Avant-Garde or Experimental Film

View as many of these films as possible. Then choose one film to write a review about and enter it in your film blog! Prepare to tell the class about the film you watched. (Most films are online on Youtube, Netflix, etc...)

Avant-Garde or Experimental Film

Experimental cinema or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking
that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores
non-narrative forms and alternatives to traditional narratives or
methods of working. Most of the classic avant-garde films were not
widely seen (remember, until recently there was no YouTube, or
even home video, and anyone wanting to see these pieces

had to seek out rare prints, or attend film schools that kept copies
for study).
Nevertheless, they were tremendously influential on narrative film
and their stamp can be seen in modern cinematography, editing,
visual effects, and aesthetics. Music videos contain some of the prime
examples of avant-garde and experimental film techniques, and
whether they are aware of it or not, all filmmakers are using ideas and
techniques that come from the avant-garde.

Some Classic Examples:

Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950)

Anemic Cinema (Marcel Duchamp, 1926)

Serene Velocity (Ernie Gehr, 1970)

Dyketactics (Barbara Hammer, 1970)

Ghost Algebra (Janie Geiser ,2009)

Bridges go round (Shirley Clarke, 1958)

La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)

Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (Shuji Terayama, 1971)

Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1961-1964)

Daisies (Vera Chytilová, 1966)

Ballet mécanique (Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy, 1924)

Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963)

Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)

Chelsea Girls (Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, 1966)

Zorn’s Lemma (Hollis Frampton, 1970)

Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)

Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)

Un chien andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1929)
INTERMITTENT DELIGHT (Akosua Adoma Owusu, 2007)