The Avant-garde Academy

elective courses

The student should be familiar with a wide range of issues related to history and history of culture, social sciences. She/He should have basic knowledge about film art – both feature film and documentary film, contemporary art. Students should recognize the basic genres of film art – recognize the forms of expression belonging to film and audiovisual arts – which traditionally belongs to the cinema of fiction and cinema of facts.

Lecture classes combined with the screening of films, during which students learn about the phenomena of the cinematic avant-garde from the 1940s to the 2000s. They introduce the tradition of avant-garde cinema, amateur cinema, the relationship between art and everyday life, the usage of film to give voice to underprivileged groups. They emphasize theoretical approaches and point out contemporary documentaries whose authors use the language developed in the avant-garde. Those enrolled in the class will receive a free e-book publication in December.

Lecturers: Dr. Marcin Borchardt, Dr. Paulina Haratyk, Dr. Anna Konik, Magda Lipska, Dr. Krystyna Mazur, Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Radkiewicz, Agata Pyzik, Dr. Gabriela Sitek

A prerequisite for participation is the purchase of a film pass at the price of PLN 120. The classes begin on October 17. They take place on Tuesdays at the Elektronik cinema (Gen. Józef Zajączka 7).

Coordinator: g.sitek@uw.edu.pl

Details: www.akademiadokumentalna.pl

Participants in the class will learn about the tradition of avant-garde cinema of the 1940s, the 1950s and the 1960s (including Maya Deren’s and Alexander Hammid's “Meshes of the Afternoon”, 1943; Maya Deren's " Ritual in Transfigured Time," 1946; "Glimpse of the Garden," by Marie Menken, 1957; "Notebook," by Marie Menken, 1962-1963; "Go! Go! Go!", dir. Marie Menken). The program of the series includes the issue of film autobiography (including the films "Out-Takes from the Life of Happy Man", 2012, by Jonas Mekas, "Aleph" by Wallace Berman, the works by Marie Menken). As part of the class, participants will be introduced to the issues of the relationship between amateur cinema and the avant-garde. The aspect of community filmmaking will be exposed: of amateur films - created as part of the Movement of Amateur Film Clubs in the People's Republic of Poland, and the avant-garde Black Audio Film Collective. The relationship between art and everyday life will be addressed - including in the part of the class devoted to home movies created by female authors in Yugoslavia (Tatjana Ivančić and Vukica Đilas).

Class participants will learn about the work of Joseph Beuys. The class will include discussion of texts by avant-garde filmmakers, especially female film directors, which dealt with topics related to broad reflection on film form and cinema, the practice of directing - the workshop, the relationship between cinema and cultural currents/attitudes: feminism, black feminism, colonialism and post-colonialism, queer theory.

An integral part of the class will be the screening of contemporary documentaries, drawing on the traditions of the Great Avant-Garde and today's classic realizations of avant-garde cinema of the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s. Echoes of avant-garde traditions can be found in contemporary documentary cinema as films whose authors are today one of the most open to experimentation groups of filmmakers. Among the documentaries presented as part of the class were those in which the interview form was specifically used as enabling the subjective representation of the protagonists, giving them a voice - such as: "Divine Horsemen - the Living Gods of Haïti", by Cherel Ito, Teiji Ito, Maya Deren; "DiAna's Hair Ego", by Ellen Spiro, "Surname Viet Given Name Nam", by Trinh T. Minh-ha; "Najgłośniej słychać silczenie" ("Silence Heard Loud"), by Anna Konik. Documentary films often remain in the festival circuit, outside the mainstream of cinema distribution. Documentary films included in the list are characterized by innovation of form, bringing them closer to the border between documentary and experimental cinema. The class will address the issue of creation in documentary film and the perspective from which the narrative is conducted.

The classes are aimed at increasing awareness of the influence of the tradition of the cinematic avant-garde on the forms of expression present in contemporary film, including documentary film in particular, building competence in the reception of contemporary art and increasing knowledge of forms of egalitarian access to means of artistic expression, encouraging active participation in culture.

Schedule of meetings:

1 The work of Maja Deren as a precursor of the American avant-garde

17.10.2023 (Tuesday)

Films presented in the block:

"Meshes of the Afternoon", dir. Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, USA 1943, 14'

"Ritual in Transfigured Time" ("Ritual in Transfigured Time"), dir. Maya Deren, USA 1946, 14'

"Meditation on Violence", dir. Maya Deren, USA 1948, 10'

"Divine Horsemen - the Living Gods of Haïti", dir. Cherel Ito, Teiji Ito, Maya Deren, USA 1985, 52'

2. American Avant-garde. Marie Menken, Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas - autobiographical cases

24.10.2023 (Tuesday)

Films presented in the block:

"Glimpse of the Garden," dir. Marie Menken, 1957, 4'

"Notebook", dir. Marie Menken, 1962-1963, 10'

"Go! Go! Go!", dir. Marie Menken, 1962-1964, 11'30

"Out-Takes from the Life of Happy Man", dir. Jonas Mekas, 2012, 68'

"Aleph", dir. Wallace Berman, 1965-1966, 8'

3. Avant-garde home movies by Tatjana Ivančić and Vukica Đilas in the context of world amateur cinema

31.10.2023 (Tuesday)

"Grad u izlogu" ("City in the Shop Widow"), dir. Tatjana Ivančić, Yugoslavia 1969, 5'

"Putositnice" ("Travelogue"), dir. Tatjana Ivančić, Yugoslavia 1976, , 5'

"Home movies", dir. Vukica Đilas, Yugoslavia 1970-199?, 51', compiled by Slobodan Šijan

4. blackness and race in the films of the Black Audio Film Collective

7.11.2023 (Tuesday)

"Handsworth Songs", dir. by Black Audio Film Collective, UK, 1986, 58 min.

5 Touch of Cinema. Barbara Hammer's experiments

14.11.2023 (Tuesday)

Presented films:

"Lover Other: The Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore", dir. by Barbara Hammer, 2006, 55'.

"Evidence in the Process of Bodies" ("Evidentiary Bodies"), dir. Barbara Hammer, USA, 2018, 15 min.

6. 6. Twórczość Tony’ego Conrada i jego postać we współczesnym filmie dokumentalnym

21.11.2023 (wtorek)

Prowadzący zajęcia: Daniel Muzyczuk

Prezentowany film:

„Tony Conrad: tu i teraz” (“Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present”) Tylera Hubby’ego, USA, 96 min.

7. Ulrike Ottinger and Frauenfilm - the many faces of feminist film in West Germany

28.11.2023 (Tuesday)

Presented film:

"Freak Orlando", dir. Ulrike Ottinger, West Germany 1981, 126 min.

8. postcolonial conversations on identity and history over identity and its images in the works of Trinh T. Minh-ha

5.12.2023 (Tuesday)

Presented films:

"DiAna's Hair Ego," dir. Ellen Spiro, USA 1989, 30 min.

"Surname Viet Given Name Nam", dir. Trinh T. Minh-ha, USA 1989, 108 min.

9. documentary film as a tool for traversing the burden of silence

12.12.2023 (Tuesday)

Presented film:

"Najgłośniej słychać milczenie" ("Silence Heard Loud"), dir. Anna Konik, Poland 2022, 71 min.

10th Amateur Film Clubs and the avant-garde

19.12.2023 (Tuesday)

Presented film:

"Water", Witold Romer, Avant-garde Film Club, 1937

"Regi Poloniae," Jan and Danuta Maćkow, Stanislaw Fischer, AKF Śląsk, 1957

"Tramway to Heaven," Wincenty Ronisz, Krzysztof Zanussi, AKF Warsaw , 1958

"Two men with a closet", Roman Polanski, 1958

"Valentina Tiereszkova's visit to our city," group production, AKF Bielsko, 1968

"Contemporary symphony," Maciej Korus, Jerzy Ridan, AKF Nowa Huta, 1971

"Manifestation," Jan Piechura, AKF Sawa, 1973

"Misunderstanding," Piotr Majdrowicz, AKF Awa, 1979

"Fragment of a Biography," Janina Matejuk, 1983

11 The work of Joseph Beuys and his contemporary image in documentary film

10.12.2024

"Beuys. Art is a revolution" ("Beuys"), dir. Andres Veiel, Germany 2017, 107 min.

12. Found footage as a technique of avant-garde productions in contemporary documentary cinema

21.01.2024

"Dawson City: Frozen Time" ("Dawson City: Frozen Time"), dir. Bill Morrison, USA, 2017, 120 min.

Basic reading:

1. „Historie filmu awangardowego”, eds. Ł. Ronduda, G. Sitek, Fundacja Okonakino, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, korporacja ha!art, Warszawa-Kraków 2020

2. M. Radkiewicz, „Refleksje zza kamery. Reżyserki o kinie i formie filmowej”, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Fundacja Okonakino, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Warszawa-Kraków 2022

3. A. Pitrus, „Film awangardowy w latach 1930–1959”, in: „Kino klasyczne. Historia kina”, Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych UNIVERSITAS, vol. 2, eds. T. Lubelski, I. Sowińska, R. Syska, Kraków 2011, pp. 549-66

4. A. Pitrus, „Film awangardowy w latach 1960-1980”, in: „Kino epoki nowofalowej. Historia kina”, t. 3, red. T. Lubelski, I. Sowińska, R. Syska, Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych UNIVERSITAS, Kraków 2015, pp. 659-685

5. A. Pitrus, „Film awangardowy i sztuka wideo końca wieku”, in: „Kino końca wieku. Historia kina”, t. 4., pod red. T. Lubelski, I. Sowińska, R. Syska, Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych UNIVERSITAS, Kraków 2019, s. 867-899

6. P. A. Sitney, „Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-2000”, Oxford University Press, New York 2002

Recommended reading:

7. M. Przylipiak, „Poetyka kina dokumentalnego”, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Wydawnictwo Pomorskiej Akademii Pedagogicznej w Słupsku, Gdańsk-Słupsk 2004

8. M. Radkiewicz, „»Władczynie spojrzenia«. Teoria filmu a praktyka reżyserek i artystek”, korporacja ha!art, Kraków 2010

8. „Wideo w sztukach wizualnych”, ed. R. W. Kluszczyńskiego, T. Załuskiego, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Galeria Labirynt, Łódź-Lublin 2018

9. „Reżyserki kina. Tradycja i współczesność”, ed. M. Radkiewicz, Rabid, Kraków 2005

10. M. Podsiadło, „Autobiografizm filmowy jako ślad podmiotowej egzystencji”, Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych UNIVERSITAS, Kraków 2013

- The student knows the most important filmmakers and the most outstanding works of contemporary world avant-garde cinema, as well as the theoretical texts developed on the grounds of the film avant-garde,

- The student knows the most important trends, phenomena and creators in the history of avant-garde cinema and its relations with the art of documentary film,

- The student knows what social and historical issues were answered by avant-garde films and using the means developed on the ground of avant-garde documentary films,

- The student knows the historical-social-cultural context of contemporary documentary cinema and the issues most often addressed in specific films

- The student knows using which theoretical and analytical tools to study avant-garde film - both its world realizations and films created in Poland and referring to the domestic context

- The student understands the functioning and significance of avant-garde films and amateur cinema in various cultural contexts and is able to use the analytical tools acquired in class in independently expanding his/her knowledge of contemporary art presented by Warsaw galleries

Skills:

- The student is able to independently analyze avant-garde films in terms of the formal and aesthetic solutions used in them,

- The student is able to independently analyze avant-garde films and video art in a broader historical and social context,

- The student is able to use avant-garde films in academic work, e.g. as a source for historical and sociological research,

- The student is able to identify differences and similarities between the language of avant-garde and mainstream cinema

Methods of evaluation of student work (contribution to the overall evaluation of student work):

1. continuous evaluation: current preparation for classes and activity (10/100)

2. final test 70/100

The prerequisite for passing the class will be the writing of the final test, which will take place during the last class scheduled in the semester

3 Attendance check (20/100)

Attendance at more than half of the classes is required. Two absences are allowed. In the case of each subsequent attendance, the Participant / Participant of the class is required to write a review or essay about the selected film - on the topic agreed in advance with the coordinator, at the screening of which the Participant / Participant of the class was.

Volume: a maximum of 3000 characters. Deadline for submission: the last class of the semester to: g.sitek@uw.edu.pl