Subversion : the definitive history of underground cinema / Duncan Reekie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reekie, Duncan.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Experimental films--History.

Experimental films.

Independent filmmakers--History.

Independent filmmakers.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 259 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Wallflower, 2007.

Summary:

Subversion in the first complete history of underground cinema, tracing the hidden life of subterranean filmmaking from its pre-history in bohemian cabaret, through the early cinematic avant-gardes of the 1920s, to the worldwide blossoming of microcinema festivals in the 1990s. Part cultural history, part radical polemic, Subversion provides historic background and social context to such influential yet rarely discussed scenes such as the London Film-makers' Co-operative of the 1960s, the New York Cinema of Transgression of the 1980s and the New London Undergound of the 1990s, plus original research into the world of amateur cine culture from the 1930s onwards. Contextualising these movements within a broader historical and theoretical background of experimental media, and locating underground cinema as a popular and radical subculture distinct from both mainstream cinema and institutionalised avant-garde film, Subversion is set to become an essential text for scholars of moving-image history and culture as well as independent and guerrilla filmmakers working in opposition to the mainstream.

Contents:

Introduction: The Deceptive Typology of Experimental Film and Video 1

Art/Not Art

1 A Historical Outline of the Illegitimate Popular Tradition: Continuity and Resistance 13

2 The History of Art, the Function of the Avant-Garde and the Rise of Modernism 34

3 Folklore vs. Kitsch: How Art Theorised Against the Popular 45

Cinema at the Heart of the Pop/Art Conflict

4 Montage Culture: Cinema as the Popular Function of Film 57

5 The First Avant-Garde Film Movement: The Vengeance of Art 76

6 British Independent Film 1925-66: The Rise of the State Alternative to Popular Cinema 82

7 Amateur Cine Culture: The Hidden Continuity From 1930s Experimental Film to 1960s Underground Cinema 102

The Search for the Cool Place: Underground Cinema vs. Avant-Garde Film

8 Anti-Art, Pop and Bohemia: The Bohemian Cabaret as Precursor to the Underground Cinema 119

9 The Origins of the US Underground: The Cultural Hybrid of Popular Culture, Anti-Art and the Counter-culture 133

10 The London Film-makers' Co-operative and the First British Underground Cinema 1966-70 146

11 Radical Theory and Its Practice: A Demystification 159

12 The Constitution of 'the Independent Sector: A Trinity of Texts-Curtis, Gidal and Wollen 168

13 The Underground Cinema Resurgence: From the New York Cinema of Transgression to the New London Underground 1991-2006 187

Resolution: State of the Art 200.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-250) and index.

ISBN:

1905674228

9781905674220

190567421X

9781905674213

OCLC:

124026608