A History of 1970s Experimental Film : Britain's Decade of Diversity

1. Questions of History -- 2. Institutional Frameworks and Organisational Strategies -- 3. Experimental Film and Other Visual Arts -- 4. Visionary, Mythopoeia and Diary Films -- 5. Experiments with Structure and Material -- 6. Women and Film.;"This comprehensive historical account demonstrates the rich diversity in 1970s British experimental filmmaking. It acts as a form of reclamation by integrating films having received inadequate historical and critical recognition and placing these alongside films existing as accepted texts of the decade. This history challenges the problematic 'return to image' thesis, providing examples of written evidence and demonstrating how this has problematically perpetuated a flawed account of the decade. This is the first extensive overview of 1970s filmmaking, contextualizing films within broader aesthetic, theoretical and socio-political frameworks. The detailed textual and comparative analyses offer unique approaches to individual films, shedding light on technical, aesthetic and economic decisions informing filmmaking. As such, it provides a unique understanding of how experimental filmmaking grew from a small handful of films and filmmakers, at the start of the 1970s, to a veritable 'explosion' in filmmaking by the end of the decade"-- Cover 1 Half-Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Tables 11 Foreword 12 Acknowledgements 17 List of Abbreviations 19 Introduction 20 1 Questions of History 31 Historiography and history through curation 32 Accessibility to films 35 Whose history do we need? 37 'Which History?' 38 The 'return to image' thesis 42 Concluding thoughts 53 2 Institutional Frameworks and Organisational Strategies 55 Film workshops 56 Audience engagement 57 Independent Film-Maker's Association (IFA) 59 Funding 60 The Arts Council Great Britain (ACGB) and the British Film Institute (BFI) 62 The Attenborough Enquiry 65 Group funding and other alternatives 68 Distribution 71 Education 72 1970s screenings 75 Concluding thoughts 82 3 Experimental Film and Other Visual Arts 85 Conceptualism, modernism and approaches to filmmaking 87 'Black box' or 'white cube' and anti- commodification 91 Expanded cinema 94 Film experimentation 97 Jarman's painting, romanticism and 'sensuous' film 98 Colour Field painting and Cubism 100 Optical painting/optical film 103 Film and photography 104 Drawing on film 105 Land Art and landscape in film 106 Sculpting space 111 'No-film' film 113 Concluding thoughts 115 4 Visionary, Mythopoeia and Diary Films 117 Contexts for filmmaking 117 New considerations for 1970s British films 120 Psycho-dramatic trance, lyrical and mythopoeia in British films 123 Fire in the Water (1977) 123 Vibration (1975) and Anti-Clock (1979) 125 The Other Side of the Underneath (1972) and Central Bazaar (1976) 128 'Psycho-dramatic trance' 130 Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) and Rayday Film (1968–70 and 1976) 131 Lucifer Rising ( 1970–1981), In the Shadow of the Sun ( 1974–81) and The Art of Mirrors (1973) 133 British 'diary' films 137 Ian Breakwell 137 B. S. Johnson 139 Margaret Tait 140 Anne Rees-Mogg 142 David Larcher 143 Concluding thoughts 146 5 Experiments with Structure and Material 148 International exchanges 152 Theoretical perspectives for filmmaking: Sitney, Le Grice and Gidal 153 Distinctively British experimentation and the LFMC 157 Consolidating structural and material filmmaking: Le Grice and Gidal 158 Film experimentation 162 Film materiality 163 The objective and/or subjective ' camera-eye': Gidal and Brakhage 165 Anticipation through image construction 167 Humour, play and sound/image 168 Sound as narrative formation 170 Critiques of the formal ideological position 173 Concluding thoughts 175 6 Women and Film 176 Political and theoretical frameworks for filmmaking 176 Questions of a feminine aesthetic 180 Diversity in women's filmmaking 185 The domestic 185 The gendered film text 189 A feminine aesthetic of ephemerality 193 History, language and ideology 196 Concluding thoughts 202 Conclusion: (Re)cognitions and (Re)considerations for This History 204 Notes 212 Bibliography 234 Index 243 "This comprehensive historical account demonstrates the rich diversity in 1970s British experimental filmmaking. It acts as a form of reclamation by integrating films having received inadequate historical and critical recognition and placing these alongside films existing as accepted texts of the decade. This history challenges the problematic 'return to image' thesis, providing examples of written evidence and demonstrating how this has problematically perpetuated a flawed account of the decade. This is the first extensive overview of 1970s filmmaking, contextualizing films within broader aesthetic, theoretical and socio-political frameworks. The detailed textual and comparative analyses offer unique approaches to individual films, shedding light on technical, aesthetic and economic decisions informing filmmaking. As such, it provides a unique understanding of how experimental filmmaking grew from a small handful of films and filmmakers, at the start of the 1970s, to a veritable 'explosion' in filmmaking by the end of the decade"-- Provided by publisher This comprehensive historical account demonstrates the rich diversity in 1970s British experimental filmmaking, acting as a form of reclamation for films and filmmakers marginalized within established histories. An indispensable book for practitioners, historians and critics alike, it provides new interpretations of this rich and diverse history.