Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

America the beautiful

The award-winning film and art historian, Scott MacDonald, will bring the often-ignored realm of avant-garde cinema to life tonight at the American Place in American Avant-Garde Film Series.

MacDonald received the Life Achievement Award from the Anthology Film Archive last year - an award previously bestowed upon the Eastman Kodak Company and Martin Scorsese.

Since then, MacDonald has arranged a series of films that look at the American landscape in unconventional ways.

"No one paid attention to avant-garde film, and suddenly I realized there was this whole other world. I have spent 25 years exploring that world," MacDonald said.

Though he never attended formal film school, MacDonald "fell in love with it in the late 1960s."

"I decided to go where it wasn't all clogged up," he said. "My background is in literature, and hundreds were on Hemingway and Faulkner. I wanted to do the waltz and find something no one had ever said."

Specifically, MacDonald wanted to produce a comprehensive examination of the American landscape.

"As more places look like other places, a lot of people wonder what makes one location unique, what makes Tucson, Tucson. I wanted to capture the nature of places," he said.

While some people are not familiar with avant-garde cinema, the genre does exist in the mainstream.

"Avant-garde film has a legacy that is all around, yet invisible," said Mary Beth Haralovich, media arts department head. "The opening credits of popular television shows such as 'The X-Files' and 'Millenium' use techniques that were pioneered in avant-garde film."

Unlike narrative movies that combine the efforts of many people, avant-garde film is often made by a single person working with a limited budget.

"It's a solo effort, like a novel or poem," said MacDonald. "An individual makes a 'perfect' film within the limits of what they can afford to do."

Since these films are often produced on limited budgets, distribution is often limited. Haralovich noted the importance of showing the work of avant-garde filmmakers.

"This series presents films that are rarely seen outside of museums and university film courses," she said. "The UA's very fine screening facilities in the AME (aerospace and mechanical engineering) auditorium allow us to present this 16 millimeter experience in all its potential. It will be like being in an art gallery of moving pictures."

Highlights of the series include appearances by Ellen Spiro and James Benning, both important figures in avant-garde cinema.

As the series moves westward, MacDonald's own life oscillates between his vacations in Tucson and his home in upstate New York.

"The Sonoran Desert blows me away, it's gorgeous," he said. "I love both, but in order to appreciate one, you must see the other."

Over the past years, MacDonald has spent his spring breaks in Tucson, and last year he called the media arts department to see if he could teach a class.

His schedule coincided with the university's, and this semester MacDonald is teaching the senior seminar class on the topic of avant-garde film.

MacDonald has also authored seven books on avant-garde cinema.

"He is a respected curator and historian of film and photography. He is one of the most influential advocates of independent film in the U.S.," said Haralovich. "Our faculty enthusiastically welcomed this opportunity for our students and our colleagues to spend time with Dr. MacDonald. We enjoy having a visiting colleague for an entire semester. It energizes the entire department."