Short Film relaised they couldn't compete with Hollywood/ mainstream so it found it's own home as art. Avant-Garde films is a french term and means "ahead of the crowd" and is used to describe "cutting edge" films. These films experiment with a wide range of things such as ideas, forms, techniques, and expressions. They are very artistic and are almost like a trend setter as it's a head of it's time. "Avant-Garde films are characterized by a high degree of experimentation--whether it be in manipulation in narrative materials, in highly stylized visual representation, or in radical departures from the norms or conventions current at the time, Avant-Garde film is always a vehicle for the filmmaker’s expression." They tend to focus on the beauty of the film rather then having a clear narrative. Their random and often nothing seems to make sense going from one extreme to another. The propose of them is often to shock audiences, it wants you to fear the unexpected. Maya Deron's experimental films in the 1940's- 1961 displayed a highly individualistic sensibility towards short film. " Meshes of the afternoon" set the tone for USA Avant Garde film making. She takes an anti- mainstream stance in her "artistic license and creative freedom."
Meshes of The Afternoon was made in 1943 by Maya Derenda and Alexander Hammid. The duration of this Avant- Garde film is seventeen minutes. In the 1940's-50's she was the first major American experimental filmmaker. Meshes of The Afternoon is a feminist film about a women trying to find her role in a male dominated society. It really makes the audience feel engaged through it's dream like sequences and effects the way in which the audience think, through film art. Maya Derenda own personal experiences and feelings inspired her and is who the film is actually about. She wanted to bring out the multiple layers of meaning of everything that went into her films. This was shown through her dream sequences and being experimental with time and space. As an audience you begin to understand and can relate to the dreams because often in dreams everything seems much slower and you can never catch up to anything. When she is dreaming its connoting that perhaps subconsciously she wants to be at the same level as her husband or boyfriend but can never reach it. Dreams often are about the way in which we feel and what we fear which this film explores.
Referencing
Gloria L. Floren. (25 April 1998). Avant-Garde (Experimental) Films . Available: http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/home/gfloren/f-avant.htm. Last accessed 2nd February 2010.
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