Calendars:Networked Media Calendar/Networked Media Calendar/12-02-2018 -Event 2
LB1TP3: 10:30 - 18:00: ‘A brief survey of history of Avantgarde Cinema and its relevance for your artistic practice’, lead by Anna Abrahams [Day 3 of 3 -in the large seminar space]===
Monday 12 Feb: American Underground –against the current of Hollywood
Mainstream cinema is reasonable and reassuring. Underground puts all values of Hollywood upside down. As a reaction to the smoothness of pop culture and the world of advertising, it dives into the dark world of passions, the elusive and the irrational. Underground cinema is like the Greek Dionysus cult - named after the god of wine, where the intoxication, the irrational, debauchery and sexuality are celebrated. In the US in the 60-ies the adagio was: Get your kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in Flames (Jim Morrison). Everything revolved around the feeling of NOW.
American Underground was fed by European filmmakers who fled from war and repression in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Combine this with the self-consciousness of the American artists of the forties and fifties (Beat Poets, New American journalism, abstract expressionism), good communication possibilities, a lot of talent and you have the perfect conditions for a new movement.
With works by: Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, Willard Maas, Mary Menken, Maya Deren, Jonas Mekas.
Lecturer: ANNA ABRAHAMS
Anna Abrahams (Oslo, 1963) studied film theory at the University of Amsterdam. Abrahams produces, directs and edits films for the independent production foundation Rongwrong, which she founded with filmmaker Jan Frederik Groot in 1989. Abrahams is programmer avant garde and artist film for EYE Film Institute Netherlands and lectures at the Royal Academy of the Arts in The Hague. She is(co)author of ‘Warhol Films’, ‘ Oh, this is Fabulous’, ‘mm2. Experimental Film in the Netherlands’ and ‘film³ [kyü-bik film]’).
Selection of films
- 7 Peaks, 2012, 35mm, 23 min.
- Desert 79°. Three Journeys Beyond the Known World, 2010, 35mm, 19 min.
- DIY (co-director Jan Frederik Groot), 2009, HDcam, 8 min.
- 5 Walks. Hercynia Silva, 2008, 35mm, 15 min.
- Cadavre Exquis, 2004, 16mm, 36 min.
- Rowing (co-director Jan Frederik Groot), 2003, 35mm, 1 min.
- Resort (co-director Jan Frederik Groot), 2002, 16mm, 15 min.
- Grave in the Tropics, 1998, 35mm, 45 min.
- Notes from the Underground, 1998, 16mm, 30 min.
- Sotsgorod. Cities for Utopia, 1995, 16mm, 92 min.