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238.
The Underground Film: An Introduction to its Development in America.
London: Studio Vista, 1968. First UK edition and the only edition in hardcover. 12mo. 318pp. Photo-illustrated throughout.
The first book on underground film, written in Spring 1966 after the author received a Rockefeller grant and before he founded the Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley in 1967.
It begins with a history of the European avant-garde film scene, then concentrates on the American underground and the work of, among others, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, Jack Smith, Harry Smith, Bruce Conner, Mike and George Kuchar, Larry Jordan, Jordan Belson, Marie Menken, and Ken Jacobs. One short chapter is devoted to “Stars of the Underground Films”, among them Taylor Mead, Mario Montez, Naomi Levine and Gerard Malanga, while the final chapter looks at the ‘Expanded Cinema’ movement.
In addition, an appendix provides a detailed 34pp. listing of underground films available for rental at the time from the Canyon Cinema Cooperative (in San Francisco), the Film-makers Co-op, the Cinema 16 Film Library (both in New York), and elsewhere.
Very Good plus in dw.
