A Context for Vivienne Dick

The films of Vivienne Dick are part of recent developments within a mode of artisanal production that of 8mm and super-8 which has exemplary status for the avant-garde. The relative inexpensiveness, accessibility, and convenience of narrow-gauge filmmaking make it the most genuinely democratic form of production. Its history and development are, however, still very much a subject for further research. The first 8mm cameras were placed on the market in 1932 but, for the most part, the first twenty-five years of narrowgauge film practice remain unrecorded in cinema history. Despite its advantages, narrow-gauge filmmaking accentuates all that is ephemeral about film in general, while its distribution (and preservation) present far more difficulties than do larger formats. In this country narrow-gauge filmmaking is represented by two periods of intense activity. The first occurred between 1960 and 1965, the secondstill in progressbegan a dozen years later, after the introduction of super-8 sound technology. Starting in the late 1950s, a widely scattered group of individuals-Wallace Berman, Bob Branaman, Bob Chatterton, Bob Cowan, Piero Heliczer, George and Mike Kuchar, George Landow-began producing extremely variegated 8mm work. In 1963 the discovery of the Kuchar brothers by Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage's encounter with Branaman created a small 8mm wedge within the new American cinema. Shortly afterwards 8mm entered its heroic age when Brakhage, as well as such established filmmakers as Bruce Conner and Ken Jacobs, switched (albeit temporarily) from 16mm to narrow-gauge production. Around the same time, Piero Heliczer entered his most productive phase, painter Alfred Leslie began work on an 8mm feature, and a number of younger filmmakers most importantly, Saul Levine began to release 8mm work. Ironically, this surge in 8mm activity coincided with the introduction of super-8. The new format's smaller sprocket holes allowed for a fifty percent larger frame as well as space for a strip of magnetic tapeand hence the possibility of sync-sound. Nevertheless, until the latter innovation was realized in the mid-1970s, 8mm remained the preferred format of avantgarde filmmakers

Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Cinema and Media Studies · History

• Sighting an Irish Avant-Garde in the Intersection of Local and International Film Cultures

  Maeve Connolly•boundary 2•2004

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