Module Information

The aims of the module are:

• To analyse style in alternative film and think about the reasons behind alternative practices, as well as ways of reading alternative films;
• Understand movements and periods in alternative cinema;
• To use and question theoretical concepts such as 'exploitaton' and 'cult' and to use reception and audience practices in studying alternative cinema;

This module introduces students to the practices and reception of what is known as 'alternative cinema'. As such, it amis to discuss the similarities and differences between 'avant-garde cinema', 'cult cinema', 'experimental cinema', 'exploitation cinema', 'US Independent Cinema', 'trash cinema' and 'underground cinema'.

A first part of the module is devoted to a historical overview of alternative cinema in its diverse appearances. Special attention will go to questions of style, experimental cinema, and the avant-garde. We will also concentrate on how alternative cinema evokes alternative readings through so called 'reading agains the grain'. Throughout this part, the emphasis will be on cinema as a historical form and as a viewing experience. Issues of production practices, cutural background, reception, and canonization will be central to the discussions. Avant-garde films of the 1920s and 1930s, films from the US underground, European art cinema, Political cinema and US Independent Cinema will be used as case studies.

A second part of the module is devoted to the more popular examples of alternative cinema, such as cult, horror, trash, and exploitation cinema. Lectures and seminars will outline the most important theoretical concepts of studying these cinemas, such as 'reflexivity', 'alternative reception', 'paracinema', 'cultism', 'perverse spectators', and 'textual poaching'. Throughout this part the issues of high-culture versus low-culture, and the challenging of aesthetics, niche-market reception, and viewing experiences will be central to discussions.