week Five, i think?

Marc Masters, "The Offenders: No Wave Cinema"
1) Name at least three similarities between the punk music scene and the punk/no-wave filmmaking scene, in terms of technology, style and community.
They had all been hanging out in the same "punk" community, going to shows and hanging out together; within the punk community they had their own tight knit group of filmmakers, all of whom worked on each others films and helped out with anything and everything. Coming from the same community, they had much the same style - a devil may care attitude and an attempt to make films the opposite of the standard (Jonas Mekases) of the day. They made melodramatic and visceral films.
In terms of technology, just as many guitarists had never previously picked up a guitar, so many filmmakers had never picked up a camera.

2) In what ways was punk/no-wave filmmaking a reaction to the avant garde film institutionalization of the 1970s?
They brought a raw energy from rock n roll; they were taught by the institionalization-alists, but they reacted to that by making films that were outside of the art scene as people knew it, they made spectacles and encouraged audience response.

3) Which filmmakers are cited as influences on Amos Poe, Eric Mitchell, and Vivienne Dick (to the point that they "re-worked" earlier films)?
The Nouvelle Vague filmmakers, such as Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Eric Rohmer. They also remade several Warhol films.

4) What were the exhibition venues for punk/no-wave films such as those by Beth B and Scott B, and how did the venues affect film content and style?
CBGBs and Max's Kansas City, both punk-rock venues, screened their works between bands. This gave them a goal to connect with an audience outside the art world. New Cinema also exclusively screened no wave films for awhile, but bowed out while they were at the height of their popularity.


Michael Zryd, "Found Footage Film as Discursive Metahistory: Craig Baldwin's Tribulation 99"
5) What does Zryd mean by "double voicing" and what does Baldwin mean by "Fake right, go left"?
"Fake right, go left" is Baldwin's rhetorical move of contrasting the "said" with the "unsaid" meaning to create a critical meaning - in his case, rather than criticizing foreign policy, the films uses US patriot to embody the racist, right wing, Christian fundamentalist values that Baldwin sees as the base of US foreign policy.
"Double voicing" is another means to create this ironic intention - placing foreign policy explanation in voice-overs over seemingly unrelated, American economic images.

6) Explain Paul Arthur's distinction between the "realist" use of found footage and the "figurative" use of found footage. Which becomes important in Tribulation 99 and why?
Realist found footage is found in mainstream documentary, where the image and the sound track match up to support a central argument.
Figurative found footage is seen more in experimental films, and the image functions separately from the soundtrack to create a new meaning.

7) Explain what Baldwin means by "media jujitsu".
Media Jujitsu is a strategy for using found footage to appropriate American culture's iconography and thus criticize the culture.

8)What does Zryd argue is the relationship between the use of clips from films such as Chariots of the Gods and Baldwin's critique of American foreign policy?
Zryd argues that this relationship springs from the pseudo-documentary genre and creates a critique on US's presumption of cultural superiority.