The Paracinema of Anthony McCall and Tony Conrad
In: Avant-Garde Film
Author:
Jonathan Walley
Jonathan Walley
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Abstract
In this essay, I argue that paracinema (works that identify themselves as films but do not take the form of the film medium as we know it) was a response by certain filmmakers to institutional circumstances specific to avant-garde cinema, understood here as a distinct mode of film practice. The paracinema of McCall and Conrad intervened in these circumstances, challenging the dominance of medium-specific formalism, which was viewed as problematic by the early seventies.