Film-Philosophy, Vol. 8.

Following William C Wees's review referred to a few days ago, three more essays in a volume of Film-Philosophy devoted to the avant-garde:

Matt Teichman on the writings of Hollis Frampton:

[N]ot only do his texts fail to mention a single film of his, but the scope of their concerns is singularly broad; he writes not about 'how to make good movies' or 'what he was trying to do', but about time and its quantization; about the history of the fact; about shock, eros, and artmaking; generally, about the role of cinema in that collective venture known as consciousness. What his essays bring into focus, rather than any sense that they were to be taken as an intermediate step towards the eventual realization of his films, is the sense in which for him writing and filmmaking are but two means of pursuing the very same end. This end I am inclined to refer to as philosophical inquiry.

Daniel Barnett on Nathaniel Dorsky's Devotional Cinema:

In this monograph Dorsky treats the word with the same care as he treats the image in his films. The result is a text far more comprehensive, subtle, and deep than its physical size would suggest. It's also an extremely simple and compelling read. Carefully felt rather than closely reasoned, its exposition of a distinct and illuminating ontology lies closer to the revelations of art and religion than philosophy.

Another take from Glen W Norton:

Dorsky begins with a description of what he calls the "post-film experience." When we leave the darkened theatre, familiar things are de-familiarized. The experience can be odd, strange, even disturbing. Yet it can also be incredibly uplifting, bringing us into contact with others in new ways. This is the power of cinema to affect us. For Dorsky, the nature of cinema can produce either health or ill-health in its viewer, and there seems little room inbetween. This power to affect us somatically is not a metaphor for Dorsky, it is an actuality. He is talking about metabolic stuff here - he goes so far as to claim that cinema can actually "mirror and realign our metabolism."

Note for those anywhere near London on Halloween: Nathaniel Dorsky will read from Devotional Cinema at 4 pm at the National Film Theatre. Then, on November 9, three of Dorsky's films will be screened at the Tate Modern. Both events are scheduled in conjunction with the London Film Festival, currently throwing metabolisms out of whack through November 4.

Posted by dwhudson at October 27, 2004 6:12 AM