What is "Alternative Cinema"?
Definitions and distinctions.

"...the so-called mundane, which people use as a word of contempt when they really mean 'earth.' What they don't see is the potential for glory, for envisionment that's inherent in even doing the dishes, in the soap suds... All they have to do is close their eyes and look." -- Stan Brakhage, Sight and Sound (1993)

There are, however, some common characteristics. The works are often short, non-narrative and structurally idiosyncratic, though the makers often use narrative elements and conventional structures in unconventional ways.

The media described in the Flicker pages has a variety of names: experimental, fine art, avant garde, personal, independent, and others. Though each term is inadequate to define any one particular film, video or maker, and the definitions often overlap, it is useful to discuss and distinguish their meanings. You will find some attempts to define these terms below.

The films and videos listed here are not, however, short subjects intended to accompany a feature film; nor do the makers consider them "stepping stones" on a career track to Hollywood feature production. They are complete works of art in and of themselves.

• Alternative: films and videos that provide an alternative to commercial media or to conventional topics and forms, dealing with subjects, points-of-view and formal elements not found in the mainstream. Some makers object to this term as it implies that the work exists only in relation to mainstream media, rather than as a unique art form of its own.

• Experimental: the maker experiments with the medium, the production process, or the structure of the work, without necessarily knowing what the outcome will be. For example, the artist might try processing the film using the wrong chemistry, shooting the film through a rainy windshield, editing the story in a way that subverts the narrative, etc.

• Fine Art: media work that deals with many of the same concerns as fine art painting, sculpture, music and literature, exploiting the aspects that are unique to the film or video medium.

• Personal: the work reflects or contains elements of the maker's personal life, or reflects a highly subjective view of the world or the subject.

• Avant Garde: In French, literally means "advance guard," a military term for troops that led the attack across the battlefield; used to describe artwork that somehow breaks new ground and charts new territory.

• Independent: Work that is made outside of the Hollywood system. Though most experimental film and video falls into this category, it generally refers to non-Hollywood feature and documentary films.

• Underground: Also work that is made outside any commercial system; usually connotes something subversive, or something that would make mainstream audiences uncomfortable. This term came about in the 1960s, where many film venues showed clandestine works that were at odds with censorship or other laws.

• Structuralism: The elements of the work's production or structure become the subject, partly as a way to demystify the cinematic process. For example, a particular camera action might be repeated and studied. There was a movement of structural cinema in the 1970s.

• Visionary: a term coined by P. Adam Sitney to describe work that allows us to see beyond the traditional boundaries of the physical, cultural and/or spiritual world.

• Expanded: A term coined by Gene Youngblood in his book Expanded Cinema to mean work that transgresses the normal boundaries of the viewing experience.

"I think the avant-garde is 'alive' as long as it looks beyond itself (its history, what it has become) for inspiration. There
are as many directions as there are people willing to look. It's a praxis of leaving oneself open to outside influences (other techniques, other cinemas, other arts and media, other cultures) rather than one that stands on principles, insists on oppositions or follows fashion (movements)." -- Konrad Steiner (2001)