Movie Journal: The Rise of the New American Cinema, 1959-1971 (Film and Culture Series) by Jonas Mekas

Description

In his Village Voice "Movie Journal" columns, Jonas Mekas captured the makings of an exciting movement in 1960s American filmmaking. Works by Andy Warhol, Gregory J. Markapoulos, Stan Brakhage, Jack Smith, Robert Breer, and others echoed experiments already underway elsewhere, yet they belonged to a nascent tradition that only a true visionary could identify. Mekas incorporated the most essential characteristics of these films into a unique conception of American filmmaking's next phase. He show more simplified complex aesthetic strategies for unfamiliar audiences and appreciated the subversive genius of films that many dismissed as trash. This new edition presents Mekas's original critiques in full, with additional material on the filmmakers, film studies scholars, and popular and avant-garde critics whom he inspired and transformed. show less

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I think I read this when I was more than a little jaded to the revolutionary promise of experimental & underground filmmaking. As such, I think I found it a little naive. But, what the fuck, I'll take Mekas' passion anyday over a hopeless world. Mekas loves & champions work that's made its mark but how many people actually care I don't know. I mean, the multiplexes are still full of tits & guns right? I mean, the tits are fine by me but let's lose the guns, alright? &, for that matter, let's make people think about something OTHER THAN TITS too while we're at it.

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