DVD Review: Treasures IV

Mark Webber
New Improved Institutional Quality, by Owen Land (1976)

Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986 is the latest DVD set in the series “Treasures from American Film Archives”, published jointly by the National Film Preservation Foundation and Image Entertainment, and the first to focus solely on artists’ film. On two discs, with a total running time of over 5 hours, it offers 26 titles and includes work by many of the key American filmmakers of the period, including Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, Bruce Baillie and Andy Warhol.

For the most part, the films chosen for this historical survey cover ground between the early post-war psychodramas and the hardcore formalist films of the 1970s. Many are from the late sixties, when ‘underground filmmaker’ was almost a viable a career choice, but while many dilettantes were flailing cameras around or double-exposing ‘psychedelic’ nudie footage, these artists were using film as a truly unique and advanced creative medium.

Packaged as an accessible introduction to this rich and varied field, Treasures IV offers examples of the principle tendencies – abstraction, found footage, collage, documentary, landscape, comedy, exotica, beat, diary and structural film – but given its two defining criteria (that films are recently preserved by American archives and not previously released on DVD) the suggestion that this might possibly be a ‘definitive’ collection is neatly sidestepped. Entire bodies of work (Deren, Anger, Broughton) are absent since they’re already available on monographic sets or are not presently available for commercial release (Conner, Markopoulos, Whitney). Predictable heavyweights such as Robert Breer, Hollis Frampton and Paul Sharits are featured, but there are also welcome inclusions such as Chick Strand, Saul Levine and Jane Conger Belson Shimane that will be new discoveries for most UK viewers.

Despite these few wildcards, and some established makers being represented by less obvious films, the overall tone of the selection follows the well-worn path as established by Jonas Mekas and his associates in New York. But why not? Without Mekas, much of this history would not have survived or reached a wider public consciousness during the 1960s and beyond, and indeed he was a staunch supporter for many of those filmmakers whose work still engages contemporary audiences.

Mekas’ tireless promotional activities – in publishing Film Culture magazine, his regular column in the Village Voice, in founding the Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Anthology Film Archives and fundraising for production and exhibition – were not always appreciated by those that benefited from his efforts. His defiant stance for artistic freedom, as exemplified by Flaming Creatures, was notoriously criticised by Jack Smith, who accused “Uncle Fishhook” (Mekas) of making his film a “sex issue of the Cocktail World”. Smith subsequently refused to make definitive versions of later works so that they couldn’t become embalmed in the “Vaults of Filmcrust”. One wonders how he would feel today, with his artistic estate being posthumously purchased and represented by the Barbara Gladstone Gallery. (None of Smith’s films are included on Treasures IV but he appears as a performer in works by Ron Rice and Ken Jacobs.)

In 1970, Mekas safeguarded against the potential loss of the history of independent / avant-garde filmmaking by conceiving and co-founding Anthology Film Archives as a chamber museum dedicated to the art of cinema. In addition to its reference library and exhibition projects, Anthology began a preservation programme for the conservation of film originals, masters and negatives that has ensured the long-term survival of hundreds of works.

Though more than half of the titles on this set originate from Anthology, several other archives are now involved in preserving this heritage. Those represented here are The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Pacific Film Archive, The Museum of Modern Art and The New York Public Library. Since 2003, the activities of these and similar institutions have been assisted by the Avant-Garde Masters Grants, a funding programme instigated by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and administrated by the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Film archives have a reputation for being zealously over-protective of their collections but recently a new generation of archivists – most notably Mark Toscano at Academy (preserving the entire Brakhage filmography in the home of the Oscars) and Andrew Lampert at Anthology – have redressed the stuffy attitudes of the past. Recognising access to be as important as conservation, they are committed to making new prints for distribution, or facilitate gallery exhibitions and DVD releases.

A historical problem that has led to a lack of understanding and exposure of independent artists’ cinema has been the invisibility of the work. This absence could be attributed to several factors: the scarcity of good exhibition prints and the constitutional passivity of distribution collectives, the accumulative cost of rental fees and shipping (considerable for screenings of multiple works) which restricts programming, the lack of serious commitment from exhibiting institutions, and the weight of impenetrable theoretical writing against almost non-existent coverage in the popular media.

Changes are taking place as film leaves the academy for the art world and new technologies develop. The commercial availability of these films was something unimaginable 10-15 years ago, and though the format is compromised when compared to the experience afforded by good quality cinema presentation, it is hopefully balanced by increased access, and the potential for quick reference or repeated viewings. This proliferation is in step with the current desperation to have everything on demand, and unfortunately it is that convenience that makes it harder to appreciate the value in something.

We can’t, and probably shouldn’t, attempt to hold back the tide. It may be optimistic to assume that this increased accessibility will encourage more people to attend screenings and see works as originally intended. Cinema projection (on film) may become even more of a specialist pursuit but will likely survive as the only way to appreciate the essential qualities of such work, and as a preservation material ‘analogue’ film remains significantly more durable than any digital format.

Treasures IV and similar releases have incredible benefits (especially when presented in such a considered manner) and far better to accentuate the positives than gripe about the drawbacks. It’s an amazing thing to have work by so many key filmmakers available in good quality reproductions, here accompanied by an informative booklet, so there is plenty on offer for both diehard enthusiasts and curious newcomers.


Mark Webber is an independent curator of avant-garde and artists’ film & video.

 

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