Eye UNDERGROUND - American Avant-Garde Film in the 1960s. Poetry as an act of resistance

In 1964, Andy Warhol pointed his camera at the Empire State Building and captured an eight-hour long shot of it. This presents avant-garde film fans with a slight dilemma. Should you really sit through Empire from the first minute to the last (and watch the night around the building slowly give way to daylight), or is it enough to take a brief look at this conceptual art?

The question came to me because this autumn, Empire is a (modest) part of Eye's ambitious programme dedicated to American avant-garde film of the 1960s. A richly varied programme that shows how in those years a group of filmmakers rebelled against mainstream cinema, as it had long been dominated by Hollywood. And when you now see with how much energy and experimentation that went hand in hand, you can understand why programmer Anna Abrahams sighed at the press presentation: "I wish I had been there."

Experimental revolt

Of course, experimental films were being made long before that, in Europe and later in America, but that big outbreak in the 1960s was still striking. It had to do with the era, of course; it was more than just a revolt against Hollywood. In 1955, the Vietnam War began, the same year black Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white fellow traveller. It was the time of the civil rights movement and Vietnam protest. On 18 August 1963, Martin Luther King spoke the words 'I have a dream'. Three months later, President Kennedy was assassinated. In 1965, The Beatles arrived in New York and the first Hitweek was on sale in the Netherlands. 1967: the Summer of Love. 1968: the assassination of Martin Luther King. 1969: the Altamont pop festival, where The Rolling Stones also perform, is disrupted by Hells Angels, resulting in four deaths.

That social unrest also crops up here and there rather explicitly in the work shown here. Viet-Flakes (1965) by Carolee Schneemann is a protest in the form of a collage of news photos and war images of Vietnam. Made even before the big protests erupted in America. Bruce Conner's idiosyncratically edited Report (1963-1967) was inspired by the media coverage surrounding the Kennedy assassination. But in a lot of other work, that zeitgeist is present in a different way. What we see in many ways is a celebration of freedom, free from the trappings of narrative or actors, using the camera as a personal means of expression. Film emphatically as a form of visual art. Poetry as an act of resistance. A liberation movement that continues to inspire young filmmakers today.

Dancers in a dream

Entering the exhibition space, where a lot of short work is running, I immediately see that very nicely in Maya Deren's Ensemble for Somnambulists (1951). In grainy 16-mm, dancers depicted in negative drift through an indeterminate space in a dreamlike manner. A wonderful way to connect art forms while putting a very personal feeling into it. That, at least, is my impression. Because this kind of film has no densely nailed-down meanings.

At the end of my tour, I step into the space where the impressive installation Movie Mural (1965-1968) can be experienced for the first time in the Netherlands. A stream of images on eleven overlapping screens. Projected not only as (now digital) film, but also with slides and overhead projection. Again, you can see all sorts of things in these, but the main thing is to immerse yourself in this sea of impressions that is constantly changing and has no beginning or end. As if you have almost literally stepped into Stan VanDerBeek's imagination.

Surprising too how this reminds me of the stream of images that today's generation takes in via the internet. In many ways, this installation is a precursor to what is being done by digital means today.

Festival of Lights

Between this beginning and end of my basically far too quickly finished tour, I saw all sorts of other things I perhaps should have taken more time to see. From Marie Menkens Lights (1966), in which Christmas lights turn into an abstract light festival, to Yoko Ono's buttocks film Bottoms (1967) to Andy Warhol's (yes, that one again) static-filmed portraits, including an uncertain-looking Bob Dylan. Actually, Warhol, with his static camera, provided a counter-movement within the counter-movement. Irony is there too, as in Gunvor Nelson's feminist-absurdist striptease Take Off (1972). And in the corner of my eye, Empire looms over and over again.

Thus, everyone will find something different that appeals to them specially. Case is, take your time, look around, and then choose something you want to give your full attention to. And come back again later.

Maya Deren, Jonas Mekas

Incidentally, it is notable that there are relatively many women among those experimenting film artists. With the aforementioned Maya Deren (1917-1961) as the main forerunner of the later sixties. Meanwhile, new film movements saw the light of day in Europe, including the French Nouvelle Vague. America followed when, in 1961, a group of disgruntled young filmmakers, spearheaded by Jonas Mekas, united as the New American Cinema Group. They presented themselves with a manifesto that called for personal, artful films and branded official cinema as redundant, morally corrupt and aesthetically obsolete. Not wrong.

As it were, their work forms the heart of the Eye programme. By Jonas Mekas himself, there is the poetic diary film Walden, Diaries, Notes, and Sketches (1969), projected on three screens. Loose, often very personal snapshots that pass by like a stream of thoughts. One of the most sensitive contributions to the exhibition. With a few metres away the screen showing how Stan Brakhage even makes the camera redundant by sticking wings of moths on a filmstrip.

Eye and avant-garde

UNDERGROUND is a programme that is close to Eye's heart, Jaap Guldemond, Director of Exhibitions, and film programmer Anna Abrahams had immediately made it known. Because Eye, then still the Filmmuseum, started in 1946 (then as part of the Stedelijk Museum) with early avant-garde films from the legacy of the Filmliga in the 1920s. For Eye, attention to avant-garde has always remained important.

The programme fans out

There is already a lot to see at the exhibition, and this is just the starting point for the extensive programme in Eye's cinemas, where the longer films will be shown. Often accompanied by an introduction. There are crossovers between film, performance, dance and literature. During the week of 17 to 23 October, there is a focus on psychedelic film, in cooperation with Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. On 5 November, there is a special event during US election night. On the Eye Film Player features several documentaries that further explore the American avant-garde.

And should anyone still dare to experience Empire from start to finish and watch the sun set and rise there - you can. Eye's exhibition is open long enough every day.