American Avant-Garde Film in the 1960s
This autumn, Eye Filmmuseum highlights the American avant-garde cinema of the 1960s. The exhibition and film programme feature both iconic and lesser-known works, showcasing the era's vibrant experimental spirit. Highlights include films by pivotal avant-garde figures such as Jonas Mekas, Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage, as well as contributions from prominent visual artists like Bruce Conner, Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, and Andy Warhol. This exploration of cinematic innovation is set against the backdrop of a changing society.
In this exhibition, Eye showcases the diversity that is such a feature of this era of transdisciplinary film experiments: from independent, unconventional films for cinemas, some self-operated, to expanded experiments such as Andy Warhol’s eight-hour Empire (1964) or Stan VanDerBeek’s imposing 11-channel installation Movie Mural (1965-1968). The latter to be screened in the Netherlands for the first time.
Filmmaker Jonas Mekas, spokesperson for the New American Cinema Group, captures the essence of this wave of filmmakers with one succinct statement. “We don’t want false, polished, slick films – we prefer them rough, unpolished, but alive; we don’t want rosy films: we want them the color of blood.”
The exhibition opens festively on 12 October at 20:30, with a unique screening of Chelsea Girls (1966) by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The evening wraps up with a DJ party.
Image: Diaries Notes and Sketches (Jonas Mekas, 1969)