The European Avant-Garde
This artistic movement, emerging as a reaction to WWI, used humor and antiwar sentiment in works that defied rationality.
What is Dadaism?
The founder of Cinema 16, who aimed to bring experimental films to a wider audience in North America.
Who is Amos Vogel?
This type of film-making relies on a predetermined formula or plan, rather than guiding the film with a narrative or emotional intent.
What is Structural Film?
This term describes the perpetual play of shapes and colors visible when your eyes are closed.
What is Closed-Eye Vision?
This 1926 film by Lotte Reiniger is the first feature-length animated film and included two openly queer characters.
What is The Adventures of Prince Achmed?
This French impressionist belief held that narrative was merely a tool for delivering emotion and expressing the director's personal vision.
What is the French Impressionist Movement?
This filmmaker, influenced by surrealism and the occult, was one of the first openly gay filmmakers in the U.S.
Who is Kenneth Anger?
This filmmaker's Empire consists of eight hours of the Empire State Building and explores the concepts of time and duration.
Who is Andy Warhol?
This avant-garde technique layers multiple images on the screen to show different perspectives simultaneously.
What is Superimposition?
Known for creating Heaven and Earth Magic (1962), this filmmaker was influenced by Dadaist and Surrealist movements.
Who is Harry Smith?
Known for theorizing montage as a way to achieve intellectual goals through the collision of elements.
Who is Sergei Eisenstein?
This trance film by Maya Deren features a woman who encounters multiple versions of herself and a figure with a mirror for a face.
What is Meshes of the Afternoon?
The name of the 1967 film that features a 45-minute continuous zoom across a room.
What is Wavelength?
In Soviet montage, this method determines shot length by the emotional impact and interaction of the preceding techniques.
What is Tonal Montage?
This pioneering animator invented the multiplane camera and explored silhouette puppetry.
Who is Lotte Reiniger?
The technique of editing emphasizing emotional tone, combining multiple elements to evoke a specific feeling in the viewer.
What is Overtonal Montage?
This technique in avant-garde film uses archival images but alters their meaning by removing historical context.
What is Appropriation?
This structural film technique alternates black-and-white frames to create a flickering visual experience.
What is the Flicker Effect?
This filmmaker bridged French Impressionism and Surrealism with works like The Seashell and the Clergyman.
Who is Germaine Dulac?
This visual-musical pioneer created An Optical Poem (1938) as an expression of music through animation.
Who is Oskar Fischinger?
A film movement characterized by dreamlike imagery, free association, and a rejection of narrative, often exploring sexuality and shock.
What is Surrealism?
Known for his "Cornell boxes," this surrealist artist also created films with a focus on collage and symbolism.
Who is Joseph Cornell?
This film, considered the first structural film, uses alternating black-and-white frames to create a non-narrative sensory experience.
What is The Flicker?
The use of roller coasters or Niagara Falls in early films for their sheer spectacle, rather than a story, fits this concept.
What is the Cinema of Attractions?
This filmmaker’s abstract works like Allures (1961) and Samadhi (1967) reflect psychedelic influences and a deep connection to music.
Who is Jordan Belson?