Peter Gidal (born 1946) is a British

avant-garde film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that does not apply standard cinematic conventions, instead adopting non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, ...

maker and film theorist.

Biography

Gidal was born in 1946, growing up in

Mount Vernon, New York Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, immediately to the north of the Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Moun ...

and Switzerland. He studied theater, psychology, and literature at

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

from 1964 to 1968 and enrolled at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

from 1966 to 1967. Gidal moved to London in July 1968 to study at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

. He quickly joined the

London Film-Makers' Co-op The London Film-makers' Co-operative, or LFMC, was a British film-making workshop founded in 1966. It was largely responsible for the rise of British avant-garde cinema in the later 1960s. Work produced by members of the LFMC in the late 1960s and ...

. Gidal was concerned by

American imperialism U.S. imperialism or American imperialism is the expansion of political, economic, cultural, media, and military influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright mi ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, and his filmmaking explicitly focused questions of representation that were both aesthetic and political. Deke Dusinberre distinguished Gidal's films from American

structural film Structural film was an avant-garde experimental film movement prominent in the United States in the 1960s. A related movement developed in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Overview The term was coined by P. Adams Sitney who noted that film artist ...

s based on their shapelessness, writing that "the end of the film cannot be predicted, there is no 'goal' achieved, and there is no overall shape which could be metaphorically exploited to engage other issues." He highlighted ''Room Film 1973'' as a culmination of Gidal's mature films for its denial of easily recognizable images, its erratic camera movements, and its "sense of surface". Critic Bob Cowan panned Gidal's films, describing them as "typically representative of the pathetic vacuousness of certain works included in the minimal-structural camp." Gidal's best-known essay "Theory and Definition of Structural/Materialist Film", first published in 1974, was influential in championing European avant-garde film of the time. He published the 1976 ''Structural Film Anthology'', one of the earliest books to cover British avant-garde cinema.

Filmography

* ''Portrait Subject Object'' (1967) * ''Upside Down Feature'' (1967) * ''Room (Double Take)'' (1967) * ''Still Andy'' (1968) * ''Hall'' (1968) * ''Key'' (1968) * ''Clouds'' (1969) * ''Heads'' (1969) * ''Focus'' (1971) * ''8mm Film Notes on 16mm'' (1971) * ''Movie No 1'' (1972) * ''Film Print'' (1973) * ''Photo/Graph/Film'' (1973) * ''Room Film 1973'' (1973) * ''C/O/N/S/T/R/U/C/T'' (1974) * ''Condition of Illusion'' (1975) * ''Kopenhagen 1930'' (1977) * ''Silent Partner'' (1977) * ''4th Wall'' (1978) * ''Epilogue'' (1978) * ''Untitled'' (1978) * ''Action at a Distance'' (1980) * ''Close Up'' (1983) * ''Guilt'' (1988) * ''Flare Out'' (1992) * ''No Night No Day'' (1997) * ''Assumption'' (1997) * ''Volcano'' (2002) * ''Coda I'' (2013) * ''Coda II'' (2013) * ''Not Far at All'' (2013)

References

Bibliography

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External links

Peter Gidal
at

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gidal, Peter 1946 births British experimental filmmakers Film theorists Living people