Structural film was an avant-garde

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

movement prominent in the United States in the 1960s and which developed into the Structural/materialist films in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.

Overview

The term was coined by P. Adams Sitney who noted that film artists had moved away from the complex and condensed forms of cinema practiced by such artists as

Sidney Peterson Sidney Peterson (November 15, 1905, Oakland, California – April 24, 2000, New York City) was an American writer, artist, and avant-garde filmmaker. He attended UC Berkeley, worked as a newspaper reporter in Monterey, and spent time as a practi ...

and

Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a large ...

. "Structural film" artists pursued instead a more simplified, sometimes even predetermined art. The shape of the film was crucial, the content peripheral. This term should not be confused with the literary and philosophical term ''

structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...

''.

Characteristics

Sitney identified four formal characteristics common in Structural films, but all four characteristics are not usually present in any single film: :* fixed camera position (an apparently fixed framing) :* flicker effect (strobing due to the intermittent nature of film) :* loop printing :*

rephotography Rephotography is the act of repeat photography of the same site, with a time lag between the two images; a diachronic, "then and now" view of a particular area. Some are casual, usually taken from the same view point but without regard to seas ...

(off the screen) It has been noted by

George Maciunas George Maciunas (; lt, Jurgis Mačiūnas; November 8, 1931 – May 9, 1978) was a Lithuanian American artist, born in Kaunas. A founding member and the central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers ...

that these characteristics are also present in

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

films.

Key films

*''

The Flicker ''The Flicker'' is a 1966 American experimental film by Tony Conrad. The film consists of only 5 different frames: a warning frame, two title frames, a black frame, and a white frame. It changes the rate at which it switches between black and whi ...

'' (

Tony Conrad Anthony Schmalz Conrad (March 7, 1940 – April 9, 2016) was an American video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, sound artist, teacher, and writer. Active in a variety of media since the early 1960s, he was a pioneer of both ...

, 1965) *''

Wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tro ...

'' (

Michael Snow Michael Snow (born December 10, 1928) is a Canadian artist working in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Région Centrale'' (1971), with the f ...

, 1966–67) *''

T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G ''T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G'' is a 12-minute short film directed by Paul Sharits in 1968. It uses many of the strategies characteristic of the structural film movement, including a static frame, flicker effects, flash frames and continual audio and visual r ...

'' (

Paul Sharits Paul Jeffrey Sharits (February 7, 1943, Denver, Colorado—July 8, 1993, Buffalo, New York) was a visual artist, best known for his work in experimental, or avant-garde filmmaking, particularly what became known as the structural film movement, ...

, 1968) *''One Second in Montreal'' (

, 1969) *'' Zorns Lemma'' (

Hollis Frampton Hollis William Frampton, Jr. (March 11, 1936 – March 30, 1984) was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, writer, theoretician, and pioneer of digital art. He was best known for his innovative and non-linear structural films that defi ...

, 1970) *''

Serene Velocity ''Serene Velocity'' is a 1970 American experimental short film directed by Ernie Gehr. Gehr filmed it in the basement hallway of a Binghamton University academic building, using a static camera position and changing only the focal length of the ...

'' (

Ernie Gehr Ernie Gehr (born 1941)Manohla Dargis ''The New York Times'', November 11, 2011. Retrieved 2013-05-27. is an American experimental filmmaker closely associated with the Structural film movement of the 1970s. A self-taught artist, Gehr was inspired ...

, 1970) *'' Remedial Reading Comprehension'' ( George Landow, 1971) *''

The United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

'' ( James Benning and

Bette Gordon Bette Gordon (born June 22, 1950) is an Americans, American filmmaker and professor at Columbia University School of the Arts. She is best known for her films ''Variety (1983 film), Variety'' (1983) and ''Handsome Harry'' (2009) both of which rece ...

, 1975)

Key filmmakers

* James Benning *

* Birgit and Wilhelm Hein *

Kurt Kren Kurt Kren (born 20 September 1929; died 23 June 1998 in Vienna) was an Austrian avant-garde filmmaker. He is best known for his involvement with the Vienna Aktionists and the group of films that resulted, although this accounts for only a part of ...

* George Landow (a.k.a.

Owen Land George Landow (1944 – June 8, 2011), also known as Owen Land, was a painter, writer, photographer and experimental filmmaker. He also worked under the pen names Orphan Morphan and Apollo Jize. According to the film historian Mark Webber, Land m ...

)Scratching the Surface: The Birth of Structural/Materialist Film
/ref> *

Joyce Wieland Joyce Wieland (June 30, 1930 – June 27, 1998) was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist. Wieland found success as a painter when she began her career in Toronto in the 1950s. In 1962, Wieland moved to New York City and ...

Sharon Lockhart Sharon Lockhart (born 1964) is an American artist whose work considers social subjects primarily through motion film and still photography, often engaging with communities to create work as part of long-term projects. She received her BFA from th ...

References

Bibliography

*Gidal, Peter. ''Materialist Film'' Routledge; First Edition, Second Impression edition (Mar. 1989). *de Lauretis, Teresa and Stephen Heath (eds). ''The Cinematic Apparatus''. Macmillan, 1980. *Heath, Stephen. ''Questions of Cinema''. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1981. *Maciunas, George. "Some Comments on ''Structural Film'' by P. Adams Sitney." ''Film Culture,'' No. 47, 1969. *O'Pray, Michael. ''The British Avant-Garde Film 1926 to 1995: An Anthology of Writings''. Indiana University Press, 2003. *Sitney, P. Adams. ''Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-1978.'' Second Edition, Oxford University Press 1979 {{DEFAULTSORT:Structural Film Experimental film Film and video terminology 1960s in film 1970s in film Film styles

Overview

Characteristics

Key films

Key filmmakers

See also

References

Bibliography