A New Direction In Film: The Avant-Garde

The art of film has progressed to a point where venturing back through the films of past years creates something of a vast difference in arrangement that is noticeable to even the most uneducated of persons. Avant-garde films track this history by taking the already established medium and expressing it in new ways. In Stan Brackage’s 1963 experimental film, “Mothlight”, what can and cannot be filmed is explored. By pressing dyed moths onto blank film, the viewer watches sped up frames with a lifeless object being presented in imitated motion. When truly thinking about it, Brackage plays on the idea of filming life. However, the motion he is imitating is that of a creature that is almost always in motion. Stilling this motion we are presented a different view on what is motion and how can this be filmed. Moths are also heavily attracted to light. The fact that it is the passing of bright light that causes the audience to see the image of this dyed moth is another depth to the art that goes into the film. No dialogue is being presented. No story is being told. but the art of the film is one that can stand with the big films with history. The audience is watching the motion that Brackage shows us. He takes this creature and presents it in a new light, even if the experimentation is one of the actual film reels. This form of avant-garde film allows the audience to see life that is dead and still create something from it.

Nowadays, the availability of the of videos and films throughout much of the internet has created a whole new viewing experience. Films used to be mostly watched by a selected audience who could pay to actually see them in the theatre. However, today anyone with availability to the internet can watch any video that was ever created. This helps to create a culture focused on visuals and how the world is portrayed. Anyone can be a filmmaker now as long as they post it on YouTube. Someone is always bound to watch it even if the video is of the worst quality. In this same facet, YouTube has also made these avant-garde films highly available to the vast audience. Most times people find themselves watching one of these videos because they just happened to stumble upon it. In this light, many times we don’t find ourselves actually thinking about the experimental qualities of the films. Instead, this generation finds themselves looking for more entertainment then anything else. Fortunately though, this entertainment perspective is also one of extracting meaning. Many people may travel YouTube and find videos that contain certain meanings or extrapolate a meaning from a video. In this way, our generation finds itself more in the line of focusing on meaning rather than actual practice.