Adventures of perception: cinema as exploration: essays-interviews / Scott MacDonald

Over the past twenty-five years, Scott MacDonald's kaleidoscopic explorations of independent cinema have become the most important chronicle of avant-garde and experimental film in the United States. In this collection of thematically related personal essays and conversations with filmmakers, he takes us on a fascinating journey into many under-explored territories of cinema. MacDonald illuminates topics including race and avant-garde film, the political implications of the nature film, the inventive single shot films of the late 1960s and early 1970s, why men use pornography and what they are looking at when they do, poetry and the poetic in avant-garde film, the widespread failure of film studies academicians to honor those who keep film exhibition alive, and other topics. Several of the interviews—those with Korean filmmaker Gina Kim, French nature filmmakers Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou (Microcosmos), Canadian media artist Clive Holden, formalist/conceptualist David Gatten, and New York's Film Forum director Karen Cooper—are the first substantial conversations with these filmmakers available in English. "Over the past twenty-five years, Scott MacDonald's kaleidoscopic explorations of independent cinema have become the most important chronicle of avant-garde and experimental film in the United States. In this collection of thematically related personal essays and conversations with filmmakers, he takes us on a fascinating journey into many under-explored territories of cinema. MacDonald illuminates topics including race and avant-garde film, the political implications of the nature film, the inventive single shot films of the late 1960s and early 1970s, why men use pornography and what they are looking at when they do, poetry and the poetic in avant-garde film, the widespread failure of film studies academicians to honor those who keep film exhibition alive, and other topics. Several of the interviews--those with Korean filmmaker Gina Kim, French nature filmmakers Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou (Microcosmos), Canadian media artist Clive Holden, formalist/conceptualist David Gatten, and New York's Film Forum director Karen Cooper--are the first substantial conversations with these filmmakers available in English."--Publisher's description Desegregating film history: avant-garde film and race at the Robert Flaherty Seminar, and beyond Interview with Gina Kim Poetry and film: avant-garde cinema as publication Interview with Clive Holden Up close and political: three short ruminations on nature film Interview with Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou The attractions of nature in early cinema Interview with Peter Hutton Putting all your eggs in one basket: the single-shot film Interview with James Benning The Mohawk Valley journey to the journey Interview with David Gatten Confessions of a feminist porn watcher (then and now) Interview with George Kuchar (on the Weather diaries) Film history and "film history" Interview with Karen Cooper. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Desegregating Film History Interview with Gina Kim Poetry and Film Interview with Clive Holden Up Close and Political Interview with Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou The Attractions of Nature in Early Cinema Interview with Peter Hutton Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket Interview with James Benning The Mohawk Valley Journey to The Journey Interview with David Gatten Confessions of a Feminist Porn Watcher (Then and Now) Interview with George Kuchar (on the Weather Diaries) Film History and “Film History” Interview with Karen Cooper Sources for Films Index A collection of thematically related personal essays and conversations with filmmakers. It takes us on a journey into many under-explored territories of cinema. It illuminates topics including race and avant-garde film, the political implications of the nature film, and the inventive single shot films of the late 1960s and early 1970s.