The Garden in the Machine: A Field Guide to Independent Films about PlaceThe Garden in the Machine explores the evocations of place, and particularly American place, that have become so central to the representational and narrative strategies of alternative and mainstream film and video. Scott MacDonald contextualizes his discussion with a wide-ranging and deeply informed analysis of the depiction of place in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, painting, and photography. Accessible and engaging, this book examines the manner in which these films represent nature and landscape in particular, and location in general. It offers us both new readings of the films under consideration and an expanded sense of modern film history. Among the many antecedents to the films and videos discussed here are Thomas Cole's landscape painting, Thoreau's Walden, Olmsted and Vaux's Central Park, and Eadweard Muybridge's panoramic photographs of San Francisco. MacDonald analyzes the work of many accomplished avant-garde filmmakers: Kenneth Anger, Bruce Baillie, James Benning, Stan Brakhage, Nathaniel Dorsky, Hollis Frampton, Ernie Gehr, Larry Gottheim, Robert Huot, Peter Hutton, Marjorie Keller, Rose Lowder, Marie Menken, J.J. Murphy, Andrew Noren, Pat O'Neill, Leighton Pierce, Carolee Schneemann, and Chick Strand. He also examines a variety of recent commercial feature films, as well as independent experiments in documentary and such contributions to independent video history as George Kuchar's Weather Diaries and Ellen Spiro's Roam Sweet Home. MacDonald reveals the spiritual underpinnings of these works and shows how issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and class are conveyed as filmmakers attempt to discover forms of Edenic serenity within the Machine of modern society. Both personal and scholarly, The Garden in the Machine will be an invaluable resource for those interested in investigating and experiencing a broader spectrum of cinema in their teaching, in their research, and in their lives. |
Contents
The Garden in the Machine | 5 |
Voyages of Life | 27 |
AvantGardens | 49 |
Reenvisioning the American West | 93 |
From the Sublime to the Vernacular | 129 |
The City as Motion Picture | 151 |
The Country in the City | 227 |
Rural and Urban Hours | 251 |
Other editions - View all
The Garden in the Machine: A Field Guide to Independent Films about Place Scott MacDonald Limited preview - 2001 |
The Garden in the Machine: A Field Guide to Independent Films about Place Scott MacDonald Limited preview - 2001 |
The Garden in the Machine: A Field Guide to Independent Films about Place Scott MacDonald Limited preview - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
African Americans American artists avant-garde avant-garde film beautiful Benning Benning's Blue Water Light Brakhage Brakhage's camera Castro Street Central Park century CFDC city symphony Cole commercial complex Courtesy created Critical Cinema cultural depiction Dorsky early Eaux d'artifice experience exploration film's filmmakers filmstrip focus Fog Line frame Frampton Gottheim Greaves Hollywood Huot Huot's Hutton's imagery Independent Filmmakers industrial Jonas Mekas Kenneth Anger Kristallnacht Kuchar landscape Lessons of Darkness live Lowder Luminist Mangolte Mangolte's Mekas Mekas's Menken metaphor modern MoMA motion movie moving Murphy narrative Natural Born Killers nineteenth-century North on Evers painting panoramas particular provides reveals Right Thing San Francisco scene Schneemann seems sense sequence Shoah shots Sky on Location sound track space Spiro Stan Brakhage suggests Thomas Cole Thoreau time-lapse tion Twister University Press urban viewers visual Walden Water Light Sign Weather Diary Weegee Weegee's York City Zorns Lemma