Presentations - Responses

I enjoyed all of the presentations last week. It's really exciting to be able to learn so much about so many important, influential filmmakers. It's hard for me to get past my deeply ingrained misconception that most experimental films are pretty similar - weird, vague, and boring to watch. However, learning more about the filmmakers' lives and seeing their distinctive work gave me a newfound appreciation for some of the films we saw.

The work of Jonas Mekas in particular profoundly affected me. I was tearing up several times throughout watching the snippets of his films. The simple glimpses into his life were oddly beautiful, and his voiceover even moreso. There is something so unique, chilling, and absolutely gorgeous about seeing into the small, mundane aspects of someone else's life.

Mekas' films remind me of one of my favorite music videos of all time - the video to my favorite artist, Joanna Newsom's song, Peach, Plum, Pear.

It is a fan video, but everyone regards it as official because of how well it fits with the song. The creator discovered reels of this unknown family's home videos at a yard sale and thought they were so interesting and beautiful that he had to share them with the world. I've seen the video countless times and I still get emotional watching it.

I had a harder time feeling connected in any sort of way to the works of Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter. I dislike Dadaism even though I agree with the ideals for which it stands. I did find it intriguing to learn that Eggeling mentored such an influential person as Stanley Kubrick at the Institute of Film Techniques. He also taught Maya Deren, whom I will be presenting about next week. (Get pumped!!!) I will have to keep this tidbit of knowledge in mind as I delve into her own background and ideals.

My favorite fact about Len Lye was that he lived in a lighthouse. I would kill to live in one of those! I also was surprised to learn that he at one point collaborated with Hitchcock in one of his earlier films. I think it would have been really interesting to see what sort of special effect sequences Lye could have created for some of Hitchcock's more well known movies, such as The Birds. As for Lye's own films, I enjoyed watching Rainbow Dance. It felt very familiar; I think it's been copied many times in present day media, so it was interesting to learn who the original idea is attributed to.

Finally, I wasn't enthralled with Harry Smith's work; it called to mind many aspects of Dada (particularly his cutout videos), which, again, I have a sort of distaste for. Still, I have to appreciate the amount of time and energy he clearly put into his films.
My old roommate was obsessed with the poets of the Beat Generation (and in turn I now know far too much about them), so it's interesting that I knew nothing of Smith before this presentation. I'd be interested to know how much he and the Beat poets influenced each others' work.