Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-2000

by P. Adams Sitney

Critics hailed previous editions of Visionary Film as the most complete work written on the exciting, often puzzling, and always controversial genre of American avant-garde film. This book has remained the standard text on American avant-garde film since the publication of its first edition in 1974. Now P. Adams Sitney has once again revised and updated this classic work, restoring a chapter on the films of Gregory J. Markopoulos and bringing his discussion of the principal genres and major filmmakers up to the year 2000.

Genres: Film, History, Art, Nonfiction, Media Tie In, Visual Art, Criticism

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

P. Adams Sitney was a historian of American avant-garde cinema. He was known as the author of Visionary Film, one of the first books on the history of experimental film in the United States.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

P. Adams Sitney's great study on American avant-garde filmmakers and their films. It's a colorful history full if fascinating cranky film artists - sort of the last frontier where a person picks up a cheap movie camera, makes a film, and then organize a film showing. It is often a world that is mentioned by mainstream Hollywood but rarely seen. Which is a shame because a lot of these films are remarkable pieces of art.

[Perry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of historical importance, although I am mostly struck by how it seems like a great deal of my least favorite modes of experimental film critique find their origins here.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandatory reading for any (experimental) filmmaker.

[Mike Everleth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for avant-garde film fans even though, at times, I find Siney's writing a bit too obtuse and/or overly intellectual.

[CTEP]

This summer I’ll be starting a weekly film class with the youth at Neighborhood House! We’ll be doing screenings, film history/appreciation and some production. Despite my excitement I’m so nervous. I’ve been trying to put together a curriculum that is both challenging and engaging for my kids and I have been really struggling to come up with a framing that I am satisfied with. So, in my spare time I’ve been reading standard film studies books to put myself into a more cinematic mindset and as a way to research film titles. One text that I had just a really great time with was “Visionary Film” which is an in-depth, great starting point for reading about avant-garde American film written by scholar extraodinaire, P. Adams Sitney.



Honestly, it was just very fun to read - it’s like hanging out with a friend; but, it can also be a bit text-booky and prescriptive, but that can be fun in its own way. The book is broken into sections focusing on either specific films, makers, or genres of the avant-garde; because of this it works like an anthology but for the most part, the sections followed a similar format. For example, one of my favorite sections, was devoted to Kenneth Anger. It probably stood out to me because I'm a big fan of his- his films are campy, violent altars to Hollywood. The language of the chapter bent to fit his films so well - almost every paragraph had the word “fireworks” in it! The chapter summarizes and lists his best known films then shot by shot breaks one down and places it in a history of avant-grade filmmaking. Most of the chapters mirror this same format but because of the aesthetic differences between the different subjects of each section, each evokes such different feeling and thought, at the end leaving me as a reader feeling very whole.



I encourage other CTEPs to visit or revisit texts like this as a way to inform their teaching. I doubt that I am really going to use much of this in my teaching or framing of the class since, well, my kids will find most of these films boring. But it did help me think of narratives to frame my class around and served as a bit of a warm up for talking about film in this way again, after being gone from school for so long. All in all, it was nice to read about something I am interested in and that in itself has lots of value.

[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dear All Film Theorist/Critics

Thank you very much for all the inspirational works that you have written, I myself am unable to express my gratitude to the significant contribution that you have made to the development of human intellect. I highly appreciate your effort and time invested in the meticulous construction of every single monumental masterpiece. And with my greatest reverence: can y'all please stfu?

Sincerely
Someone who doesn't want to get severe brain damage.

[Bruno Dal Molin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well researched book on the topic. Interesting associations and generally well written. Lots of info here on a number of American avant-garde filmmakers with a historical orientation.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sitney's History of the Avant-garde is comprehensive & compelling... up through the 1970s. Too often he reads the films to fit his idea that the American Avant-garde is intimately linked to Romanticism in Poetry & fails to acknowledge how certain films deviate from his definitions. Sitney does not have much interest in experimental film after 1970, & his book makes this clear. While we cannot know which filmmakers in the last 40 years will necessarily stand out in history, if you are interested in the direction(s) of experimental film in America, this book will not be fulfilling for you. However, if you are interested in the birth of the American Cinematic Avant-garde& are interested in comprehensive readings of films from the late 1940s-1960s, this book is a blessing.

[John Ledingham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really sweet history of American experimental film. Watched as many of these as I could alongside reading it. A whole education in this book. Wow. Only fault I find is Sitney gets a bit stuck in his own critical categories when it comes to looking at the 70s and beyond. Still probably a better history on this stuff than anyone else has ever written.

[Emm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is the avant-garde really dead??? P. Adams Sitney, I beg to differ.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The text gets bogged down in plodding description that offers a handful of interesting insights but does nothing to capture the energy or the delight of these films.