Avant-Garde Today

Scott MacDonald’s Introduction to "Avant-Garde Film" is both highly insightful and relevant to today’s television immersed and commercially conditioned culture. I found the research and analysis of the history and adaptation of Avant-Garde cinema interesting and applicable to my own experiences with cinema. I’m further compelled by the ways in which Avant Garde cinema aims to explore the possibilities of film and open my eyes to new ideas and ways at looking at the medium.

In the article MacDonald writes about how Avant Garde cinema is underappreciated and misunderstood today. He proclaims that most people are consumed by commercial media and the traditional forms of Hollywood cinema. Thus, most people aren’t readily willing to accept this more critical cinema. He explores the history of Avant Garde and defines it as challenging the norms of cinema and as commenting on society, cinema, etc. He states that Avant Garde is an alternative to traditional cinema; being that it is more concerned with the viewers' attention to shape, motion, rhythm, color, and form. Furthermore, it has been used as a means of exploration of the possibilities of film through manipulation. “Ingenious critical films can function as a backdrop against which viewers can measure their journeys across the boundaries that separate them from unfamiliar cinematic terrains, toward a larger awareness of Cinema.” Essentially, these films want the viewer to become open to different forms of filmmaking and cinema in general. He also realizes that although Avant Garde appeared during early cinema, it has become popular recently due to its cheap and effective nature of production. Thus, Avant Garde has opened the powerful realm of filmmaking to more people.

The ideas in this article are relevant to me as I study film because they force me to explore the endless possibilities of the medium. By studying Avant Garde I can become more open minded and critical of the filmmaking process. Also, as I begin producing films, it is important for me to consider the styles and ideas behind Avant Garde. By doing so, I can break away from the traditional and experiment with new forms, styles, and techniques to comment on everything from society to traditional media itself. In creating videos compiled from field video and sound recordings it is important to use the more abstract Avant Garde cinema techniques to present an idea or create discussion. I believe that the study of Avant Garde will help me create these videos the way that studying sound walking and the Derive assisted me in gathering field recordings.