The garden in the machine : a field guide to independent films about place / Scott MacDonald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacDonald, Scott, 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Experimental films--History and criticism.

Experimental films.

Motion pictures--Setting and scenery.

Motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (505 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Garden in the Machine explores the evocations of place, and particularly American place, that have become so central to the representational and narrative strategies of alternative and mainstream film and video. Scott MacDonald contextualizes his discussion with a wide-ranging and deeply informed analysis of the depiction of place in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, painting, and photography. Accessible and engaging, this book examines the manner in which these films represent nature and landscape in particular, and location in general. It offers us both new readings of the films under consideration and an expanded sense of modern film history. Among the many antecedents to the films and videos discussed here are Thomas Cole's landscape painting, Thoreau's Walden, Olmsted and Vaux's Central Park, and Eadweard Muybridge's panoramic photographs of San Francisco. MacDonald analyzes the work of many accomplished avant-garde filmmakers: Kenneth Anger, Bruce Baillie, James Benning, Stan Brakhage, Nathaniel Dorsky, Hollis Frampton, Ernie Gehr, Larry Gottheim, Robert Huot, Peter Hutton, Marjorie Keller, Rose Lowder, Marie Menken, J.J. Murphy, Andrew Noren, Pat O'Neill, Leighton Pierce, Carolee Schneemann, and Chick Strand. He also examines a variety of recent commercial feature films, as well as independent experiments in documentary and such contributions to independent video history as George Kuchar's Weather Diaries and Ellen Spiro's Roam Sweet Home. MacDonald reveals the spiritual underpinnings of these works and shows how issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and class are conveyed as filmmakers attempt to discover forms of Edenic serenity within the Machine of modern society. Both personal and scholarly, The Garden in the Machine will be an invaluable resource for those interested in investigating and experiencing a broader spectrum of cinema in their teaching, in their research, and in their lives.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction

1. The Garden in the Machine

2. Voyages of Life

3. Avant-Gardens

4. Re-envisioning the American West

5. From the Sublime to the Vernacular

6. The City as Motion Picture

7. The Country in the City

8. Rural (and Urban) Hours

9. Expulsion from the Garden

10. Satan's National Park

11. Benedictions/New Frontiers

Appendix. Distribution Sources for Films and Videos

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-446) and index.

ISBN:

9786613587275

9781280492044

128049204X

9780520926455

0520926455

OCLC:

792684608