la réponse à la lecture: Week 3

On p. 168, Banes outlines four aspects of freedom advocated by Jonas Mekas in his writings on underground film in the Village Voice. What were those four aspects of freedom, and what obstacles did filmmakers face when attempting to pursue them?

The four aspects of freedom that Jonas Mekas described and promoted in the Village Voice were content of the body, low budgets, the rise of women directors, and technique liberation. Filmmakers of this time were starting to take hold and utilize all of these newfound freedoms of the cinema, many using several at once. The bodily freedom can be seen in just about anything we’ve watched as there’s an abundance of genitalia, more so than any other part of the body. Flaming Creatures definitely employed this aspect very freely throughout, as bare breasts are flopped around quite a bit. The freedom of low budgets allowed a lot of the filmmakers to just go with anything, using the influences of equality and how it celebrated the ordinary, instead of elaborate plots and sets. Vinyl, for example, is one shot, one location. The only real budget was the camera and film stock. Yoko Ono’s work was also low budget as well as being a part of the rise of women as directors.

Of course, with these new freedoms and the time period, there were obstacles when it came to exhibiting works. One main obstacle was censorship. Even though, filmmakers argued freedom of expression/speech, censors thought quite the opposite and began to shut down on this new wave of radical expression. For example, the Filmmaker’s Cooperative’s midnight screenings were shut down due to the idea that they were ruining theater’s reputation. Of course, controversy always leads to exposure and many of the artists began to come out from the “underground” and have their works celebrated in several magazines of the area.