This section contains an introductory reading list for experimental film and video, as well as links to general information on the internet, websites selling videos, relevant online journals, and academic courses in the UK. Also see our links section for direct links to artists' websites.

Please use the menu below to go to a specific section, or scroll through the page:

Online information on artists' film and video | Books | Tapes to Buy | Online Journals | UK University courses

Online information and writing on artists' film and video
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These are online resources that list works and sometimes their locations, as well as other contextual material and writing:

Animation Research Centre at Surrey Institute of Art and Design, UK
www.surrart.ac.uk/arc
UK based animation research centre

British Artists' Filmographies 1920 - 2000
www.research.linst.ac.uk/filmcentre/britfilmog.html
The AHRB Centre for British Film and Television Studies, Central Saint Martins, London, UK
Ongoing project to create a comprehensive filmography of British artists' film and video including single screen and installation work as well as current locations.

Cosmic Baseball
www.cosmicbaseball.com
Baseball league of the imagination with information on many US avant garde filmmakers

Early Video Project, USA
davidsonsfiles.org
Resources and tape lists for late 1960s and early 1970s US video art.

Expanded Cinema, USA
artscilab.org/expandedcinema
Downloadable .pdf of Gene Youngblood's seminal book on expanded cinema.

Flicker
www.hi-beam.net
Excellent portal site for information on international artists' film and video

Film and Video Art Information, Western Connecticut State University, USA
vax.wcsu.edu/~mccarney/fva/fva.html
Information on international film and video artists, filmographies and bibliographies mostly written by university students.

Fred Camper, USA
www.fredcamper.com
Website of Chicago-based critic Fred Camper, includes extensive writings on experimental film and video including comprehensive work on Stan Brakhage.

Iota Center, Los Angeles, USA
www.iotacenter.org
The Iota Center is an organisation which preserves and promotes the art of abstract animation. They hold a large collection of materials at their center and are currently developing an online database of abstract animators and their work.

Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, Slovenia
www.ljudmila.org/
Excellent portal for information on digital arts in Slovenia and Eastern Europe.

New Media Encyclopedia
www.newmedia-arts.org
Useful catalogue of works and events based on the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museum Ludwig and the Centre pour L'image Contemporaine.

OVID Internet database for experimental film and video art, Werkleitz Gesellschaft, Germany
www.werkleitz.de/ovid
Large database of international experimental film and video works drawn from festivals and international distributors, which includes genre/subject classifications and synopsis of works.

Robert Haller, USA
www.roberthaller.com
Website of US writer and curator Robert Haller, including writings from his various curatorial projects.

Video History Project, Experimental TV Center, USA
experimentaltvcenter.org/history
Research resources concerning the the history of video art and community television in the USA.

Books:
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Several books give helpful overviews of the history of artists' film and video, including many of the artists distributed by LUX ('OP' indicates 'out of print'):

Catherine Elwes, Video Art: A Guided Tour
IB Tauris, 2005

Nicky Hamlyn, Film Art Phenomena
BFI, 2003

Stephen Dwoskin; Film is ... : the international free cinema
The Overlook Press, 1975 (OP)

Peter Gidal, Materialist Film
Routledge, 1989 (OP)

Julia Knight (Editor), Diverse Practices: A Critical Reader on British Video Art
University of Luton Press, 1996

Malcolm Le Grice, Abstract Film and Beyond
Studio Vista, 1977 (OP)

Michael O'Pray, The British Avant-Garde Film: 1926-1995, An anthology of writings
University of Luton Press, 1995

A.L. Rees, A History of Experimental Film and Video: From Canonical Avant-garde to Contemporary British Practice
University of California Press, 1999

P. Adams Sitney: The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of Theory and Criticism, Visionary Film (3rd Edition)
Oxford University Press, 2002

Other useful titles include:

Stan Brakhage, Film at Wit's End: Eight Avant-Garde Filmmakers
McPherson & Co., 1991

David Curtis, Experimental Cinema: A Fifty Year Evolution
Studio Vista, 1971 (OP)

Wheeler Winston Dixon, The Exploding Eye : A Re-Visionary History of 1960s American Experimental Cinema
State University of New York Press, 1997

Peter Gidal (Editor), Structural film anthology
British Film Institute, 1976

John Hanhardt (ed), Video Culture: A Critical Investigation
Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1987 (OP)

Jan-Christopher Horak (Editor), Lovers of Cinema : The First American Film Avant-Garde 1919-1945
University of Wisconsin Press, 1996

David E James (ed), To Free The Cinema: Jonas Mekas and the New York Underground
Princeton University Press, 1992

Malcolm Le Grice, Experimental Cinema in the Digital Age
British Film Institute, 2001

Lenny Lipton, Independent Filmmaking
Simon & Schuster, 1983 (OP)

Scott MacDonald, A Critical Cinema: Interviews With Independent Filmmakers
University of California Press, 1988 (OP)

A Critical Cinema 2: Interviews With Independent Filmmakers
University of California Press, 1992

A Critical Cinema 3: Interviews With Independent Filmmakers
University of California Press, 1998

Avant-garde Film: Motion Studies
Cambridge University Press, 1993

The Garden in the Machine: A Field Guide to Independent Films about Place
University of California Press, 2001

Michael Mazi“re & Nina Danino (editors): The UNDERCUT READER Critical Writings on Artists' Film and Video. Wallflower Press, 2002

Jonas Mekas, Movie Journal: The Rise of a New American Cinema 1969-1971
Macmillan, 1972 (OP)

James Peterson, Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order : Understanding the American Avante-Garde Cinema
Wayne State University Press, 1994

Sheldon Renan, The Underground Film: An Introduction to its Development In America
EP Dutton, 1967 (OP)

Robert Russet & Cecille Starr, Experimental Animation: Origins of a New Art
Da Capo Press, 1988 (OP)

Edward S. Small, Direct Theory : Experimental Film/Video As a Major Genre
Southern Illinois University Press, 1995

Parker Tyler, Underground Film
Da Capo Press, 1995

Amos Vogel, Film As A Subversive Art
Random House, 1974

William C. Wees, Light Moving in Time : Studies in the Visual Aesthetics of Avant-Garde Film
University of California Press, 1992

Gene Youngblood, Expanded Cinema
EP Dutton, 1970 (OP)
[available as a .pdf file at www.artscilab.org]

Tapes to Buy:
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Arthouse, Inc.
USA
www.arthouseinc.com/filmvideo

British Film Institute
UK
www.bfi.org.uk/bookvid

Buy Indies
USA
www.buyindies.com

Facets Multimedia
USA
www.facets.org

Raro Video
Italy
www.rarovideo.com

RE:VOIR
France
www.re-voir.com

RE:VOIR USA
USA
re-voir.virtual-business.com

Online Journals:
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Some online journals carry academic articles and interviews with experimental film and video makers:

Bright Lights Film Journal: Experimental and Avant-Garde
www.brightlightsfilm.com/experimental.html

Cantrill's Filmnotes
128.250.152.26/staff/arthur/filmnotes.html

Hi-Beam
www.hi-beam.net/hi-beam

Millennium film journal online
www.mfj-online.org

Film-Philosophy
www.film-philosophy.com

Senses of Cinema
www.sensesofcinema.com

UK University courses:
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Several universities in the UK run courses that involve elements of artists' film and video. Contact course administrators directly to find out what relevant courses are currently running.

Birkbeck
MA in Film and Visual Culture
www.bbk.ac.uk/study/pg2002/film/mahistfilmvm.html

School Of Television and Imaging DUNCAN OF JORDANSTONE COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
MSc in Electronic Imaging
www.imaging.dundee.ac.uk

University of East London
BA Fine Art [with film component]
BA Film History
www.uel.ac.uk/art

University of Essex
Undergraduate Film Courses
www.essex.ac.uk/filmstudies/Undergraduate.htm
Postgraduate Film Courses
www.essex.ac.uk/filmstudies/Postgraduate.htm

Kent Institute of Art and Design
Video with Film
www.kiad.ac.uk/courses/set.htm#http://www.kiad.ac.uk/courses/i_list.htm
School of Visual Communication
www.kiad.ac.uk/gallery/viscom_h.htm

London Metropolitan University
MA Digital Moving Image
www.lgu.ac.uk/sjcda/index2.html

School of Art and Design, University of Salford, Greater Manchester
MA/PgDig Creative Technology
www.creativetechnology.salford.ac.uk

Southampton Institute
MA Film: Independent Film and Filmmaking
www.solent.ac.uk/fmas/course_info.asp?courseid=402

Surrey Institute of Art & Design
Film & Video
www.surrart.ac.uk/opportunities/undergrad/filmvideo.html
Animation
www.surrart.ac.uk/opportunities/undergrad/animation.html

School of Cultural Studies University of the West of England, Bristol
MA in Film & Video
info.uwe.ac.uk/courses/viewcourse.asp?URN=10307