Japanese Avant-Garde and Experimental Film by Kiejziewicz

Posner 2001 is a short but rich guide that accompanies a seven-disc DVD set of restored films. Michelson 2017 is an indispensible volume for its brilliance and coverage. MacDonald 1988–2005, a formidable five-volume collection of interviews with a wide range of avant-garde filmmakers, is the most inclusive source, while Dixon and Foster 2002 and Graf and Scheunemann 2007 are single volumes that include the work of filmmakers who are unavailable for interviews. Given the broad range of films that are called experimental, no single anthology can cover the entire field. Given the paucity of material written about experimental film as well as the countercultural nature of the films and the filmmaking practices, some original texts are included that have been supplanted with revised versions of film history because they are inaccurate or unsubstantiated yet, they remain useful for the obscure material and historical perspectives they provide.

Unless otherwise noted, the material in this bibliography is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students who have some knowledge of film history. Scholarship and writing about experimental film run the gamut from deeply personal and casual in tone to highly dense and theoretical. Currently, filmmakers are using video and new media of all kinds as well as including film in larger multimedia installations. Although experimental films present myriad structures, lengths, and concerns, filmmakers have traditionally favored 8 mm and 16 mm formats. It is also frequently produced as a critique of dominant, classical Hollywood cinema and functions in relation to political movements and strategies, such as feminism. Avant-garde film is often produced in the context of the larger art world, particularly in relation to the visual arts and literature. While experimental film as a separate mode of film practice is international, its most prevalent manifestations were in western Europe before World War II and North America and Britain in the postwar period. Experimental and avant-garde film is cinema made outside of the film industry on an artisanal basis, largely without regard to the structures and demands of traditional narrative film.

Japanese Avant-Garde and Experimental Film by Kiejziewicz