Looking with Robert Gardner / edited by Rebecca Meyers, William Rothman, and Charles Warren.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Meyers, Rebecca, 1976- editor.

Rothman, William, editor.

Warren, Charles, 1948-2021, editor.

Series:

SUNY series, horizons of cinema.

SUNY series, horizons of cinema

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gardner, Robert, 1925-2014--Criticism and interpretation.

Gardner, Robert.

Motion pictures in ethnology.

Ethnographic films.

Indigenous peoples in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (354 pages)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2016]

Summary:

During his lifetime, Robert Gardner (1925–2014) was often pigeonholed as an ethnographic filmmaker, then criticized for failing to conform to the genre's conventions—conventions he radically challenged. With the release of his groundbreaking film Dead Birds in 1963, Gardner established himself as one of the world's most extraordinary independent filmmakers, working in a unique border area between ethnography, the essay film, and poetic/experimental cinema. Richly illustrated, Looking with Robert Gardner assesses the range and magnitude of Gardner's achievements not only as a filmmaker but also as a still photographer, writer, educator, and champion of independent cinema. The contributors give critical attention to Gardner's most ambitious films, such as Dead Birds (1963, New Guinea), Rivers of Sand (1975, Ethiopia), and Forest of Bliss (1986, India), as well as lesser-known films that equally exemplify his mode of seeking anthropological understanding through artistic means. They also attend to his films about artists, including his self-depiction in Still Journey OnM (2011); to his roots in experimental film and his employment of experimental procedures; and to his support of independent filmmakers through the Harvard Film Study Center and the television series Screening Room, which provided an opportunity for numerous important film and video artists to present and discuss their work.

Contents:

Front Matter

contents

Robert Gardner

Overviews and General Topics

Some Notes on Robert Gardner

In Flight with Robert Gardner

Colors

Aesthetic Form and Ethnographic Discourse

Robert Gardner and Jean Rouch:

Robert Gardner’s Reality

To Give, To Take, and To Return

Ethno-Cine-Poet: Robert Gardner and Experimental Film

A Revolution in Favor of Television: WCVB-TV and Robert Gardner’s Screening Room

On Shamanism and Other Encounters: A Conversation with Robert Gardner in Mexico

Returning with Robert Gardner to the Baliem Valley, 1988–89

Looking at Individual Films

First Encounters: An Essay on Dead Birds and Robert Gardner

Allegory and Gender Representation in Rivers of Sand

Word against Flesh in Rivers of Sand

Look At Me! Deep Hearts and the Vertiginous Self

Nomadic Metrosexuals: Framing Beauty, Editing Ritual, and Exhibiting Masculinity in Deep Hearts

Film, Matter, and Spirit: Forest of Bliss

The Same Thing from Different Angles: Resituating Forest of Bliss

Hand Eye Coordination: Robert Gardner’s Artist Films

Learning from Catalonia

Dead Birds Re-Encountered: A Journey of Return

Acknowledgments

Credits

Appendices

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438460529

143846052X