Ray Privett & James Kreul, “A Cinema of Possibilities: Brian Frye Interview”

--How does Frye relate his work (including his film programming) to the following movements / concepts / genres:

Performance (and performance art)- He did a couple of performance pieces in art school, one of which was "Strip Tease" in which he filmed himself getting dressed and then ran the camera backwards. He would also pay homage to performance art in his shows at the Art Institute by going on stage and not doing anything at all, like in his piece "Bryan Fye fails to masturbate." He would also give away original prints at screenings, and advertise himself as a "pseudo magician" on his show posters.

Minimalism- His works relate to the minimalist movement at times because the method of creation and the action on the screen is very similar. For instance, in "the greatest moment of my life" he films his head slowly turning away from the camera; there are no elaborate props, editing, or acting taking place.

Fluxus- Some of his films could also be qualified as Fluxus, like the first film he created to get into film school, with the shots of the building with different colored filters. Also, in many of his films conscious attention is paid to the film medium.

--How does Frye respond to the question about what he “adds” to films such as Anatomy of Melancholy?
From what I understood Frye works to present the found footage material in a way which allows the footage he's manipulating to work to its full potential, to express the hidden and obvious ideas that were present in this footage to begin with.


Scott MacDonald, “Maintenance”

--What are some of the reasons for rental income growth at Canyon Cinema between 1980 and 2003? How did Canyon distinguish itself from the Filmmakers Cooperative and the Museum of Modern Art?

The interest and support for American Independent cinema grew, especially with the support at the academic level, Canyon put out catalogs which propelled the study of avant-garde from the scholarly perspective, and people in general had more money to spend. Canyon distinguished itself from these competitors by regularly putting out catalogs and updating them in a much shorter time. These catalogs were also interactive for their readers and often included still frames or art work by the filmmakers discussed. Also, once in awhile, Canyon's catalogs would include surprise articles discussing various issues from the perspective of artists currently working in the field.

--What problems and controversies did video distribution cause for Canyon in the 1990s? To what degree were the sides of the debate related to the age of the filmmakers on each side? Based upon the interview with Dominic Angerame at the end of the chapter, what was his position on the video debate?

In the 1990s Canyon voted to allow video film makers to become a part of the voting members and help with distribution. Some members, like Conner, did not agree with this decision and thought that if Canyon started distributing video the focus would go away from distributing avant- garde film to a focus on new technologies. There was concern that if Canyon started to distribute video its small staff would become overwhelmed. Age of the filmmakers played a big part in which side of the debate they were on. The older generation was concerned with preserving the art of creating film on film and felt that Canyon's efforts should be focused solely on this goal. The younger generation felt that video art was just as important as film. They felt that video was the way of the future and that Canyon would not be able to survive unless it started to distribute it as well. Angerame felt that Canyon should remain a film only distribution center since there were other video distribution centers the video film makers could take their works too. Further more, he felt that these video distributors did not work to distribute 16 and 8 mm film, so why should Canyon overwhelm itself with video?


--What were the advantages and disadvantages to funding from the National Endowment from the Arts? What controversies developed related to the publication of Canyon Cinema Catalog #5?

I guess the advantages would be the benefits of the funding provided by the NEA and the disadvantages would be the uncertainty of the whether or not this money would actually be coming and if Canyon was going to be able to keep it even after a grant was promised. There was a controversie surrounding Catalog # 7 which was reviewed by the congressional representative, Hoekstra, who was looking into where the NEA funding was actually going. He did not approve of the catalog because he found many pictures and descriptions in it offensive, and then worked to cut of funding for Canyon.