Editorial

Features

“Me, I Just Film My Life”: An Interview with Jonas Mekas by Brian L. Frye

The most influential figure in the history of the ‘New American Cinema’ discusses his past, present and ongoing projects. The interview concludes with Mekas’ strikingly precise and detailed evocation of the historical controversy surrounding Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures.

For the Life of Experimental Cinema: A Conversation with Raphaël Bassan by Viviane Vagh

Filmmaker Viviane Vagh talks to one of the seminal figures of the French experimental film scene. Filmmaker, critic and cinema historian, Raphaël Bassan speaks about his career, his films and his life long passion for film.

Identity of Cinema: Experimental and Different by Raphaël Bassan

A translation that first appeared in the French magazine Europe in 2006, in which Raphaël Bassan presents a myriad of stimulating reflections on the history of avant-garde and experimental cinema.

For the Love of Experimental Cinema: Interview with Christian Lebrat by Viviane Vagh

A key contributor to France’s experimental film culture, Christian Lebrat, filmmaker and director of the publishing imprint Paris Expérimental, talks about his films and related interests.

“I Have Always Been Attracted to Painting”: Handwritten Notes Taken to Answer a Friend’s Questions, Written in 1984 by Christian Lebrat

Christian Lebrat discusses the early phase of his career, including such works as Film numéro deux, Liminal Minimal and Autoportrait au dispositif.

Cinema of Pre-predication: On Stan Brakhage and the Phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty by Alex Cobb

“Brakhage gives us phenomenologies on celluloid.” So argues Alex Cobb as he draws out the affinities between the filmmaker and the philosopher.

There’s other Stuff than Art? An Interview with Michael Betancourt by Rey Parla

A stimulating discussion with Miami-based filmmaker and theoretician Michael Betancourt about his unique audio-visual experiments.

The American Friend: Tom Luddy on Jean-Luc Godard by Brad Stevens

Tom Luddy was the principal conduit for almost all of Godard’s forays into the North American film scene. From Godard’s ‘Dziga Vertov’ tours to his association with Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope, Luddy played a crucial role.

“Africa is a Revolutionary Country”: Sally Shafto’s Zanzibar: The Zanzibar Films and the Dandies of May 1968 by Keith Reader

Keith Reader reviews Sally Shafto’s stimulating and indispensable book on one of the most overlooked radical filmmaking collectives.

Abigail Child’s This is Called Moving: A Critical Poetics of Film by Tina Wasserman

Tina Wasserman discusses a treasure trove of illuminating ideas found in this collection of essays by experimental filmmaker and writer Abigail Child.

The Lost Prophet of Cinema: The Film Theory of Antonin Artaud by Lee Jamieson

Of the many scenarios written by Antonin Artaud, only one was produced: The Seashell and the Clergyman. Though Artaud’s association with cinema was a troubled one, his writings on film nonetheless reveal a mind much engaged with the medium’s unique possibilities.

“Surrealism” and the Omnipotence of Cinema by J. M. Magrini

Starting from André Breton’s 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism, this essay explores the ways in which the Movement’s philosophical ideas found expression in the ‘first wave’ of surrealist filmmaking in such films as L’Étoile de Mer and Un Chien Andalou.

Life Sentence: Dreams of Captivity and Freedom in Jan Svankmajer’s Sílení by Sebastian Manley

Sebastian Manley thoughtfully dissects the interweaving influences and meanings found in the most recent work of this great Czech surrealist animator.

Hand of Hysteria: The Bipartite Body of the Brothers Quay by Amir Mogharabi

This essay examines the role of stop-motion animation as a reversal of the model of hysteria as posited by psychoanalytic approaches.

Notes on the Death of Beauty, Art and Talent: A Correspondence with Ben Hackworth by Matthew Clayfield

The co-writer and director of the recent Australian independent feature Corroboree discusses his film, and the broader issues of film culture and film funding that impact on lower-budget filmmaking.

Festival Reports

Explaining Mabelescence: The 3^rd Amsterdam Filmmuseum Biennale by Jay Weissberg

Iranian Cinema Looks Inward: The 25^th Fajr International Film Festival by Michelle Langford

Moroccan Cinema at Las Palmas: Immigration from the Other Shore: 8^th Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival by Lidia Merás

Fragments of Forgotten Shame: Films about Imperial Japan at Hot Docs 2007 by Brandon Wee

Transcendental Style in 2007: The 31^st Hong Kong International Film Festival by Virginia Wright Wexman

Can Independent Film Sell? The 4^th Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival by David M. J. Wood

Reality-Based Filmmaking: The 4^th Annual True/False Festival of Documentary Film by Brad Prager

Book Reviews

The Remote Control as Political Weapon: Death 24x a Second: Stillness and the Moving Image by Laura Mulvey feature review by Jeroen Gerrits

The Grocer Who Dreams: Postcards from the Cinema by Serge Daney review by Tony McKibbin

American Movie Critics: An Anthology From the Silents Until Now edited by Phillip Lopate review by John Fidler

In Search of Anxious Time: Deleuze, Cinema and National Identity: Narrative Time in National Contexts by David Martin-Jones review by F.J. Colman

Simple Acts of Annihilation: La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film by Mikel J. Koven review by Alexia Kannas

In Search of a (Reluctant) Feminist: Women in Polish Cinema by Ewa Mazierska and Elzbieta Ostrowska review by Renata Murawska

Also new this issue

1 profile has been added to the Great Directors critical database:
Tony Richardson

13 new annotations and 1 republished annotation have been added to the Cinémathèque Annotations on Film section:
Cat People • Come and See* • I Walked With a Zombie • Muriel ou Le temps d’un retour • Queen Kelly • Scenes From a Marriage • Spione • The Strawberry Blonde • I Vitelloni • What Price Glory?
Czech Cinema: The Cremator • Daisies • The Ear • Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
* denotes a republished annotation

9 new lists and 4 revised lists have been added to the Top Tens section.