The amateur as auteur discovering paradise in pictures

Posner, Bruce Charles, 1953- (Added Author). Shepard, David. (Added Author). Case, Theodore W., 1888-1944 (Added Author). Wright, Elizabeth Woodman, 1885-1961 (Added Author). Stewart, Archie, 1902-1998 (Added Author). Cornell, Joseph. (Added Author). Jordan, Larry, 1934- (Added Author). Burckhardt, Rudy. (Added Author). Jacobs, Lewis. (Added Author). Stauffacher, Frank, 1916-1955 (Added Author). Hecker, John C. (Added Author). Film Associates. (Added Author). Anthology Film Archives (Added Author). Eastman Kodak Company. (Added Author). British Film Institute. (Added Author). Cineric, Inc. (Added Author). Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main. (Added Author). Film Preservation Associates. (Added Author). George Eastman House. (Added Author). Library of Congress. (Added Author). Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) (Added Author). Image Entertainment (Firm) (Added Author).

Summary: American experimental film has existed since the technological inception of cinema, through its adolescent rambles of 1900-1919, rising phoenix-like during the high silent era, and finally matured and spread throughout the '30's and onward. The background against which the experimentalists toiled provides a fascinating review of Americana coupled with numerous cross-currents, successes and failures, and an unfailing desire to create on film an image that can be viewed as an independent and provocative art. These home-made films incorporate avant-garde strategies and techniques to achieve a true sense of cinematic intimacy.

Record details

Physical Description: videorecording (DVD)
videodisc
1 videodisc (175 min.) : sd. & si., b&w, col. tinted, and col. ; 4 3/4 in.
Publisher: New York, NY : Anthology Film Archives ; Chatsworth, CA : Distributed by Image Entertainment, c2005.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Special features: [PDF files require a DVD-ROM drive and Adobe Acrobat]; Filmmaker biographies and photo gallery; Acknowledgments; Sponsors; Film note authors; Musicians; Credits; Essay "Where the Buffalo Roamed...Relative Histories of an Early American Avant-Garde Film" by film historian Bruce Posner, in accompanying booklet (v.1).
Formatted Contents Note:	Case sound tests / Theodore Case (c. 1924-25) (8 min.) -- Windy Ledge farm / Elizabeth Woodman Wright (c. 1929-34) (18 min.) -- Day in Santa Fe / Lynn Riggs and James Hughes (1931) (29 min.) -- Stewart family home movies / Archie Stewart (1935-39) (33 min.) -- Children's party / Joseph Cornell, completed by Lawrence Jordan ; (c. 1938-68) (10 min.) -- Cotillion / Joseph Cornell, completed by Lawrence Jordan ; (c. 1938-68) (9 min.) -- Midnight party / Joseph Cornell, completed by Lawrence Jordan ; (c. 1938-68) (4 min.) -- Haiti / Rudy Burckhardt (1938) (16 min.) -- Tree trunk to head / Lewis Jacobs ; Film Associates (1937-38) (35 min.) -- Bicycle polo at San Mateo / Frank Stauffacher (1940-42) (3 min.) -- 1126 Dewey Ave., Apt 207 / attributed to John C. Hecker (1939) (3 min.).
Creation/Production Credits Note:	Music, Robert Israel, Neal Kurz, Erik Satie, Rodney Sauer.
Participant or Performer Note:	Chaim Gross.
System Details Note:	DVD; Region 0 (All), NTSC; Dolby Digital stereo; original presentation aspect ratio, 1.33:1.