Films from the VCA FTV Digital Archives: curated by Lola Hewison

Experimental cinema and video art was and continues to be driven by the desire to re-evaluate the conventions of cinema as well as counter the traditional and formal structures of film making. While the history of experimental cinema is (unsurprisingly) dominated by the patriarchal system, a system that film making is subject to being an inherently hierarchical and industrial art form, women experimental filmmakers have pioneered some of the most subversive and profound work in cinema and art. Women such as Germaine Dulac and Maya Deren, earlier filmmakers, and more contemporary experimental filmmakers such as Chantal Akerman and Yvonne Rainer, have paved new ways of thinking about cinema and the moving image, merging feminist ideas and fragmented storylines, questioning the very foundation of narrative in relation to the self. Women in many ways had and continue to have a lot to counter, whether it be the institutionalised cinematic ideals and conventions or the patriarchal and hierarchal system that is intrinsic to the industry. Fundamentally, while experimental cinema is born out of the desire to counter norms and conventions, where does experimental cinema that is created in an institutionalised setting such as a university, lie?

Curated by Lola Hewison.

Image credit: Farewell to Charms (1979) Directed by Carole Sklan