Autocross Blogs - Song Liang

Documentaries of other kinds also deserve brief comment. Rüdiger Sünner's Black Sun (Germany, 1998), from Icarus Films, is an intelligent, intensely focused study tracing the roots of Nazi ideology in German legend, religion, and mythology. Deborah Stratman's O'er the Land (USA, 2009), from The Cinema Guild, is an avantgarde meditation on dubious American notions of masculinity and patriotism. Helene Klodawsky's Malls R Us (France/ Canada, 2009), also from Icarus, takes an energetic look at shopping-mall architecture, but seems uncertain about whether it deplores the sprawling beasts or feels a sneaking affection silver pendants for them. A pair of Icarus releases about art were disappointments too: Peter Woditsch's Secret Museums (Belgium, 2008), about collectors of rare pornography, knocks itself out trying to make mighty tame stuff seem shocking, shocking, and Simon Backes's Stolen Art (Belgium, 2009), a faux documentary about an art forger, achieves little beyond conjuring memories of Orson Welles's infinitely better F for Fake (1973). Back on the bright side, Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher's October Country (USA, 2009), from The Cinema Guild, is a working-class family portrait filmed with an artistic flair that effectively complements the earthbound subject matter.

I'll finish my rapid-fire survey with a quick look at avant-garde cinema, another orphan category, which has reaped exceptional benefits from DVD distribution. One reason for its relative obscurity is the enormous range of esthetic challenges presented by avant-garde films, which are as resistant to generalization as poetry or painting. Another is its fiercely independent nature, which tends to stave off conventional marketing and promotion. Critics, scholars, and fans haven't even agreed on what its name should be. The vague label "independent" was in vogue some years ago, but has thankfully retired from the field. This leaves "experimental," which carries a sort of madscientist connotation, and "avant-garde," which means "advance guard" and therefore suggests that James Cameron and Steven Spielberg have to somehow "catch up" with artistes who have never darkened a silver rings multiplex's doorway. I have no better term to offer, so I'll do what most critics do, using both terms interchangeably.

Celluloid prints of experimental works have long been available from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Canyon Cinema Cooperative in San Francisco, and a few other specialized sources. But most of the films they distribute were made years or decades ago, and the income from renting them doesn't allow for making many copies, or maintaining the existing copies in top condition. This is where rediscovery, restoration, and digital technology come into play. The leading discount tiffany experts in these fields are historians and preservation specialists at prominent film archives, and the results of their labors have borne wonderful fruits in recent years. The best example I know of is the series of four multi-disc collections produced by the National Film Preservation Foundation in collaboration with various leading archivists. The first three of these sets present (mostly) silent films: Treasures from American Film Archives (Image Entertainment, 2000; encore edition, 2005); its sequel, More Treasures from American Film Archives (Image, 2004); and the more sharply focused Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film (Image, 2007).