What exactly is an experimental film

[Kyle Johnson]

and there's an infinite amount of ways to tell a story, even if the actors are all trees or going to the moon or exchanging phone numbers or walking through a wall or living on the West Coast or accidently becoming a story.

so a movie with no point to it probably has a point and will someday accidently be a "story" or even help to create another one!

a narration of the events in the life of a person or the existence of a thing, or such events as a subject for narration: the story of medicine; the story of his life.

a lie or fabrication: What he said about himself turned out to be a story.

a report or account of a matter; statement or allegation: The story goes that he rejected the offer.

all of these definitions allow the idea of total chaos to be. David Lynch's experimental films were almost all made up on the spot that day or mixed up later in the editing room, deliberately to create an alternate "story of life" even if there's barely a relation to the everyday world his stories take place in.

that last definition even said "a lie" so that means you can pretend you're telling a story but really not!

 

[karen]

You're right, Kyle. I haven't been able to think of any film that doesn't have a story. But I need to watch movies that have stories or messages relevant to myself. My time is too precious and I feel frustrated being held hostage by a film made by someone too self-absorbed or who doesn't care about the audience. A lot of experimental work is like that.

 

[mckinnod]

I don't think it is that they don't care about the audience , rather they are trying to offer other potentials of the cinema. A prof of mine once put it to me this way, "when cinema began it all to quickly took on aspects of other arts such as literature and theater and narrative before people began exploring it's other potentials" (or something to that effect). The cinema is an experience that has more to offer than simply a narrative and where it can take a person differs depending on the filmmakers approach. I've been very fortunate to have seen a lot of experimental films on print-we have weekly shows at CU in Boulder since the philosophy of the program is grounded in experimental filmmaking-and they are often times much more full-filling then the films I see on the big screen. I am sorry you all seem to have had such negative experiences with experimental films but there is so much more out there to view.

 

[karen]

I don't mean to summarily dismiss something that has value. However, a lot of experimental product could stay with its creators. At least with an art installation the viewer can quickly move along; with a film, the audience is captive. As long as the experimental piece wasn't made to piss everyone off, I do try to hang in there.