How the Avant-garde Aesthetic Represents Personal Stories and Memories
Avant-Garde offers distinct artistic strategies that can be steered to hold aesthetic representations of the filmmaker’s mindset and objectives set when creating the film. To elaborate, some experimental filmmakers choose their aesthetic strategies about how well they highlight experiences they aim to convey through their work, one particular example being their personal stories and memories, which they use as stimuli for Avant-Garde films. Two prominent examples of this idea in Avant-Garde are Jay Rosenblatt’s Phantom Limb, a communication of the filmmaker’s experience and growth surrounding his younger brother’s death and Su Friedrich’s Sink or Swim which articulates how the filmmaker’s relationship with her father impacted her outlook on her childhood and personal identity. Both these films draw on the filmmakers’ subjective memories on their past events which serve as their works’ narratives, all conveyed through the stylistic devices which highlight their position in Avant-Garde cinema.
One crucial artistic strategy used by both filmmakers which assist in elevating their anecdotes presented in their narratives is the use of found footage as the imagery. Rosenblatt and Friedrich both rely on shots and sequences that have been previously filmed by someone else and through the use of editing and placement, tell their own story through found footage, conveying how they partake in first-person filmmaking where everything is shown is ‘overtly filtered’ by their ‘sensibility and ‘point of view’ [Rascoroli, 2009]. It is this artistic choice of structuring personal films through recycled sequences that serve as a distinct bridge between the Avant-Garde and the documentary, emphasised by Rascaroli who states how ‘their foregrounding of autobiography and their expression of authorial subjectivity position them in between…that of the Avant-Garde…and that of first-person documentary’ [2009]. Therefore, these filmmakers are expressing their own autobiographies through a combination of Avant-Garde and documentary style, with found footage being one primal artistic choice. Friedrich’s example of found footage connotes heavily to her personal memories of her father and childhood, exemplified in one of the earliest sequences shown in the film titled ‘Witness’, in which spectators see shots of a father holding his young daughter in what appears to be a home movie. Rosenblatt mirrors this in his film by, after presenting an opening piece of text informing the audience that he lost his brother when he was young, showing personal home movies of him and his younger brother from their childhood as a visual opening to his storytelling. Both these examples fulfil the purpose of building up context and introductions to the filmmakers’ individual and personal narratives and their themes; Rosenblatt’s story of loss by visually articulating what he had before his brother’s death and Friedrich is introducing ideas of parenthood and childhood using her images of parents interacting with their children. Taking this choice in source of footage into account when observing ideas of memory and personal stories, one can identify the filmmakers’ objectives because ‘home movies have much the same status as family photographs as regards of temporal reference’ and thus, ‘offer an image of the past of individual shown’ [Turim, 1989], thus, both filmmakers are using footage they did not capture themselves to present past events which connect to their narratives. This aesthetic strategy causes the sequences to immediately hold a personal and unique characteristic to it since spectators are observing what should be private moments in a young family’s life that have been captured on film for nostalgia and memorial purposes. As a result, identification of the filmmakers’ memories and stories can be easily distinguished since they are using found footage from the past to build up the narratives.
Found footage as an aesthetic decision provides an articulation on the contextual situations relating to the storytelling and with separate motives with relation to emotional responses and cognitive approaches to their work. Rosenblatt's example of recycled footage showing his brother before his passing is working to drive emotions of sadness and sympathy from his audience because he is allowing them to witness the memories he has of his brother visually through the shots shown and they will later observe Rosenblatt’s experiences following his brother’s death such as the funeral and healing process. As a result of this, they will recall back to the opening sequence of the film and find themselves sharing the feelings of sadness Rosenblatt must be experiencing since the home movies allowed them to see a minor example of what the filmmaker has lost. Friedrich, however, is aiming to produce a separate example of sympathy towards her personal story using her recycled footage. Her spectators will take in the imagery of the father holding his young daughter and identify its associations with family and child development since relationships and bonds with parental figures are credentials in a child’s early life. It is these connections the audience have made from observing this example of found footage in the film that will assist in creating emotional responses of pity towards Friedrich when they later see such articulations as her parents’ divorcing and father leaving through voice-overs. The spectators will then think back to the recycled footage of the father and daughter and feel sympathy towards Friedrich as her family has broken up and she may no longer have interactions demonstrated in the home movies. Thus, both examples of found footage in the films are soon laced with specific emotions which assist in building the filmmakers’ personal stories since they are showcasing their past which hold significance to their storytelling.
It is this concern with the past that serves as a key element to the recycled footage aspect of the Avant-Garde, it provides an opportunity for experimental filmmakers to demonstrate their creativity because they are taking fragments of film that were captured for one reason and editing them into their own narrative. Usually, the past is engaged within film through the temporal editing technique of a flashback which helps to ‘merge the two levels [shared and recorded] of remembering the past’ and used in the Avant-Garde as an ‘element in creating an expressive manipulation of the image and film montage’ [Turim, 1989], thus, they are a device which breaks current narrative time shown which bridges the past with the present. However, Rosenblatt and Friedrich have instead placed their examples of footage connected from the past in the openings of their films in a chronological structure to provide their spectators with ideas of their past which will benefit how they interpret the events they witness in the upcoming sequences. This mirrors the use of flashbacks as a device because it coheres the story and elevates character development since spectators observe events in the film subjects’ lives which affect their character. Furthermore, the past and how it is demonstrated holds connections to one’s memory which can be explained as a system of storing and retrieving information’ [Baddeley, 1997]. This means that how the filmmakers offer their own interpretations of events psychologically stored in their memories through the already recorded footage which the memories are visually stored in, linking back to Turim’s claim of the two levels of recalling the past which is coinciding with one another to structure the filmmakers’ personal based narratives and conveying further emphasis on how important the artistic strategy of found footage.
Friedrich emphasises the presence of personal stories heavily and consistently throughout her film, combining her story with those of her mother and father which all share connections and influences. Friedrich’s story is clearly the focus of the narrative, highlighted in a majority of the sequences such as the one titled ‘Journalism’ in which a series of experimental techniques combine to convey the story and its themes. One of these is the voiceover that plays over the images shown; a young girl, who is telling Friedrich’s story throughout the film, shares with the audience how Friedrich was given a diary when she was young in which she wrote down her stories, thoughts and secrets. One can interpret the symbolism of the diary as a manifestation of Friedrich documenting and expressing her personal story, as a diary consists of one’s ‘record of facts and events…own impressions, ideas, sensations, self-analysis and reflection’ [Rascaroli, 2009]. A diary also mirrors the epistolary novels of the 18th century, a genre consisting of novels telling stories through letters and journaling which takes ‘interest in individuality and the inner self’ and a phase of ‘deep transformation and great expansion’ [Rascaroli, 2009]. The Avant-Garde is a cinematic style which draws inspiration from other mediums of art, particularly ‘relating to the fields of literature’ which it ‘pays homage to and finds inspiration in’ [Rascaroli, 2009]. Therefore, the diary mentioned throughout this sequence of the film links with how Friedrich is presenting the story of her parental relationships and childhood as well as conveying the influence literature as a medium holds on Avant-Garde cinema and how its incorporated into it.
The childhood aspect is emphasised using the footage of young girls playing in a playground; a further example of film techniques used to elevate narrative ideas since the images connect to the voiceover articulating an event in childhood. The voice-over then mentions how Friedrich’s parents divorced and this serves as the pivotal point in the narrative and a painful memory Fredrich documents in her diary, which we are told is erased by her mother as it was written in pencil. Here, Friedrich is drawing ideas of different levels of memory which coincide with Turim’s claim on recorded and shared past. Her mother may be able to erase the physically recorded presentation of Friedrich’s memory of the divorce kept in the diary yet is unable to do so to the storage of it in her daughter’s mind, thus, conveying ideas of memory and personal stories in Friedrich’s narrative with relation to how they are documented and interpreted.
In addition to this, Friedrich develops the memory of her parents’ divorce by combining events she can recall that serve as their personal stories and memories. Friedrich first does this in the sequence titled as ‘Ghosts’; a calling which holds connotation to figures of the past haunting individuals connected to them which alludes to the idea of memory and the past throughout the film, where the shots are of a letter addressed to Friedrich’s father being written by her on a typewriter. This links to the previous connection between the Avant-Garde and literature, specifically this film and the form of an epistolary novel since a letter is being used as the source of articulation of events. The use of the letter as a stylistic strategy is effective in that it elevates the personal element to Friedrich’s work, mirroring the symbolism of the diary and allowing further insight into her deepest emotions at this point of her story and thus progresses the development of that personal story. In this letter, the spectators learn more on how the separation is impacting Friedrich’s mother when Friedrich writes about how she watched her mother spend most nights alone and crying while listening to a song called ‘Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel’; an articulation on the loss of a loved one which coincides with the experience both the mother and Friedrich are experiencing yet this particular communication is tied more with the mother. Here, Friedrich has captured one parental figure’s personal story in the film in which the medium of music is how her mother expresses her emotions, with lyrics such as ‘Where I do not have him/That is the grave/The whole world is bitter to me’ [Schubert, 1814] which link to the experience of a break up whereas her daughter does so in writing and later filmmaking. The letter ends with a statement made by Friedrich on how difficult it is coping with the ‘conflict between memory and the present’, therefore, Friedrich is emphasising how the positive memories she has of her parents does not match what is taking place in the present time, specifically when watching her mother cry and this must be creating emotions of bitterness and grief within her. This conveying of her mother’s story is connected to Friedrich’s memory of having to witness her mother go through this and this memory is then incorporated into the personal story shown in her work. The memory of watching her mother go through this while writing it in the letter must bring these emotions forward and in turn connects the feelings and memory as one. Baddeley highlights this when stating ‘anything experienced in a given mood will tend to be recalled when that mood is reinstated’ [1997], thus memories and events in a story are tied with emotions that echo them. The audience observe this in the later sequence ‘Drinking’ where Friedrich communicates how watching her half-sister and father interact reminds her of her memories of her childhood with him as ‘her childhood was being played out in front of her’. Friedrich then adds her father’s personal story during the ‘Envy’ sequence in which the voice-over articulates how her father wrote poems to express his own emotions towards Friedrich and the situation. The poetry as a medium echoes Friedrich’s diary, letter and filmmaking in addition to the mother’s choice of music, thus, elevating personal stories being compressed into different formats of artistic medium with the experimental film being the overarching form since Friedrich has collected all mediums implied in her Avant-Garde work.
Rosenblatt encapsulates his personal story in ‘Phantom Limb’ through the use of a sound in a voice-over which articulates stages of healing from grief. The eighth sequence in the film, titled as ‘Advice’, consists of shots of a sheep being shaved while a voice-over offers a list of ways parents can deal with the grief that comes with a child passing away, for example, ‘Know you are not alone’ and ‘Cry’. The advice given by the voice-over could also be useful for Rosenblatt himself and therefore he is expressing his story through the use of a voice-over which assists in highlighting his experience dealing with his brother’s death; the voice-over elevates and presents the process that comes with the film’s overlining themes of loss and grief which have served as major developments in Rosenblatt’s personal narrative. This is highlighted by Turim who articulates how the use of a voice-over can ‘reinforce visual cues representing a return to the past’ and that ‘verbal storytelling can ease temporal shifts through sustaining power of the narrative voice’ [1989], linking with Rosenblatt’s ability to bring his past through to spectators using Avant-Garde film techniques such as sound. The pieces of advice communicated through the voice-over are also connected to memories Rosenblatt has of how he initially dealt with losing his brother because he would have heard this advice and carried it out, such as spending time crying and with other grieving family members, therefore, memories of this stage in Rosenblatt’s story are being implied as well. Since one would associate the advice mainly with how Rosenblatt’s parents dealt with their youngest son’s death since it is directed to grieving parents, Rosenblatt is mirroring how Friedrich incorporated the personal stories of those around her in her art concerning her experience of her childhood and with her parents’ divorce; Rosenblatt and his parents are going through the same experience in losing a loved one but are experiencing it in a diverse way considering the relationship they had with that person. Rosenblatt’s use of the voice-over in this sequence helps to highlight not only his personal narrative but also that of his parents, both are tied with ideas of loss, pain and healing, thus, his artistic strategies are conveying multiple perspectives on the same event in addition to provoking diverse emotional responses from his spectators which are stemmed from whether they are a parent or sibling.
Furthermore, Rosenblatt’s further use of recycled found footage also conveys his personal story of grief and loss, specifically the third sequence ‘Sorrow’ which shows footage of several people crying at events such as funerals. This sequence emphasises how Rosenblatt, as an experimental filmmaker, has incorporated already filmed shots into his own personal film as an artistic way of presenting his past story through found footage and in turn, has offered spectators his perspective on the experience of grief. Rosenblatt is visually representing aspects of his own personal story through these emotionally charged shots of people in the process of grief he did not capture himself by editing them to follow the home movies of him and his late brother, thus, highlighting the stage of this experience through the images of people crying for a loved one. He is manifesting himself in this recycled footage as spectators would recall back to the footage of him and his younger brother and the text stating he then lost this brother and the sequence of grieving people will be connected to him despite it not being his own footage. Therefore, Rosenblatt is establishing his presence as an experimental filmmaker who can edit footage not belonging to him to make it an artistic expression of his personal experiences in life, the artistic strategy of recycled footage has been edited and conditioned to serve as a representation for Rosenblatt’s objective of articulation and storytelling and therefore, demonstrates how personal stories can be told effectively in the Avant-Garde.
To bring forth a conclusion, both Rosenblatt and Friedrich effectively express their individual personal stories and memories in their work through the use of experimental techniques such as found footage, voice-overs and inclusions of other artistic mediums such as literature. Spectators are given several interesting cues to associate the idea of the past with specific motifs such as family bonds and loss. Their choice in aesthetic strategies boldly represents their ideal expression and articulation of what memories and stories they aim to communicate to their spectators.
Bibliography:
Human Memory: Theory and Practise, Baddeley Alan, Psychology Press; 2 edition (28 April 1997)
Flashback in Film: Turim Maureen, Routledge, 1989
The Personal Camera: Subjective Cinema and the Essay Film, Rascaroli Laura, Wallflower Press; First Edition edition (31 Aug. 2009)
Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel, Schubert Franz, 1814, Mentioned in Sink or Swin (1990)
