The presentations in class last week yielded some very
interesting information to me; I was particularly interested in what I learned
about Jonas Mekas. The fact that he was able to write even in the labor camps
seemed an odd piece of history, as well as testament to his creative urges. I
had never before heard of the Filmmaker’s Cinematheque, nor the Anthology Film
Archives that developed from it. I visited New York City in December 2013, and
had I known about the Film Archives, I would have certainly tried to visit.
That the Anthology Film Archives were and are a haven for
the viewing of experimental films was important to me; as Shannon pointed out,
decades ago a person might see an enthralling experimental film in one of the
rare venues showing it and never have the chance to see it again. Hans Richter’s
work also caught my interest, because of his aberrant anti-war filmmaking. “Zurich
Dada” is a term I had heard before, but I hadn’t seen any of it yet. The
shape-changing animations included in the presentations were
impressive not just for the difficulty of their assembly back then, but also
because of their unity and themes. After these presentations today, a classmate
such as myself could begin to realize that the experimental film world is
larger than we first conceived it to be.
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