MacDonald explores the cinematic territory between the traditional categories of "documentary" and "avant-garde" film, through candid, in-depth conversations with filmmakers whose work has challenged these categories. Arranged in an imaginative chronology and written to be accessible to any film-interested reader, the interviews in Avant-Doc chart half a century of thinking by inventive filmmakers such as Robert Gardner, Ed Pincus, Alfred Guzzetti, Ross McElwee, Leonard Retel Helmrich, Michael Glawogger, Susana de Sousa Dias, Jonathan Caouette, Pawel Wojtasik, and Todd Haynes. Recent breakthroughs by Amie Siegel, Jane Gillooly, Jennifer Proctor, Betzy Bromberg, and Godfrey Reggio are discussed; and considerable attention is paid to Harvard's innovative Sensory Ethnography Lab, producer of Sweetgrass, Leviathan, andManakamana. A rare interview with pioneering scholar Annette Michelson begins Avant-Doc's meta-conversation.
About the Author
Scott MacDonaldteaches film history at Hamilton College and Harvard University. He is the author of several books, most recently, American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Annette Michelson
Robert Gardner
Ed Pincus (and Jane Pincus, Lucia Small)
Alfred Guzzetti
Ross McElwee
Nina Davenport
Leonard Retel Helmrich
Jonathan Caouette
Pawe? Wojtasik
Michael Glawogger
Susana de Sousa Dias
Alexander Olch (on The Windmill Movie)
Amie Siegel (on DDR/DDR)
Arthur and Jennifer Smith (on Ice Bears of the Beaufort)
Betzy Bromberg (on Voluptuous Sleep)
Jen Proctor (on A Movie by Jen Proctor)
Jane Gillooly (on Suitcase of Love and Shame)
Godfrey Reggio (on Visitors)
Todd Haynes
Sensory Ethnography
Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (on In and Out of Africa and Sweetgrass)
Lucien Castaing-Taylor (on his installation work and on Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab)
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel (on Leviathan)
