Avant-Garde Film Journal: Stan Brakhage Interview

• Each student must keep a journal during the course, comprising at least one full page – in a 12- point font with no more than two lines of heading – per week. This is the equivalent of a short paper each week, in which you respond to one or more aspects of that week’s course material: the reading, the film, the lecture, the class discussion. Of these, the reading is most important – refer to it specifically as often as possible. Do not turn in your class notes as a substitute – this is an academic journal, meant to record what you are learning and thinking with regard to the course on a weekly basis. Journals must be printed by computer, not written by hand.
• A journal entry must be turned in for each and every week of class, whether or not you are present for that week’s class session. If you miss a class meeting for any reason you must catch up with the films (in Decker Library on reserve) and do the reading and write your entry for that week accordingly.

Week 7 – March 5   Journal entries for Weeks 1-6 due today Lecture and discussion: Stan Brakhage. Radical subjectivity. The camera as extension of the body. Reinventing vision. Reading: P. Adams Sitney, “Interview with Stan Brakhage,” in Sitney, Film Culture Reader, pp. 201-229                 Suranjan Ganguly, “Stan Brakhage: The 60th birthday interview,” in Dixon & Foster, Experimental Cinema, pp.139-162                 Stan Brakhage, “Respond Dance,” in Sitney, Film Culture Reader, pp. 234-257                 Jane Brakhage, “The Birth Film,” in Sitney, Film Culture Reader, pp. 230-233       [Optional reading: Jonas Mekas, “Notes on the New American Cinema, in Dixon &                         Foster, Experimental Cinema, pp. 53-70] Screening: The Way to Shadow Garden – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1955       Window Water Baby Moving – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1959       Mothlight – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1963                   Murder Psalm – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1980                   The Wold-Shadow – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1972                   The Garden of Earthly Delights – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1981                   Kindering – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1987                   The Dante Quartet – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1987                   I…Dreaming – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1988                   Glaze of Cathexis – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1990                   Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse – Stan Brakhage, USA, 1990       Chinese Series – Stan Brakhage, USA, 2003 Week 8 – March 13 Lecture and discussion: Bruce Conner. Montage and collage. Social criticism. Reading: Brakhage, Film at Wit’s End, pp. 128-147                 David Sterritt, “Bruce Conner: Crafting Visions from Film Pieces.” The Christian Science Monitor (24 October 1984) Screening: A Movie – Bruce Conner (USA, 1958)                   Cosmic Ray – Bruce Conner, USA, 1962                   Report – Bruce Conner, USA, 1967                  5:10 to Dreamland – Bruce Conner, USA, 1976                   Valse Triste – Bruce Conner, USA, 1977                   Mongoloid – Bruce Conner, USA, 1978                   America Is Waiting – Bruce Conner, USA, 1981                   His Eye Is on the Sparrow – Bruce Conner, USA, 2006 [Extended Spring Break – No Class March 19 and March 26] Week 9 – April 2 Lecture and discussion: Kenneth Anger and the mystical impulse. Movies as magick. Reading: Carolee Schneemann, “Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising,” in Sitney, Film Culture Reader, pp. 277-279                 Juan A. Suarez, “Pop, Queer, or Fascist? The Ambiguity of Mass Culture in Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising,” in Dixon & Foster, Experimental Cinema, pp. 115-137                 Ed Halter, “A Listener’s Guide to Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising.” Crosscuts(18 August 2015)                 James Magrini, “Lucifer Rising.” Senses of Cinema 74 (March 2015) Screening: Fireworks – Kenneth Anger, USA, 1947 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x47ms6t (链接到外部⽹站。)       Eaux d’artifice – Kenneth Anger, USA, 1953            https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xeidre (链接到外部⽹站。)       Scorpio Rising – Kenneth Anger, USA, 1964 https://archive.org/details/1963ScorpioRisingKennethAnger (链接到外部⽹站。)       Invocation of My Demon Brother – Kenneth Anger, USA, 1969 https://vimeo.com/158552785 (链接到外部⽹站。)       Lucifer Rising – Kenneth Anger, USA, 1981 Lucifer Rising by Kenneth Anger (链接到外部⽹站。) Part 4 – Features Week 10 – April 9 Lecture and discussion: Asian and African-American cinema. Reading: Michael Atkinson, “A Page of Madness.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival (2017) Screening: Asparagus – Suzan Pitt, USA, 1979 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x23sA2eDHk (链接到外部⽹站。)       Kurutta ippêji aka A Page of Madness – Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japan, 1926 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aubUkD_2k4 (链接到外部⽹站。) Week 11 – April 16 Lecture and discussion: Surrealist narrative. Reading: Marsha Kinder, “The Exterminating Angel: Exterminating Civilization.” Current (9 February 2009)                 David Sterritt, “The Exterminating Angel.” Cineaste vol. 42 no. 3 (Summer 2017), pp. 60-61 Screening: Un Chien andalou – Luis Buñuel, France, 1929 https://archive.org/details/unchienandalou_201502 (链接到外部⽹站。)       El ángel exterminador aka The Exterminating Angel – Luis Buñuel, Mexico, 1962 https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-exterminating-angel/ id950122811 (链接到外部⽹站。) (costs $3.99) Week 12 – April 23 Lecture and discussion: Image and music as equal partners. Reading: Gregory Stephens, “Koyaanisqatsi and the Visual Narrative of Environmental Film.” Screening the Past 28 (7 September 2010) Screening: Koyaanisqatsi – Godfrey Reggio, USA, 1982 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-K-arVl-U (链接到外部⽹站。) Week 13 – April 30   Lecture and discussion: Transmogrifying time, space, and psychology. Reading: Mark Polizzotti, “Last Year at Marienbad: Which Year at Where?” Current (22 June 2009) Screening: L’Année dernière á Marienbad aka Last Year at Marienbad – Alain Resnais, France/Italy, 1961 Annee Derniere a Marienbad (链接到外部⽹站。) (costs $3.99) Week 14 – May 7   Journal entries for Weeks 7-13 due today Lecture and discussion: The advent of the midnight movie. Reading: Catherine S. Cox, “Eraserhead.” Senses of Cinema 40 (July 2006) Screening: Eraserhead – David Lynch, USA, 1977 Eraserhead (链接到外部⽹站。) (costs $2.99 in sd or $3.99 in hd)