Underground U. S. A : Filmmaking Beyond the Hollywood Canon

by Mendik, Xavier

• ISBN13: 9781903364499
• ISBN10: 1903364493
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Whether defined by the carnivalesque excesses, art-house erotica or narrative experimentations underground cinema has achieved an important position within American film culture. Often defined as 'cult', 'exploitation', 'alternative' or 'independent', the American underground retains separate strategies of production and exhibition from the cinematic mainstream, while its sexual and cinematic representations differ from the traditionally conservative structures of the Hollywood system. Underground U.S.A.: Filmmaking Beyond the Hollywood Canon offers a fascinating overview of this area of maverick movie-making by considering the links between the experimental and exploitation traditions of the American underground. The volume brings together leading film theorists, critics, exhibitors and film-makers who take as their focus those directors, films, and genres typically dismissed, belittled or ignored by established film culture. The contributors thus consider the stylistic, generic and representational strategies that have emerged in the alternative American film scene from the 1940s to the present.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Notes on Contributors	ix
Foreword I.A.: I-Won't-Suck-The-Mainstream Art	xiii
Lloyd Kaufman
Introduction Explorations Underground: American Film (Ad)Ventures Beneath The Hollywood Radar	1	(12)
Xavier Mendik
Steven Jay Schneider
`No Worse Than You Were Before': Theory, Economy and Power in Abel Ferrara's `The Addiction'	13	(13)
Joan Hawkins
Radley Metzger's `Elegant Arousal': Taste, Aesthetic Distinction and Sexploitation	26	(14)
Elena Gorfinkel
Curtis Harrington and the Underground Roots of the Modern Horror Film	40	(11)
Stephen R. Bissette
`Special Effects' in the Cutting Room	51	(12)
Tony Williams
Real(Ist) Horror: From Execution Videos to Snuff Films	63	(13)
Joel Black
A Report on Bruce Conner's `Report'	76	(10)
Martin F. Norden
Voyeurism, Sadism and Transgression: Screen Notes and Observations on Warhol's `Blow Job' and `I, a Man'	86	(10)
Jack Sargeant
`You Bled My Mother, You Bled My Father, But You Won't Bleed Me': The Underground Trio of Melvin Van Peebles	96	(13)
Garrett Chaffin-Quiray
Doris Wishman Meets the Avant-Garde	109	(14)
Michael J. Bowen
Full Throttle on the Highway to Hell: Mavericks, Machismo and Mayhem in the American Biker Movie	123	(17)
Bill Osgerby
The Ideal Cinema of Harry Smith	140	(10)
Jonathan L. Crane
What is the Neo-Underground and What Isn't: A First Consideration of Harmony Korine	150	(11)
Benjamin Halligan
Underground America 1999	161	(8)
Annalee Newitz
Phantom Menace: Killer Fans, Consumer Activism and Digital Filmmakers	169	(11)
Sara Gwenllian Jones
Film Co-Ops: Old Soldiers From the Sixties Still Standing in Battle Against Hollywood Commercialism	180	(8)
Jack Stevenson
`Gouts of Blood': The Colourful Underground Universe of Herschell Gordon Lewis	188	(10)
Xavier Mendik
Theory of Xenomorphosis	198	(3)
Nick Zedd
Visions of New York: Films From the 1960s Underground	201	(3)
David Schwartz
A Tasteless Art: Waters, Kaufman and the Pursuit of `Pure' Gross-Out	204	(17)
Xavier Mendik
Steven Jay Scheider
Notes	221	(8)
Index	229