With Underground – American Avant-Garde Film in the 1960s, Eye highlights the cinematic innovation of a generation of American filmmakers in the 1960s and adds a new chapter to the museum's long tradition of giving experimental film a prominent place, both in its collection and programming. The exhibition, along with the extensive film programme in Cinema 2, reveals an explosion of artistic experiments, some of which are regarded as iconic (Flaming Creatures by Jack Smith, 1963) while others were hardly shown.
"We don't want false, polished, slick films – we prefer them rough, unpolished, but alive; we don't want rosy films: we want them the color of blood." This statement by filmmaker Jonas Mekas, the spokesman for the non-profit organization Film-Makers Cooperative set up by artists, neatly summarizes the aims of the new generation. The manifesto and the films that followed would exert a profound influence on the following generations filmmakers in America and beyond, including the current one.
Scratches, double exposure, multiple screens
The underground filmmakers rebelled against the format of the typical Hollywood film. To them, film was a workable, tangible material that offered sharp social criticism or much-needed mind expansion. Film strips were scratched, films were double exposed and presented on multiple screens placed beside one another, and so on. In addition, the social unrest of the 1960s echoes in their work. For example, Carolee Schneemann's Viet-Flakes (1965) takes a critical look at the horrific reality of the Vietnam War, and Bruce Conner offers a damning criticism of mass media on the basis of news reports of the assassination of John F. Kennedy (Report, 1967).
Opening with rare screening of Chelsea Girls
On the festive opening night of Underground on 12 October, Eye is screening the iconic split-screen underground film Chelsea Girls (1966, 16mm) in the Arena. This is a unique opportunity to savour this experimental soap opera, full of speed-fuelled monologues from the 'superstars' of Andy Warhol's Factory. Co-directed by Warhol and Paul Morrissey, Chelsea Girls – a three-and-a-half-hour mosaic of gritty lives in the New York underground scene – is rarely screened in its entirety in the original 16mm spilt-screen version.
Cinema 2 Programme
During the exhibition period, Cinema 2 will screen fifty films of relevant artists from the underground scene. It is rare that this work – by key figures such as Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke and Bruce Conner – can be presented in its original medium as analogue film print on 8, 16 and 35mm. With special guests in talks, Q&A sessions, performances and lectures.
Psychedelic films and cultural crossovers
In the week of 17-23 October, attention focuses on psychedelic film in collaboration with the Media Studies department of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). In the opening lecture, entitled Tripping on Film, Patricia Pisters, professor of film, media and culture, discusses the relationship between expanded consciousness and film, and the psychedelic revival among today's artists, filmmakers and proponents of alternative lifestyles.
Another subject addressed is the international context, in particular the influence exerted by American filmmakers of the 1960s on European cinema and vice versa, and the relationship between their work and developments in other creative fields such as performance, dance, literature (Beat writers) and avant-garde music. The programme also highlights the links between experimental filmmakers and counterculture activists and ubiquitous American pop culture.
Eye Film Player
From 11 October on, you can explore the history of American avant-garde further online. Eye Film Player is offering four documentaries that explore the work of pioneering experimental filmmakers, with particular attention for the role of women filmmakers. Pip Chodorov's free-spirited Free Radicals – A History of Experimental Cinema (2010) is available; Jeff Perkins illuminates the history of the American Fluxus movement in George - The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus (2018); and in Notes on Marie Menken (2006) and In the Mirror of Maya Deren (2001), Martina Kudláček reconstructs the lives of two celebrated women filmmakers from the post-war American avant-garde.
Program
Sunday 13 October 2024, 19h (with Q&A)
Free Radicals - A History of Experimental Film
Pip Chodorov takes us through the history of the ‘Free Radicals’: makers from the underground who approached film as a new, experimental artform to be explored.
Sunday 13 October 2024, 21h (with introduction)
Requiem
Avantgarde doyen Jonas Mekas’ final film: a trip through shots of beautiful blooms, interlarded with news footage all edited to the rhythm of Verdi’s Messa da requiem.
Monday 14 October 2024, 20:30h
George – The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
Documentary about the founder of the Fluxus movement, George Maciunas who argued in favour of joyous events and actions that turn daily life into art.
Tuesday 15 October 2024, 20:00 (with introduction)
Structural Film
16mm double projection of Razor Blades (Paul Sharits, 1968): stroboscopic abstractions that cut right through you. Plus avant-garde classics The Flicker and Wavelength.
Wednesday 16 October 2024, 21h
The Connection
Groundbreaking debut about a group of junkie jazz musicians, with playful Beat dialogue and cool jazz score. A milestone in American independent film.
Thursday 17 October 2024, 19:00 (with introduction)
Tripping on Film
Patricia Pisters will give the introductory lecture for Cinema Psychedelica, a week-long programme on film and expanded consciousness.
Friday 18 October 2024, 19:00 (with introduction)
Media Junkies
Film scholar Amir Vudka focuses on the addictive effects of media and film, inspired by the works of David Cronenberg, William Burroughs and Marshall McLuhan.
Tuesday 22 October 2024, 19:00 (with introduction)
Trance Cinema
Erica Biolchini leads us through the work of filmmakers who work according to a ritualistic-shamanistic process. On psychedelic aesthetics and hallucinatory experiences.
Wednesday 23 October 2024, 19:00 (with introduction)
Fabulation and Psychedelics in Queer and Trans Cinema
Lecture by Slava Greenberg, film scholar at the University of Amsterdam, on the use of psychedelics in queer and trans films to transcend the gendered binary gaze.
Friday 25 October 2024, 16:30 (with introduction)
Underground - Expo 58
Meet the Archive on the clash between European and American avant-garde film in 1958 during the World’s Fair in Brussels. With highlights from the Eye collection.
Saturday 26 October 2024, 19:15 (with introduction)
Flaming Creatures + Blonde Cobra
Double bill of Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures and Ken Jacobs’ Blonde Cobra: cinema at the edge of perversity
Sunday 27 October 2024, 19:00 (with introduction)
Zorns Lemma
Zorns Lemma (1972) is often described as spellbinding and enigmatic. Film scholar Virginie Sélavy, an expert on this work by Hollis Frampton, provides the introduction.
Monday 28 October 2024, 19:00
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Documentary on the adventurous life of legendary artist Maya Deren, a pioneer and central figure of the American avant-garde.
Tuesday 29 October 2024, 19:15 (with introduction)
Song 23: 23rd Psalm Branch
After Mothlight, we’ll start up the 8mm projector in the space for a unique screening of 23rd Psalm Branch, Stan Brakhage’s response to the Vietnam War.
Wednesday 30 October 2024, 19:30
Lost, Lost, Lost
Jonas Mekas captured his life in film diaries. His life in New York from 1949 to 1963, including a portrait of singer Tiny Tim, peace demonstrations and film haikus.
Thursday 31 October 2024, 19:15 (with introduction)
Bruce Baillie Films
Bruce Baillie, co-founder of Canyon Cinema in San Francisco, was a pivotal figure in the experimental film scene. Garbiñe Ortega on the mystical and the mundane in his films.
Friday 1 November 2024, 19:15 (with introduction)
George Kuchar - Melodrama, glamour and gutter
An evening on the life and work of George Kuchar, curated by artist Babeth Mondini-VanLoo who frequently collaborated with the camp and queer pioneer from the sixties.
Monday 4 November 2024, 19:00
Notes on Marie Menken
The almost forgotten story of legendary artist Marie Menken, one of the most influential of the New York underground experimental filmmakers of the 1950s and ’60s.
Tuesday 5 November 2024, 19:15 (with panel)
Election Night
Live magazine on American election night, Tuesday, 5 November, with guests, music and a programme of short American experimental films, targeting the mass media.
Wednesday 6 November 2024, 19:00
The Connection
Groundbreaking debut about a group of junkie jazz musicians, with playful Beat dialogue and cool jazz score. A milestone in American independent film.
Friday 8 November 2024, 21:15
Free Radicals - A History of Experimental Film
Pip Chodorov takes us through the history of the ‘Free Radicals’: makers from the underground who approached film as a new, experimental artform to be explored.
Tuesday 26 November 2024, 21:00 (with introduction)
Judson Dance Theater
With their interdisciplinary, unconventional performances, the Judson Dance Theater from New York seriously stretched the definition of dance. An evening at the intersection of dance and film.
Wednesday 27 November 2024, 19:15
Flaming Creatures + Blonde Cobra
Double bill of Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures and Ken Jacobs’ Blonde Cobra: cinema at the edge of perversity
Monday 2 December 2024, 19:00
Requiem
Avantgarde doyen Jonas Mekas’ final film: a trip through shots of beautiful blooms, interlarded with news footage all edited to the rhythm of Verdi’s Messa da requiem.
Tuesday 10 December 2024,19:15 (with introduction)
The Visitors
In the 1960s, New York became a magnet for avant-garde artists from all over the world. Through what lenses did these makers see their new place of residence?
Wednesday 18 December 2024, 18:30
George – The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
Documentary about the founder of the Fluxus movement, George Maciunas who argued in favour of joyous events and actions that turn daily life into art.
Friday 20 December 2024, 19:00
Notes on Marie Menken
The almost forgotten story of legendary artist Marie Menken, one of the most influential of the New York underground experimental filmmakers of the 1950s and ’60s.
Monday 30 December 2024, 19:00
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Documentary on the adventurous life of legendary artist Maya Deren, a pioneer and central figure of the American avant-garde.
