title
   :
   A Critical Cinema : Interviews With Independent Filmmakers
 
   author
   :
   MacDonald, Scott.
 
   publisher
   :
   University of California Press
 
   isbn10 | asin
   :
   0520079183
 
   print isbn13
   :
   9780520079182
 
   ebook isbn13
   :
   9780585335100
 
   language
   :
   English
 
   subject
 
   Experimental films--United States--History and criticism, Independent filmmakers--United States--Interviews.
 
   publication date
   :
   1992
 
   lcc
   :
   PN1995.9.E96M34 1992eb
 
   ddc
   :
   791.43/75/0973
 
   subject
   :
   Experimental films--United States--History and criticism, Independent filmmakers--United States--Interviews.
 

 
   Page iii
 
   A Critical Cinema 2
 
   Interviews with Independent Filmmakers
 
   Scott MacDonald
 
 
 
 

 
   Page iv
 
   University of California Press
 
   Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
 
   University of California Press
 
   Oxford, England
 
   Copyright © 1992 by The Regents of the University of California
 
   Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 
   MacDonald, Scott, 1942
 
   A critical cinema.
 
   Includes bibliographical references and index.
 
   Filmography: p. 423-435.
 
   1. Experimental filmsUnited StatesHistory and
 
   criticism. 2. Motion picture producers and directors
 
   United StatesInterviews. I. Title.
 
   PN1995.9.E96M34 1988 791.43'75'0973 87-6004
 
   ISBN 0-520-05800-3 (v. 1: cloth)
 
   ISBN 0-520-05801-1 (v. 1: pbk.)
 
   ISBN 0-520-07917-5 (v. 2: cloth)
 
   ISBN 0-520-07918-3 (v. 2: pbk.)
 
   Printed in the United States of America
 
   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
 
   The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.481984
 
 
 
 

 
   Page v
 
   To my best teachers:
 
   Patricia O'Connor, Peter Watkins,
 
   J. J. Murphy, Bob Huot, Morgan Fisher,
 
   Frank Bergmann, Su Friedrich, Ian MacDonald
 

 
   Page vii
 
   Contents
 
   Acknowledgments
 
   ix
 
   Introduction
 
   1
 
   Robert Breer
 
   15
 
   Michael Snow
 
   51
 
   Jonas Mekas
 
   77
 
   Bruce Baillie
 
   109
 
   Yoko Ono
 
   139
 
   Anthony McCall
 
   157
 
   Andrew Noren
 
   175
 
   Anne Robertson
 
   206
 
   James Benning
 
   220
 
   Lizzie Borden
 
   249
 
   Ross McElwee
 
   265
 
   Su Friedrich
 
   283
 
 
 

 
   Page viii
 
   Anne Severson (On Near the Big Chakra)
 
   319
 
   Laura Mulvey (On Riddles of the Sphinx)
 
   333
 
   Yvonne Rainer (On Privilege)
 
   344
 
   Trinh T. Minh-ha
 
   355
 
   Godfrey Reggio
 
   378
 
   Peter Watkins
 
   402
 
   Filmography
 
   423
 
   Bibliography
 
   437
 
   Index
 
   449
 
 
 

 
   Page ix
 
   Acknowledgments
 
   Thanks to the following journals for permission to reprint interviews and, in some cases, my introductory comments:
 
   Film Quarterly,
   for "Southern Exposure: An Interview with Ross McElwee," vol. 41, no. 4 (Summer 1988), pp. 1323; "Yoko Ono: Ideas on Film (Interview/Scripts)," vol. 43, no. 1 (Fall 1989), pp. 223; ''Illuminations: An Interview with Andrew Noren," vol. 44, no. 3 (Spring 1991), pp. 3043; "Demystifying the Female BodyTwo Interviews: Anne Severson
   Near the Big Chakra
   /Yvonne Rainer
   Privilege,
   " vol. 45, no. 1 (Fall 1991), pp. 1832.
 
   Afterimage,
   for "Interview with James Benning," vol. 9, no. 5 (December 1981), pp. 1219; "Interview with Anthony McCall," vol. 15, no. 5 (December 1987), pp. 69; "Damned If You Don't: An Interview with Su Friedrich," vol. 15, no. 10 (May 1988), pp. 610.
 
   The Independent,
   for "The Nuclear War Film: Peter Watkins Interviewed," vol. 7, no. 9 (October 1984), pp. 2224, 32; "Daddy Dearest: Su Friedrich Talks about Filmmaking, Family, Feminism," vol. 13, no. 10 (December 1990), pp. 2834.
 
   Cinematograph,
   for "A Picture a Day Keeps the Doctor Away: An Interview with Anne Robertson," vol. 4 (1991), pp. 5366.
 
   Feminist Studies,
   for "Interview with Lizzie Borden." Article reprinted from
   Feminist Studies,
   vol. 15, no. 2 (Summer 1989), pp. 327345, by permission of the publisher, Feminist Studies, Inc., c/o Women's Studies Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742.
 
   Journal of Film and Video (Journal of the University Film Associa
   -
 

 
   Page x
 
   tion
   ), for "Interview with Peter Watkins," vol. 34, no. 3 (Summer 1982), pp. 4755.
 
   October,
   for "Interview with Jonas Mekas," no. 29 (Summer 1984), pp. 82116.
 
   The Velvet Light Trap,
   for "But First a Little Ru Ru: An Interview with Robert BreerRecent Films," no. 24 (Fall 1989), pp. 7584.
   The Velvet Light Trap
   is published by the University of Texas Press.
 
   Thanks to Utica College of Syracuse University for several research grants, and to my typist Carol Fobes.
 

 
   Page 1
 
   Introduction
 
   Since nearly all of us are acculturated to expect certain types of experiences in movie theaters and on television, one of the valuable functions of the multifaceted independent cinema that has developed alongside the popular cinema during most of its history is to challenge our expectations. When we see a film that surprises or shocks us, we are forced to question the implicit assumptions about cinema our expectations encode. Of course, this process is inevitable within any area of film history. Even in the standard genres of commercial film, viewers are inevitably comparing each new instance of horror film, Western, and suspense thriller with previous instances and with the sense of the genre's history they have developed. What gives some forms, and some particular instances, of independent film their "critical" edge is the
   extent
   to which they force us to question our psychological/social/political investment in the conventional. A new instance of a horror film usually confronts, at most, a limited number of the expectations we bring to the genrethe way in which characters are developed or plots resolved, or the type of special effects used, or the overall look of the events dramatizedbut an independent film with a powerful critical edge might challenge our assumption that a film must include characters and plot or must present events within images that confirm Western perspectival conventions or must include recognizable imagery at all. Indeed, one of the signals that one is experiencing a powerfully critical film is the conviction that what we're seeing isn't a
   real
   movie, even though it is obviously being projected by a movie projector in a movie theater.
 
   A particular critical film can relate to the conventional cinema in