Amos Poe – The Foreigner – First Independent Punk feature film – value for money filmmaking

As the last post to the blog, I’ve wanted to write about a documentary I’ve seen recently called “Blank City”. It covers the No Wave and Transgression movements that took part in the late 70’s and 80’s in New York. It talks about the starting point that most directors known to this day took, when they first started making films. Due to financing being non existent an the current economical situation in New York at the time, these daring filmmakers were adopting a guerilla-style filming mixed with self-taught and experimental techniques to create their first feature films. From directors such as Jim Jarmush, Micheal Oblowitz, Richard Kern, Andy Warhol, Eric Michell and many others I would like to distinguish one work by Amos Poe titled “The Foreigner”. It was one of the first independent punk full-feature films made on an incredible low $5000 budget, staring most of the directors friends and fellow artist. Despite the rough cutting, seemingly amateur acting and filming, the movie seems to strike a great notion on the so-called illusionary American-dream and the social realities of living in a metropolis. It certainly contains its own aesthetics and the raw energy that drove filmmakers to create their work at that time.

 

Biographies - Robert Frank: short movie “Pull My Daisy”.

Robert Frank – best known by photographers for his photo book “the Americans” depicting the iconography of American life. The book has been first received as a satirical joke on American politics, revealing with shocking truthfulness the illusions of the American dream. However, Frank’s presence in the photographic world could not been denied. The work explored the innermost hidden insanities and contradiction of American culture. Less known are Frank’s directed short films. I would like to talk about one of them: “Pull My Daisy” is a black and white short movie released in 1959 depicting a social gathering of the Beat poets (Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Peter Orlofsky) and friends narrated by Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. The party taking place in a closed and private environment reveals both the virtues of private states of imagination and the flaws of public forms of socializing and interaction. It captures the private realm of the Beatniks which they considered to be joyful, fluid and spiritually stimulating and from which their main works have emerged. Being the outcasts of the conservative society of their time they imagined the individual being trapped in the established social rules and norms or alienated by its own higher consciousness and spiritual awareness of being. The film is a powerful piece of cinema like most of Frank’s work, having the ability to penetrate to the very core and truthfulness of the moment.

Bibliography:

• Carney, Ray (2003) "No Exit: John Cassavettes' Shadows and Robert Frank's Pull My Daisy." Ray Carney's The Beat Goes On. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. available at:  [http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/beatmov/daisy.shtml]

•  Anon (2012) "Robert Frank." / Biography & Images. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. available at: [http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Robert-Frank.html].

Biographies – Martin Parr – satirical street photographer

Martin Parr – a UK based photographer has made his mission to chronically document the image of the modern society. Although his approach may not seem to convey the most truthful and realistic view, his skeptic and sometimes cynical images depict his own strong critique on the consumerist and dysfunctional society that we live in.  What captivated me about this photographer is the crude and direct approach that he takes in his work: getting uncomfortably close to his subjects, capturing them off guard and uncovering the difference between the public image people tend to portray and their private insecurities. When asked about this the photographer replies without a doubt: “And besides, you still have the legal and moral right in this country to photograph anyone in a public place and do what you like with it” (Secher, 2011). It becomes clear to me that Parr responsibility if firstly towards his viewer and the depiction of the scene rather that the subjects themselves. Perhaps, what attracts people to his images the most is the subtle humor that is evident in each of his pictures. He chooses foreign tourist and rich middle class locals as his subjects to reveal their sometimes vulgar and tacky qualities of lifestyle and is able to make a social commentary that is rarely formulated by street photographers.

Bibliography & References:

• Secher, B (2011) "The Foibles of the World." The Telegraph. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/8723045/The-foibles-of-the-world.html]

Japanese New wave cinema – The Warped Ones

To continue the notion of modernist and revolutionary movement I would like to address the Japanese New Wave cinema movement that started in the 1960s.  Tired of the conventional cinematic practiced a group of daring filmmakers (like Shohei Imamura, Nagisa Oshima, Seijun Suzuki and Hiroshi Teshigahara) started creating thematically and conceptually challenging films, inventing new cinematic techniques and employing shocking and confrontational images. A movie that kicked of the movement was Koreyoshi Kurahara’s signature film “The Warped Ones” released in 1960. In which an ex-juvenile offender is released from prison and unleashes a rampage of anger and rage. The movie engulfs the desperate cry of the post-war youth generation and the feeling of alienation portrayed by the main character. The film is an overall celebration of youth and style with its frantic editing and unpredictably fast pace. The director’s handheld filming style has been compared to the one of Godard used at the time half of the world away. The movie is certainly a modernist piece depicting the innermost struggles of the revolutionary jazz-crazed generation, engulfing fully in the speed and bebop style of the time. 

Bibliography:

•  Anon (20112). "Japanese New Wave." The Criterion Collection. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://www.criterion.com/explore/94-japanese-new-wave.
• Anon (2012) "The Warped Ones." The Criterion Collection. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://www.criterion.com/films/27687-the-warped-ones.
• Anon (2011) "Press Notes: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara." The Criterion Collection. GreenCine, 6 Sept. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1979-press-notes-the-warped-world-of-koreyoshi-kurahara>.

Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition @ Tate Modern

To refer to the lectures on identity and gender I would like to draw attention to the exibition of Yayoi Kusama currently showing in Tate Modern. With all the media attention currently surrounding the controversial works of Damien Hirst I believe that Kusama’s exhibition is receiving less that the attention in actually deserves. The show celebrates the life’s work of one of the most unique, inventive and original artist. Her life was split between rural Japan, New York and contemporary Tokyo and in a way represents the many changes in style, technique and media (ranging from sculpture, drawing, painting, installation and film) that the artist has undergone in her career. As described by Tate Modern her exhibition: “ranges from works on paper featuring intense semi-abstract imagery, to soft sculpture known as ‘Accumulations’, to her ‘Infinity Net’ paintings, made up of carefully repeated arcs of paint built up into large patterns” (Anon, 2012). She also creates room-size installations using lights and mirrors that submerge the viewer into the infinity of patterns and dots that are frequent in her work. What I found even more intriguing is that the artist from 1977 has been a voluntary patient in a mental institution. During this period the majority of the installation were created, and for me in a way explains the obsessive detailing and the desire for infinite spaces visible in her work. What is more, throughout her career Kusama has certainly been highly cautious of being alienated by the male-dominated art world being a Japanese person living in a Western country.

Bibliography:

• Anon (2012)"Yayoi Kusama." Home. Tate. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/yayoi-kusama.