Millennium Film Workshop
Encyclopedia
The Millennium Film Workshop is a non-profit
media arts center and cinema located in the East Village
neighborhood of New York City
dedicated to the exhibition, study, and practice of avant-garde
and experimental film
, video, and all technologies of the moving image.
got its start). Filmmaker, Ken Jacobs
was appointed the first director, and in the fall of 1966 he set up a film series at the church on Sunday afternoons – mostly one-person programs open to any filmmaker with a body of work. Jacobs also launched separate “open screenings,” where he led discussions between the filmmakers and audience, pioneering the one-person film-talk format in the United States and establishing it as a vital and distinctive feature of the organization.
In 1967, the organization became independent and moved to an old courthouse on Second Street and Second Avenue, the building now used by Anthology Film Archives
. Workshops were introduced where various filmmakers taught classes in cinematography, sound, and editing. In 1971, filmmaker Howard Guttenplan took the role of Executive Director and has held the position ever since. Discontent with the parochial scope of North American avant-garde film at the time (mid-1970s), Guttenplan initiated a broadened field by inviting leading foreign filmmakers from Britain, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Japan, and other regions to make their North American debuts at Millennium.
The organization moved to various locations in lower Manhattan, including a loft space on Great Jones Street (1969–1974), before settling in its long-term home at 66 East 4th Street in 1974. The Millennium Film Journal was launched in 1978; it is now one of the oldest continuously published journals of the avant-garde
, independent or experimental cinema in existence. Finally, in 1999, Millennium established a regular series of photography and art exhibitions by and about media artists in its in-house gallery.
The great majority of shows are one-person programs with the artist present to discuss their work with the audience. The film-talk format is also applied to numerous group programs, shows featuring different media in conjunction with performance, and open screenings that operate as part of the Personal Cinema Series. The latter format has been a regular part of the series since the founding of the organization and creates opportunities for younger media artists to show their work to the public, often for the first time.
The series hopes to serve the presenting artists and contribute to the field of experimental cinema by continuing to provide opportunities for accomplished and experienced filmmakers as well as emerging and student media artists to show and discuss their work. Over the years the Personal Cinema Series has introduced numerous artists to the public, gaining a national and international reputation for identifying artists who change the terms in which avant-garde cinema is discussed. Among those artists who were given the opportunity to mount their first (or one of their first) one-person shows at Millennium are: Hollis Frampton
, Clayton Patterson, Jennifer Reeves, Donna Cameron, Bill Morrison
, Fred Worden
, M.M. Serra, Todd Haynes
, Vivienne Dick
, Holly Fisher, Sharon Greytak, Lewis Klahr, and Su Friedrich
.
Many of the most influential avant-garde filmmakers of the last four decades have premiered their newest work in the series. This list includes Stan Brakhage
, Jon Jost
, Kenneth Anger
, Carolee Schneeman, Valie Export
, Paul Sharits
, Michael Snow
, Malcolm Le Grice, Yvonne Rainer
, Bruce Conner
, Robert Breer, Birgit Hein
, Ernie Gehr
, Abigail Child
, Amy Greenfield
, James Benning
, Rudy Burckhardt, among others. The Millennium worked closely with the late Jack Smith
, who showed his controversial films and gave live performances in the cinema. The legendary Stan Brakhage
was a passionate supporter of the organization and premiered many of his major films in the cinema, appearing in person almost yearly over a period of thirty years. In addition, Millennium has provided space for experimental theatre works and personalities, including Charles Ludlam
, Allen Ginsberg
, Stuart Sherman
, Tony Conrad
, Jackson MacLow, and others. The series has enabled these artists to experiment in ways that would be inappropriate for mainstream venues that attract larger audiences. In 1991, The Museum of Modern Art
paid tribute to the organization for its 25th Anniversary by presenting a 13-show program of groundbreaking films that had premiered at Millennium over the years.
, Su Friedrich
, Barbara Hammer
, Paul Sharits
, Jud Yalkut
, Ross McLaren
, Jennifer Reeves, Kelly Spivey, Noël Carroll
, Nisi Jacobs, Rachel Shuman, and Jon Jost
. Workshop topics include optical printing
, Final Cut Pro
editing, Steenbeck
editing, 16mm
and Super 8mm
film gauge
s and digital video
. The organization is one of the only remaining establishments in New York City that provides classes, facilities, and equipment rental for optical printing
and Super 8 mm film
. There also exists access to screening rooms, editing facilities, and film/video production equipment. Rates and fees remain inexpensive in order to maintain accessibility for artists who are otherwise unable to afford market rate costs. As a result, the users of these services represent a wide range of film/video makers, from the beginning film student to some of the most famous international artists. Oliver Stone
, Joie Lee
, Jim Jarmusch
, and Susan Seidelman
were members and equipment users. Andy Warhol
used the editing rooms in the 1960s, and Jean-Luc Godard
used the screening room services to view a film by Amos Poe
in the 1980s.
cinema theory and practice, provides a forum for discussion and debate in the United States and abroad. The journal was established by 1978 by Howard Guttenplan, Alister Sanderson, Vicki Peterson, and David Shapiro in response to the lack of substantial writing about independent filmmakers and their work. Published bi-annually, each issue focuses on a particular theme or subject, ranging in aspects of artistic practice, e.g. The Script Issue (1991), Interactivities (1995), Paracinema and Performance (2005), through the social and political, e.g. Politics/Landscape (1979), Winds From the East (2002), to a focus on individual filmmakers or regions, e.g. Beavers
/Markopoulos
(1998), Deutschland/Interviews (1997), and the special issue entitled Brakhage at the Millennium (2007/2008), which documents Stan Brakhage
's film-talks at the Millennium over a thirty year period with transcriptions, letters and photographs from the organization's artist archives.
The journal is interested in writing about the individual artist from the emerging to the established, and in theoretical considerations or overviews of independent cinema. Writers range from firmly established to unknown; the Hybrids issue (Fall, 2006), for example, includes the first publication of a new kind of research by renowned scholar, Lev Manovich
and “VJ Diary” by Jessica Ruffin, a then undergraduate in the Film Studies program of Stanford University
. Other notable authors include Paul Arthur, Mike Hoolbloom, J. Hoberman
, Fred Camper, Joan Copjec, David James, AL Rees, Mary Ann Doane, Birgit Hein, Chris Hill, Vivian Sobchack, Scott MacDonald, Amy Taubin
, Noël Carroll
, P. Adams Sitney
.
Amy Taubin
contributed the first article about video, And what is a fact anyway? (On a tape by Martha Rosler
) in Politics/Landscape (No.s 4/5, 1979). The article’s discussion of video work opened a new direction for the journal wherein it acknowledged that cinema has developed and is developing in several media simultaneously, as such the misconception that there is one history of film, another of video, and yet a third of so-called digital works, often occurs and thus leads to a misinterpretation of work in the field. The article suggested that to avoid this, one must see experimental cinema as containing multiple streams of history that overlap and intermingle. In the last 30 years the Millennium Film Journal has made a deliberate effort to capture this epistemological multiplicity. Since 1990 the journal has devoted as much as half of its space to video and new media work.
In 1995, the School of Visual Arts
donated space on their server for the journal website,http://www.mfj-online.org/ and consequently it was one of the first print journals with an online presence. The website includes two indexes, one alphabetized by writer and the other by filmmaker mentioned, a table of contents for each issue, and the texts of most articles since 1993.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
media arts center and cinema located in the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
neighborhood of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
dedicated to the exhibition, study, and practice of avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
, video, and all technologies of the moving image.
History
An integral part of the film and video history of the area, The Millennium Film Workshop was born during the 1960s counter-cultural period in the East Village of New York City. The Millennium was one of a group of arts workshops set up in 1965-66 on the Lower East Side by St. Marks Church and the New School as part of the federal government’s anti-poverty program (This is where the St. Mark's Poetry ProjectSt. Mark's Poetry Project
The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church was founded in 1966 in the East Village of Manhattan by the poet and translator Paul Blackburn, it has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetries for over four decades....
got its start). Filmmaker, Ken Jacobs
Ken Jacobs
Ken Jacobs is an American experimental filmmaker. He is the director of Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son , which was admitted to the National Film Registry in 2007, and Star Spangled to Death , a nearly seven hour film consisting largely of found footage.He coined the term paracinema in the early 1970s,...
was appointed the first director, and in the fall of 1966 he set up a film series at the church on Sunday afternoons – mostly one-person programs open to any filmmaker with a body of work. Jacobs also launched separate “open screenings,” where he led discussions between the filmmakers and audience, pioneering the one-person film-talk format in the United States and establishing it as a vital and distinctive feature of the organization.
In 1967, the organization became independent and moved to an old courthouse on Second Street and Second Avenue, the building now used by Anthology Film Archives
Anthology Film Archives
__notoc__Anthology Film Archives is a film archive and theater located at 32 Second Avenue on the corner of East Second Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City devoted to the preservation and exhibition of experimental film. It is the only non-profit organization of its...
. Workshops were introduced where various filmmakers taught classes in cinematography, sound, and editing. In 1971, filmmaker Howard Guttenplan took the role of Executive Director and has held the position ever since. Discontent with the parochial scope of North American avant-garde film at the time (mid-1970s), Guttenplan initiated a broadened field by inviting leading foreign filmmakers from Britain, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Japan, and other regions to make their North American debuts at Millennium.
The organization moved to various locations in lower Manhattan, including a loft space on Great Jones Street (1969–1974), before settling in its long-term home at 66 East 4th Street in 1974. The Millennium Film Journal was launched in 1978; it is now one of the oldest continuously published journals of the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
, independent or experimental cinema in existence. Finally, in 1999, Millennium established a regular series of photography and art exhibitions by and about media artists in its in-house gallery.
Programs
The Millennium Film Workshop offers five major programs and services, including the Personal Cinema Series, the Workshop Program, Equipment Access Service, the Millennium Film Journal, and the Millennium Gallery.Personal Cinema Series
The three-part (fall, winter, spring) series features programs of avant-garde and experimental cinema from around the world. The organization uses the term “Personal Cinema,” to describe the nature of the work presented: "I called it 'personal cinema' early on and I think that might be a better description and a more precise term. It's very personal, usually made by one person, free to investigate a wide range of ideas, subject matter, and forms. This work relates more closely to the art world than to traditional movies," says director, Howard Guttenplan.The great majority of shows are one-person programs with the artist present to discuss their work with the audience. The film-talk format is also applied to numerous group programs, shows featuring different media in conjunction with performance, and open screenings that operate as part of the Personal Cinema Series. The latter format has been a regular part of the series since the founding of the organization and creates opportunities for younger media artists to show their work to the public, often for the first time.
The series hopes to serve the presenting artists and contribute to the field of experimental cinema by continuing to provide opportunities for accomplished and experienced filmmakers as well as emerging and student media artists to show and discuss their work. Over the years the Personal Cinema Series has introduced numerous artists to the public, gaining a national and international reputation for identifying artists who change the terms in which avant-garde cinema is discussed. Among those artists who were given the opportunity to mount their first (or one of their first) one-person shows at Millennium are: Hollis Frampton
Hollis Frampton
Hollis Frampton was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, writer/theoretician, and pioneer of digital art.-Early years:Frampton was born March 11, 1936 in Wooster, Ohio...
, Clayton Patterson, Jennifer Reeves, Donna Cameron, Bill Morrison
Bill Morrison (director)
Bill Morrison is a New York-based filmmaker and artist, best known for his experimental collage film Decasia . He is a member of Ridge Theater and the founder of Hypnotic Pictures...
, Fred Worden
Fred Worden
Fred Worden, filmmaker, has been involved in experimental cinema since the 1970s. His work has been screened at The Museum of Modern Art, in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, The Centre Pompidou, in Paris, The Pacific Film Archive, The New York Film Festival, The London Film Festival, The Rotterdam...
, M.M. Serra, Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...
, Vivienne Dick
Vivienne Dick
Vivienne Dick is an Irish experimental and documentary filmmaker.She was born in Dublin but moved to the United States in the 1970s. In the U.S., Dick became active in No Wave film culture and produced a series of Super8 short films. Many of her films were staged around well-known New York City...
, Holly Fisher, Sharon Greytak, Lewis Klahr, and Su Friedrich
Su Friedrich
Su Friedrich is an American avant-garde filmmaker.- Biography :Friedrich graduated from Oberlin College in 1975 and made her first film, Hot Water, in 1978...
.
Many of the most influential avant-garde filmmakers of the last four decades have premiered their newest work in the series. This list includes Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage
James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
, Jon Jost
Jon Jost
Jon Jost is an American independent filmmaker.Born in Chicago to a military family, he grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. He began making films in January 1963 after being expelled from college. In 1965 he was imprisoned by US authorities for 2 years 3 months for...
, Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger is an American underground experimental filmmaker, occasional actor and author...
, Carolee Schneeman, Valie Export
Valie Export
Valie Export is an Austrian artist...
, Paul Sharits
Paul Sharits
Paul Jeffrey Sharits Paul Sharits was a visual artist, best known for his work in "experimental" or avant-garde filmmaking, particularly what became known as the Structural film movement, along with artists such as Tony Conrad, Hollis Frampton, and Michael Snow.His film work primarily focused on...
, Michael Snow
Michael Snow
Michael Snow, CC is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.-Life:...
, Malcolm Le Grice, Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental. Her work is classified as minimalist art.- Early life :...
, Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines.-Early life:...
, Robert Breer, Birgit Hein
Birgit Hein
Birgit Hein is a German film director, producer and screenwriter who has made experimental films with her husband Wilhelm Hein since the 1960s.-Biography:...
, Ernie Gehr
Ernie Gehr
Ernie Gehr is an American experimental filmmaker closely associated with the Structural film movement of the 1970s. A self-taught artist, Gehr was inspired to begin making films in the 1960s after chancing upon a screening of a Stan Brakhage film. Gehr's film Serene Velocity has been selected...
, Abigail Child
Abigail Child
Abigail Child is a poet, director, producer, and writer of a number of films.Originally, Child worked in San Francisco but moved to New York later in her career.-Academics:...
, Amy Greenfield
Amy Greenfield
Amy Greenfield is a filmmaker and writer living in New York City. She is an originator of the cine-dance genre and a pioneer of experimental film and video....
, James Benning
James Benning (film director)
James Benning is an American filmmaker. He is the son of German immigrants and studied film at the University of Wisconsin–Madison under the tutelage of David Bordwell. Working as an independent filmmaker, Benning's films focus on a sense of place, and are often built from long, unedited takes...
, Rudy Burckhardt, among others. The Millennium worked closely with the late Jack Smith
Jack Smith (film director)
Jack Smith was an American filmmaker, actor, and pioneer of underground cinema...
, who showed his controversial films and gave live performances in the cinema. The legendary Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage
James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
was a passionate supporter of the organization and premiered many of his major films in the cinema, appearing in person almost yearly over a period of thirty years. In addition, Millennium has provided space for experimental theatre works and personalities, including Charles Ludlam
Charles Ludlam
Charles Braun Ludlam was an American actor, director, and playwright.-Early life:Ludlam was born in Floral Park, New York, the son of Marjorie and Joseph William Ludlam. He was raised in Greenlawn, New York, on Long Island, and attended Harborfields High School. The fact that he was gay was not a...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Stuart Sherman
Stuart Sherman (artist)
Stuart A. Sherman was a performance artist, playwright, filmmaker, videographer, poet, essayist, sculptor and collagist. He was born 9 November 1945 to Helen Gordon and Samuel Sherman in Providence, Rhode Island. Soon after attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Sherman moved to...
, Tony Conrad
Tony Conrad
Tony Conrad is an American avant-garde video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician/composer, sound artist, teacher and writer...
, Jackson MacLow, and others. The series has enabled these artists to experiment in ways that would be inappropriate for mainstream venues that attract larger audiences. In 1991, The Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
paid tribute to the organization for its 25th Anniversary by presenting a 13-show program of groundbreaking films that had premiered at Millennium over the years.
Workshop program & equipment access
The Workshop Program features classes in film and video production given by highly respected, working media artists. Past and present instructors include Alan BerlinerAlan Berliner
Alan Berliner is an American filmmaker. Many of his films have been aired on PBS Public Broadcasting Service program P.O.V.. Most of his films are generally classified as documentaries...
, Su Friedrich
Su Friedrich
Su Friedrich is an American avant-garde filmmaker.- Biography :Friedrich graduated from Oberlin College in 1975 and made her first film, Hot Water, in 1978...
, Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer is an American filmmaker in the genre of experimental films and a professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.-Biography:...
, Paul Sharits
Paul Sharits
Paul Jeffrey Sharits Paul Sharits was a visual artist, best known for his work in "experimental" or avant-garde filmmaking, particularly what became known as the Structural film movement, along with artists such as Tony Conrad, Hollis Frampton, and Michael Snow.His film work primarily focused on...
, Jud Yalkut
Jud Yalkut
Jud Yalkut is a pioneer in video art. In the 1970s he began experimenting with video in New York and influenced a number of other artists.-Life:...
, Ross McLaren
Ross McLaren (filmmaker)
Ross McLaren is a Canadian artist and filmmaker, based in New York City.-Biography:McLaren was born in 1953 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada and graduated with honors from Ontario College of Art, where he also did post-graduate work.-Advocacy:...
, Jennifer Reeves, Kelly Spivey, Noël Carroll
Noël Carroll
Noël Carroll is an American philosopher considered to be one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy of art. Although Professor Carroll is best known for his work in the philosophy of film, he works in general on philosophy of art, theory of media, and also philosophy of history...
, Nisi Jacobs, Rachel Shuman, and Jon Jost
Jon Jost
Jon Jost is an American independent filmmaker.Born in Chicago to a military family, he grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. He began making films in January 1963 after being expelled from college. In 1965 he was imprisoned by US authorities for 2 years 3 months for...
. Workshop topics include optical printing
Optical printer
An optical printer is a device consisting of one or more film projectors mechanically linked to a movie camera. It allows filmmakers to re-photograph one or more strips of film...
, Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and then Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X, runs on Mac personal computers powered by Mac OS X version 10.6.7 or later and using Intel processors...
editing, Steenbeck
Steenbeck
Steenbeck is a brand name that has become synonymous with a type of flatbed film editing suite which is usable with both 16 mm and 35 mm optical sound and magnetic sound film.The Steenbeck company was founded in 1931 by Wilhelm Steenbeck in Hamburg, Germany...
editing, 16mm
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
and Super 8mm
Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
film gauge
Film gauge
Film gauge is a physical property of photographic or motion picture film stock which defines its width. Traditionally the major film gauges in usage are 8 mm, 16 mm, 35 mm, and 65/70 mm...
s and digital video
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
. The organization is one of the only remaining establishments in New York City that provides classes, facilities, and equipment rental for optical printing
Optical printer
An optical printer is a device consisting of one or more film projectors mechanically linked to a movie camera. It allows filmmakers to re-photograph one or more strips of film...
and Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
. There also exists access to screening rooms, editing facilities, and film/video production equipment. Rates and fees remain inexpensive in order to maintain accessibility for artists who are otherwise unable to afford market rate costs. As a result, the users of these services represent a wide range of film/video makers, from the beginning film student to some of the most famous international artists. Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
, Joie Lee
Joie Lee
Joie Susannah Lee is an American screenwriter, film producer and actress. She has appeared in many of the films directed by her brother, Spike Lee, including She's Gotta Have It , School Daze , Do the Right Thing , and Mo' Better Blues...
, Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
, and Susan Seidelman
Susan Seidelman
Susan Seidelman is an American director, producer, writer, and actress.-Career:Susan Seidelman belongs to the first wave of female independent film makers in the American cinema of the 1980s. She graduated Abington Senior High School in 1969 , and went on to study fashion and arts at Drexel...
were members and equipment users. Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
used the editing rooms in the 1960s, and Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
used the screening room services to view a film by Amos Poe
Amos Poe
Amos Poe is a New York City director and screenwriter, described by The New York Times as a "pioneering indie filmmaker."-Career:Amos Poe is one of the first punk filmmakers and his film The Blank Generation —co-directed with Ivan Kral— is one of the earliest punk films...
in the 1980s.
The Millennium Film Journal
The Millennium Film Journal, dedicated to avant-gardeAvant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
cinema theory and practice, provides a forum for discussion and debate in the United States and abroad. The journal was established by 1978 by Howard Guttenplan, Alister Sanderson, Vicki Peterson, and David Shapiro in response to the lack of substantial writing about independent filmmakers and their work. Published bi-annually, each issue focuses on a particular theme or subject, ranging in aspects of artistic practice, e.g. The Script Issue (1991), Interactivities (1995), Paracinema and Performance (2005), through the social and political, e.g. Politics/Landscape (1979), Winds From the East (2002), to a focus on individual filmmakers or regions, e.g. Beavers
Robert Beavers
Robert Beavers is an American experimental filmmaker. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he attended Deerfield Academy which he left before graduating to move to New York in 1965 to pursue filmmaking...
/Markopoulos
Gregory Markopoulos
Gregory J. Markopoulos was a Greek-American experimental filmmaker. Born in Toledo, Ohio to Greek immigrant parents, Markopoulos began making 8 mm films at an early age. He attended USC Film School in the late 1940s, and went on to become a co-founder — with Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan...
(1998), Deutschland/Interviews (1997), and the special issue entitled Brakhage at the Millennium (2007/2008), which documents Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage
James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
's film-talks at the Millennium over a thirty year period with transcriptions, letters and photographs from the organization's artist archives.
The journal is interested in writing about the individual artist from the emerging to the established, and in theoretical considerations or overviews of independent cinema. Writers range from firmly established to unknown; the Hybrids issue (Fall, 2006), for example, includes the first publication of a new kind of research by renowned scholar, Lev Manovich
Lev Manovich
Lev Manovich is an author of new media books, professor of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego, U.S. and European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where he teaches new media art and theory, software studies, and digital humanities...
and “VJ Diary” by Jessica Ruffin, a then undergraduate in the Film Studies program of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Other notable authors include Paul Arthur, Mike Hoolbloom, J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman , also known as J. Hoberman, is an American film critic. He is currently the senior film critic for The Village Voice, a post he has held since 1988.-Education:...
, Fred Camper, Joan Copjec, David James, AL Rees, Mary Ann Doane, Birgit Hein, Chris Hill, Vivian Sobchack, Scott MacDonald, Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin is an American film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British Sight & Sound and the American Film Comment...
, Noël Carroll
Noël Carroll
Noël Carroll is an American philosopher considered to be one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy of art. Although Professor Carroll is best known for his work in the philosophy of film, he works in general on philosophy of art, theory of media, and also philosophy of history...
, P. Adams Sitney
P. Adams Sitney
P. Adams Sitney , is a historian of American avant-garde cinema.-Life:He was educated in his hometown, at Yale University...
.
Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin is an American film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British Sight & Sound and the American Film Comment...
contributed the first article about video, And what is a fact anyway? (On a tape by Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler is an American artist. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, where she now lives. She graduated from Brooklyn College and the University of California, San Diego . Rosler works in video, photo-text, installation, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture...
) in Politics/Landscape (No.s 4/5, 1979). The article’s discussion of video work opened a new direction for the journal wherein it acknowledged that cinema has developed and is developing in several media simultaneously, as such the misconception that there is one history of film, another of video, and yet a third of so-called digital works, often occurs and thus leads to a misinterpretation of work in the field. The article suggested that to avoid this, one must see experimental cinema as containing multiple streams of history that overlap and intermingle. In the last 30 years the Millennium Film Journal has made a deliberate effort to capture this epistemological multiplicity. Since 1990 the journal has devoted as much as half of its space to video and new media work.
In 1995, the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
donated space on their server for the journal website,http://www.mfj-online.org/ and consequently it was one of the first print journals with an online presence. The website includes two indexes, one alphabetized by writer and the other by filmmaker mentioned, a table of contents for each issue, and the texts of most articles since 1993.