Avant Garde Ecocinema
Vianne Militar
Defining avant-garde is challenging; there is arguably no satisfying, standard set of characteristics for the vast body of work that encompasses experimental cinema. Avant-garde translates to “foreguard,” a term used in the military, typifying soldiers who have explored terrain ahead of their troops for possible dangers (Kordic et al.). Accordingly, avant-garde artists explore experimental, innovative approaches to art in relation to political movements. Experimental and avant-garde films often work without regard to traditional narrative film's structures and demands, frequently exhibited as a critique of dominant Hollywood cinema and functions (Blaetz). They often (though do not strictly) concern themselves less with structure than with a psychological experience, utilize experimental strategies (i.e., time-lapse photography, distorting lenses, rapid camera movements, dramatic use or lack of music, etc.), work within a low budget, and present no clear “message,” encouraging multiple interpretations.
Our first avant-garde film, Koyaanisqatsi, is an experimental film produced in 1982, directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke. In the Hopi language, “Koyaanisqatsi” means “unbalanced life” (Banis). This film contains no dialogue nor a vocalized narration; the tone is set by images of natural landscapes and urban life accompanied by music that transitions between hypnotic, aggressive, haunting, and meditative. The title hints at how to interpret the film, yet, as Banis describes, there is no simple narrative that positions ‘bad polluting technology’ versus ‘good nature’ that can do it justice.
Despite never explicitly mentioning climate change, the film suggests themes such as the repercussions of modern life and technology, mass consumerism, and what Banis describes as a “two-edged approach” of the unbalanced relationship between humans and nature and faith in what our species can accomplish. For instance, Reggio utilizes a visual trope of channeled motion in which hotdogs move along a conveyer belt in the same motion as humans hurriedly move up an escalator; this motion suggests that we move within a system no differently than the commodities we produce, losing all individuality. As Reggio explains, the lack of dialogue is “not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words. It's because, from my point of view, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we live" (qtd. in Stephens). Perhaps images and music better embody how we are losing control of our technology and our lives.
Our second avant-garde film, At Sea, was directed by Peter Hutton, who accompanies his audience through a silent film of the birth, life, and death of a container ship on 16 mm color and black-and-white film. It begins in a modern South Korean shipyard where workers are observed as distant figures beside vast machinery--each individual is seemingly insignificant to the project, objectified as mere commodities. Subsequently, the ship journeys through the North Atlantic waters, and the film closes on waste from the scrapped ships dumped into the Bay of Bengal. This process of breaking apart ships, on the other hand, is extremely unsafe.
Hutton intended to keep everything simple, pulling from Eastern art influence, which is much more quiet and subtle. He expresses, “the more I kept it simple, the more I could work...It’s not about the pyrotechnics, it’s about something else---being inventive with limitations" (qtd. in Aldredge). There are no sounds or special effects, although the silence and still scenes evoke feelings of isolation and a glimpse into the hazardous reality of the people at hand. The journey suggests the circulation of disposable commodities and subtle commentary on labor and globalization.
As Aldredge expresses with At Sea, “whatever your expectations are of cinema, set them aside.” Through our class discussions, we questioned how both films’ visual and/or musical tropes encapsulated ecocriticism, the effectiveness of the avant-garde techniques in “successfully” transmitting a (non-visual) narrative or non-logocentric narrative structure, and explored suggestive, subtle commentary on human-nature relationships. As Ryan argues, narrativity cannot be limited “to verbal texts nor to narratorial speech acts… Recognizing the importance of visual narrative in film is part of a re-defining of narrative: it evokes not just a sequence of events, but the larger world in which these events take place” (qtd. in Stephens). Nevertheless, we must not disregard the beauty in the absurd and ambiguity within the avant-garde genre in spaces we share cinematic discourse and commentary.
References
Aldredge, Michelle. “Flimmaker Peter Hutton : It’s Not About the Pyrotechnics, It’s About Limitations.” Gwarlingo, 6 Apr. 2012, https://www.gwarlingo.com/2012/flimmaker-peter-hutton/.
Banis, Davide. “Why 1982 Experimental Documentary ‘koyaanisqatsi’ Is Still a Must-See in This Time of Climate Change.” Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidebanis/2019/06/30/why-1982-experimental-documentary-koyaanisqatsi-is-still-a-must-see-in-this-time-of-climate-change/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.
Blaetz, Robin. “Avant-Garde and Experimental Film.” Obo, https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791286/obo-9780199791286-0082.xml. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.
Kordic, Angie, et al. Understanding the Significance of Avant-Garde | Widewalls. https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/avant-garde-movement-theater-music-photography-contemporary-art. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.
Stephens, Gregory. Koyaanisqatsi and the Visual Narrative of Environmental Film. http://tlweb.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/screeningthepast/28/koyaanisqatsi-visual-narrative-of-environmental-film.html. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.