed as experimental despite having strong narrative qualities. La Jetee is a heavily narrative film, but its form was so thoroughly unusual at the time that it can be considered experimental. Twelve Monkeys can't.

[swo17]

He's a classic case-by-case director.

So how is that going to work, in general? Will you be keeping a running tally of eligible films from case-by-case directors? Will we just be using the "vote for it" rule?

[zedz]

I'm happy to keep a running tally of eligible films after people have discussed / argued for them in the thread. When the axe finally falls, we may have to resort to "vote for it" and deal with the eventual wails of the disenfranchised.

But discussing and deciding in the thread beforehand is definitely preferable. Likewise for whether films in series should be considered individually or collectively. Let's figure out a consensus through discussion (e.g. Dog Star Man and Film ist. count as one big work, but Hapax Legomena and The Magic Lantern Cycle are individual films) then vote in the way that reflects that consensus and will give the maximum efficacy to our support of the films.

(Perhaps I'm being wildly optimistic that this thread will get people looking at and discussing actual experimental films rather than squabbling over whether or not Memento is an experimental film because it's all jumbly-wumbly.)

EDIT: I've added the suggested tally at the end of the first post, including some titles that have already been mentioned. You can post other candidates in this thread for discussion, or PM me if you would rather see them magically appear or not.

[therewillbeblus]

In general, I'm much more relaxed about short films being classed as experimental despite having strong narrative qualities. La Jetee is a heavily narrative film, but its form was so thoroughly unusual at the time that it can be considered experimental. Twelve Monkeys can't.

Interesting, La Jetee sits in my 'experimental section' on my shelf but feels way less experimental (according to the above definitions) than a bunch of films I feel like I need to cut.. Godard comes to mind as someone whose form continued to reinvent itself as “unusual” and experimental in the moment, but can technically be shoved into “essay film” categories and such, just as La Jetee can with narrative. I'd be curious to know why giving leeway to shorts fits within a logic that can't extend to certain features. For instance, there doesn't seem to be much of a distinction for me between twenty minutes of blurry chaos and three hours of it. Obviously cohesively narrative flare like Twelve Monkeys is absurd to consider, but Inland Empire is less grounded and makes less sense than La Jetee, and is just as originally "unusual" I'd say - even for Lynch, it was the first/only film of his that he completely made up/"experimented" with as he went, on and off shooting on a whim for years, according to all involved! It kinda feels like ten La Jetees sewn together, only less narrative. I'm not going to vote for either (I have zero interest in dying on a hill for films I've seen rather than sift through new material), but just for my own comprehension as I wrap my head around this project (as someone still confused on what constitutes "experimental"): what is the internal logic to discount one and not the other, especially when each director falls into non-eligible categories (doc/essay and narrative films, respectfully) which I know was tossed around as a potential disqualifier? I feel like I'm getting more confused on these exceptions, particularly when length seems superfluous.

But whatever, if we’re giving a pass to shorts, don’t sleep on Godard’s two commercials released as Closed Jeans, occasionally lumped into Metamorphojeans (though I believe that’s just the third separate commercial, and not an experimental film)

[zedz]

In general, I'm much more relaxed about short films being classed as experimental despite having strong narrative qualities. La Jetee is a heavily narrative film, but its form was so thoroughly unusual at the time that it can be considered experimental. Twelve Monkeys can't.

Interesting, La Jetee sits in my 'experimental section' on my shelf but feels way less experimental (according to the above definitions) than a bunch of films I feel like I need to cut.. Godard comes to mind as someone whose form continued to reinvent itself as “unusual” and experimental in the moment, but can technically be shoved into “essay film” categories and such, just as La Jetee can with narrative. I'd be curious to know why giving leeway to shorts fits within a logic that can't extend to certain features. For instance, there doesn't seem to be much of a distinction for me between twenty minutes of blurry chaos and three hours of it. Obviously cohesively narrative flare like Twelve Monkeys is absurd to consider, but Inland Empire is less grounded and makes less sense than La Jetee, and is just as originally "unusual" I'd say - even for Lynch, it was the first/only film of his that he completely made up/"experimented" with as he went, on and off shooting on a whim for years, according to all involved! It kinda feels like ten La Jetees sewn together, only less narrative. I'm not going to vote for either (I have zero interest in dying on a hill for films I've seen rather than sift through new material), but just for my own comprehension as I wrap my head around this project (as someone still confused on what constitutes "experimental"): what is the internal logic to discount one and not the other, especially when each director falls into non-eligible categories (doc/essay and narrative films, respectfully) which I know was tossed around as a potential disqualifier? I feel like I'm getting more confused on these exceptions, particularly when length seems superfluous.

But whatever, if we’re giving a pass to shorts, don’t sleep on Godard’s two commercials released as Closed Jeans, occasionally lumped into Metamorphojeans (though I believe that’s just the third separate commercial, and not an experimental film)

It's all a slippery slope, and I think there's also contextual element. I think Inland Empire is a real borderline case, because it's exists within the context of Lynch's narrative feature career, but it's a bit more out there than any of the others. Probably enough to push it over the edge, if people are dead set on voting for it, but I'd much rather participants, as you say, put their effort into exploring new work rather than discussing the same films that are always discussed in other list projects and threads. If Inland Empire were the only film by an unknown filmmaker, I don't think there'd be any ambiguity about it.

La Jetee, on the other hand, is a film that arrived in a completely different context. Marker was an essay / documentary filmmaker, and the film was formally unlike anything he or anybody else had made before. It's also a film that - quite apart from its narrative hook - is fundamentally engaged in exploring the intrinsic physical characteristics of the medium (in this case, stillness and movement), which is a founding trait of experimental film. If the film did not have its single instance of motion, I don't think the case for it being an experimental film would be anywhere near as strong.

[therewillbeblus]

Strong analysis/rationale for the Marker, thanks for taking the time to indulge me!

[Red Screamer]

Thanks for setting this up, zedz! Above all, I'm excited to have this thread as a resource and place for ongoing discussion. Re: the theatrical/in-person/material purism element, maybe together we could come up with a short list of theaters, museums, festivals, and ciné-clubs that are good places to catch such events? Though maybe we're too geographically diverse for that to be helpful.

One borderline case I would go to bat for would be Kiarostami's Five Dedicated to Ozu (and Shirin?), if only because it's an example of a primarily festival-arthouse filmmaker making a non-commercial film and besting the majority of other films in the same genre/mode.

[colinr0380]

With Lynch, perhaps the pre-Eraserhead shorts (The Alphabet, The Grandmother and so on) may be better classed as 'experimental' films. Or the standalone version of Rabbits.

[Roger Ryan]

For what it's worth, in his very first answer in the interview included in the Criterion Inland Empire booklet, Lynch says he does not consider Inland Empire to be experimental! The early shorts would potentially be better qualified, but I don't think there's any way to deny 1995's one minute marvel Premonition Following an Evil Deed as experimental.

[denti alligator]

Let me start with one of my favorite experimental films that, sadly, will never make it to home video, but is absolutely worth traveling to see, if you can. This would be Christian Marclay‘s Video Quartet from 2002. Like his earlier video montage piece Telephones (which can be viewed here), Marclay cuts together pieces from various films that show related actions. With Video Quartet there are four projected screens running simultaneously. The film is about 14 minutes and consists of a montage of musical scenes from various older and some newer films. Marclay‘s timing is stunning, so that he manages to suggest a coherent musical performance of sorts, even if it is a rather noisy one. Fans of musique concrete will be delighted! Most of the clusters of shots show the same instrument from difference films on each of the four screens: pianos, upright basses, accordions, trumpets, saxophones, banjos, singers, etc. etc. There are some concert performances: I spied Monk and Mingus and Charlie Parker, for instance. But most are from non-musical films in which a character sits down at the piano for a few bars, or picks up a musical saw, or whistles, etc. He‘s basically doing with films what he used to do with records, as an experimental DJ. It‘s virtuosic and fun—and funny! Anyone else had the chance to see this?

[denti alligator]

I agree that the early Lynch shorts and Premonition should be eligible. My plan is to approach this one filmmaker at a time, and then if I run out of time, to seek out the films others praise highly. I plan to start with ABC: Martin Arnold, Luis Buñuel (L‘Age d‘Or and Un chien andalou), and Jospeh Cornell.

[therewillbeblus]

For what it's worth, in his very first answer in the interview included in the Criterion Inland Empire booklet, Lynch says he does not consider Inland Empire to be experimental!

Oh of course not. Lynch obviously isn't keen on offering any 'explanation' that might steer his viewers in a direction of tangible answers, but he also doesn't want to dilute the mystery with a response that may unfairly chalk everything up to "oh it's just experimental, don't read into it and take meaning from it to make your own." I doubt he'd even refer to the extremely experimental section of Part 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return as "experimental" since that could lend an unintentional signifier to quiet audiences' responsiveness

[zedz]

For what it's worth, in his very first answer in the interview included in the Criterion Inland Empire booklet, Lynch says he does not consider Inland Empire to be experimental! The early shorts would potentially be better qualified, but I don't think there's any way to deny 1995's one minute marvel Premonition Following an Evil Deed as experimental.

Okay, if Lynch doesn't want us to consider Inland Empire that's good enough for me, and I agree on the early shorts and Premonition. (And nobody gets to vote for "that one episode of Twin Peaks".)

I also agree on the Kiarostami suggestions. 5 Dedicated to Ozu and 24 Frames, being non-narrative works, are automatically eligible, and Shirin is a structuralist film with a vestigial narrative contained within it (and only on the soundtrack), just like Michael Snow's Wavelength. When it first came out, I described it as a piece of installation art designed to be shown in cinemas rather than art galleries. (For what it's worth, I don't think these examples are borderline at all.)

The only Christian Marclay film I've been able to see is The Clock (and not all of it*), and it will definitely be on my list. He's a witty and very precise collagist working on a ludicrously epic scale in that film.

* Only because the gallery that was screening it was closed for most of its duration, so day after day only the same portion was viewable!