Description

Having already published collections of critical essays on fiction, poetry, performance, politics and visual art, Richard Kostelanetz for the first time selects here from his writings on film and video.

As in earlier volumes, these essays emphasize the primacy of possibilities intrinsic in each medium. Always representing radical alternatives, he writes with uncommon perception not only about familiar issues but about films customarily forgotten, and always with his customary clarity. Also included are prefaces and transcripts from his own films and videos.

He writes: “Another implicit assumption behind my activity is acknowledging the importance of books in collecting together initially scattered opinions, for I have long contended that the critic who fails to risk publishing books is just a reviewing journalist, or, worse, an opportunist.” Celebrating four decades of book-publishing, he remains a prolific force and a unique independent voice.

Individual entries on Richard Kostelanetz appear in Contemporary Poets, Contemporary Novelists, Postmodern Fiction, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, A Reader’s Digest to Twentieth-Century Writers, The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, Webster’s Dictionary of American Authors, The HarperCollins Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, among other distinguished directories.

Living in New York City, where he was born, he still needs two bucks to take a subway.
ContentsPreface ix

PART I. FILM AND VIDEO CRITICISM

1. The Artistry of Television Football (1969) 001
2. Recent Experimental Film Reconsidered (1970) 007
3. Orson Welles as an Acoustic Filmmaker (1989) 021
4. Literary Videotapes (1989) 030
5. Waiting for Revisionism (1991) 035
6. Nam June Paik Remembrance (1992) 038
7. The Institutionalization of Ignorance (1993) 040
8. Fast-Forwarding Through “Classic Arts Showcase” (2000) 043
9. Responses to a Questionnaire (2000) 046
10. Proposal for a Critical Book on “Animated Music”
(2002) 047

PART II. THEORY AND EXPERIMENTATION
11. Literary Video (1976) 051
12. Film (1977) 054
13. Video Writing (1987) 055
14. My Nonsync, Two-Person Films (1989) 060
15. Authenticity in “Documentary” (1991) 067
16. Language-Based Videotapes (1992) 070
17. Remembering My Life in/of Words (2002) 074

PART III. SCRIPTS
18. Epiphanies (1993) 081
19. Home Movies Reconsidered (1989) 087
20. Six Versions of A Berlin Lost (1992) 100

PART IV. NOTES OF A RELUCTANT FILMGOER
21. (1959–1998) 125

PART V. TRANIMATIONS: POETRY/FILM STORYBOARDS
22. (1999) 203

Acknowledgments 217

Index 219

Author’s Illustration by Michael Peters 234

About the Author 235