In the LA Times: “Experimental filmmaking that countered Hollywood”
Posted January 26th, 2011 in Announcements, News / Events
Experimental filmmaking that countered Hollywood
By Reed Johnson for the LA Times
From the late 1940s through the present day, a certain well-known California city has been the epicenter of intrepid, innovative filmmaking that has dazzled viewers and shredded the conventions of traditional narrative cinema.
Hint: It isn’t Los Angeles.
To be sure, L.A. has nurtured its own highly impactful experimental film scene and spawned avant-garde giants and enfants terribles like Kenneth Anger and Pat O’Neill. But the metropolis in question is greater San Francisco.
For decades, the Bay Area has supported one of the world’s most prolific, stylistically free-form and influential alternative-film environments. Long overshadowed by the Hollywood industry, the Bay region’s experimental-underground film and video culture has continued to thrive into the early 21st century, surviving natural disasters, demographic upheaval and even the Silicon Valley-generated cash influx that sent rents skyrocketing and drove many San Francisco artists into exile, or at least to the more affordable East Bay.
