The Red Thread is the definitive work on Larry Gottheim, a key figure in the history of American experimental film.

Gottheim's reflections on the evolution of his work over the decades provide an extraordinary window onto the development of the art form in America in the late 20th century. His own account of his lifelong exploration of the boundaries of cinematic perception is here combined with the reflections of other major film artists and critics on the importance of his work.

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Red Thread

This comprehensive historical account demonstrates the rich diversity in 1970s British experimental filmmaking. It acts as a form of reclamation by integrating films having received inadequate historical and critical recognition and placing these alongside films existing as accepted texts of the decade. This history challenges the problematic 'return to image' thesis, providing examples of written evidence and demonstrating how this has problematically perpetuated a flawed account of the decade. This is the first extensive overview of 1970s filmmaking, contextualizing films within broader aesthetic, theoretical and socio-political frameworks. The detailed textual and comparative analyses offer unique approaches to individual films, shedding light on technical, aesthetic and economic decisions informing filmmaking. As such, it provides a unique understanding of how experimental filmmaking grew from a small handful of films and filmmakers, at the start of the 1970s, to a veritable 'explosion' in filmmaking by the end of the decade.