Avant-Doc - Intersections of Documentary and Avant-Garde Cinema

Aug 7, 2026

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Avant-Doc: Intersections of Documentary and Avant-Garde Cinema presents an oral panorama of filmmakers working where documentary forms meet avant-garde experimentation. Through a sequence of interviews, the volume maps aesthetic strategies, production contexts, and critical vocabularies that shape experimental approaches to image and sound. Covering major artists and works, it links filmmaking practice to questions of authorship, representation, and audience experience. The book also includes filmographies, bibliographical references, and an index to support focused research.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages473

Reading Time12 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Annette Michelson

Robert Gardner

Ed Pincus

Alfred Guzzetti

Ross McElwee

Nina Davenport

Leonard Retel Helmrich

Jonathan Caouette

Paweł Wojtasik

Michael Glawogger

Susana de Sousa Dias

Filmographies

Selected Bibliography

Index

Avant-Doc Avant-Doc INTERSECTIONS OF DOCUMENTARY AND AVANT-GARDE CINEMA Scott MacDonald 3 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Avant-doc : intersections of documentary and avant-garde cinema : an oral panorama / Scott MacDonald. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. Includes filmography. ISBN 978–0–19–938870–7 (cloth)—ISBN 978–0–19–938871–4 (pbk.)—ISBN 978–0–19–938872–1 (updf)—ISBN 978–0–19–938873–8 (epub) 1. Documentary films—History and criticism. 2. Experimental films—History and criticism. 3. Motion picture producers and directors— Interviews. I. MacDonald, Scott, 1942– interviewer. PN1995 .9.D6A947 2014 070.1'8—dc23 2014006115 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper { CONTENTS } Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Annette Michelson 26 Robert Gardner 48 Ed Pincus (and Jane Pincus, Lucia Small) 78 Alfred Guzzetti 109 Ross McElwee 143 Nina Davenport 169 Leonard Retel Helmrich 184 Jonathan Caouette 206 Paweł Wojtasik 227 Michael Glawogger 248 Susana de Sousa Dias 266 Amie Siegel (on DDR/DDR) 283 Alexander Olch (on The Windmill Movie) 292 Arthur and Jennifer Smith (on Ice Bears of the Beaufort) 304 Betzy Bromberg (on Voluptuous Sleep) 314 Jennifer Proctor (on A Movie by Jen Proctor) 325 Jane Gillooly (on Suitcase of Love and Shame) 336 Godfrey Reggio (on Visitors) 347 Todd Haynes 357 vi Contents “Sensory Ethnography” 373 Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (on In and Out of Africa and Sweetgrass) 375 Lucien Castaing-Taylor (on his Installation Work) 393 Lucien Castaing-Taylor (on “Sensory Ethnography”) 400 Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel (on Leviathan) 404 Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez (on Manakamana) 410 Filmographies 419 Selected Bibliography 435 Index 443 { ACKNOWLEDGMENTS } Various individuals and organizations have helped make Avant-Doc possible. Oxford University Press editor Brendan O’Neill had faith in this project from early on and was persistent in his support. Thanks to Autumn Campbell and Jeremy Rossen, then directors of the Cinema Project in Portland, Oregon, for arranging for me to interview Todd Haynes, a public event co-sponsored by the Northwest Film Center; to Steve Holmgren of UnionDocs, the center for documentary filmmaking in Brooklyn, New York, and to Dennis Lim of the American Museum of the Moving Image for helping to arrange for me to interview Michael Glawoggeras a public event at UnionDocs; to Rebecca Meyers at Studio7Arts for facilitating my interview with Robert Gardner

FAQs

What does Avant-Doc focus on?

Avant-Doc focuses on the intersections between documentary and avant-garde cinema, exploring how experimental methods reshape documentary practice through interviews.

How is the book organized?

The volume is organized around a series of interview chapters with individual filmmakers, followed by filmographies, a selected bibliography, and an index.

Is there research support for further study?

Yes. The book includes bibliographical references, filmographies, and a detailed index to facilitate scholarly follow-up.

Aug 7, 2026

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