Experimental

  • Bruce Petty – Megalomedia (1981)

    1981-1990ArthouseAustraliaBruce PettyExperimental

    A satirical enquiry into the origins of media, their distribution and their effects on the way we behave.

    Those familiar with cartoonist Bruce Petty’s award winning film Leisure will enjoy the same sharp wit brought to bear on another institution, the media. This three-part film is a satirical enquiry into the origins of media, their distribution and their effects on the way we behave. The first part provides a brief history of print, radio, television and film. The second part proposes that a market-placed media produces the problem of monopolisation leading to mediocrity. Finally, Petty produces a caricature of the way ideas form in the mind from reading print, as distinct from passive looking and listening.Read More »

  • Al Kouzel – Fotodeath (1961)

    1961-1970Al KouzelAmos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtExperimentalShort FilmUSA

    From Amos Vogel’s Film as a Subversive Art:
    A film record of one of Claes Oldenburg’s celebrated happenings – largely improvised, mysterious or humorous, neo-Dadaist or surreal events, not necessarily causal or meaningful, which sardonically comment on an absurd universe and aim at fusing actor and spectator, art and life.Read More »

  • Tianhuojian – Wading in the Afterlife (2022)

    2021-2030ChinaExperimentalShort FilmTianhuojian

    A girl who is not aware she crossed over into the afterlife; is life itself but a dream within a dream?

    The title’s a misnomer: dream water’s not to be waded through, better rather to drift. Splashing along the lazy river you’re just going roundabout, but if you catch the natural current it’s got an outlet in mind. If the dream’s a reflection and the stream is its source then that’s the direction we’ll drift: beyond. Drink deep from the cosmic microwave background radiation and you’ve got the shimmer of a looking-glass alright: this screen’s glazed with waves. The pool’s got defined walls only until they disappear in the haze; hallucination concealing hallucination offers strange clarity – that’s vaporwave.Read More »

  • Richard Kern – Tumble (1991)

    1991-2000ExperimentalRichard KernShort FilmUSA

    Quote:
    Tumble demonstrates Richard Kern’s departure from narrative filmmaking in the early nineties. He was clearly more interested now in photography, and specially in the merging of documentary and model photography.Read More »

  • Tom Bowes – The Kitchen Presents Two Moon July (1986)

    1981-1990ExperimentalTom BowesUSAVideo Art

    Quote:
    This video is an ensemble piece that contains a collection of experimental performance art pieces by various performers. The entire video takes place in The Kitchen, an enormous artist’s loft in the midst of New York City. All the performance pieces are what could be considered Avant-garde in nature, though that term has fallen out of use today in order to make way for the more pedestrian and commonplace whitewash term of alternative; however, when this video was created, the style and feel of each of these pieces was more intentionally risk-filled and groundbreaking than what we see today as is the nature with the ideals of the avant-garde–I don’t think the term alternative had been coined and/or abused as yet, people were still saying New Wave or Punk or using terms even more inaccurate and less flattering. Don’t get me wrong, these differing pieces are new and experimental concepts in art but all are carefully rehearsed and well scripted, there is some, but very little improvisation on the whole. Read More »

  • Norman McLaren – Synchromie AKA Synchromy (1971)

    1971-1980AnimationCanadaExperimentalNorman McLaren

    PLOT: This animated short by Norman McLaren features synchronization of image and sound in the truest sense of the word. To make this film, McLaren employed novel optical techniques to compose the piano rhythms of the sound track, which he then moved, in multicolor, onto the picture area of the screen so that, in effect, you see what you hear.Read More »

  • Stephen Dwoskin – Tod und Teufel AKA Death and Devil (1974)

    Stephen Dwoskin1971-1980ExperimentalUnited Kingdom

    PLOT: The action of the film evolves around the rooms of a house as one of the main characters, Lisiska, is waiting and is studied in depth as she prepares herself for a meeting & The film attempts to display sexual barriers and misconceptions, and about the role-playing and the confusion around the whole question of sexual and sensual involvement. The essence is the confrontation with self-deception, lies and the real fear of contact with both sexes.’
    Based on the German playwright Frank Wedekind’s play Tod Und TeufelRead More »

  • Daan Bakker – Quality Time (2017)

    2011-2020Daan BakkerDramaExperimentalNetherlands

    Five thirty-something men in as many separate segments struggle to grapple with the relentless absurdity of their respective existences.Read More »

  • Derek Jarman – The Garden (1990)

    1981-1990ArthouseDerek JarmanExperimentalQueer Cinema(s)United Kingdom

    Quote:
    A powerful experience which delves into territories of madness and transcendence, The Garden is a statement about director Derek Jarman’s anger over the AIDS crisis. Produced by James Mackay (Blue, The Kingdom of Shadows), it is an intellectual, thought-provoking, and visually imagination experience that fans of the filmmaker won’t want to miss. A must-see gem.Read More »

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