Program 2: Animals and the Avant-garde
2 Dec 2010 - 18:30 / 2 Dec 2010 - 18:30
Jackman Humanities Institute
10th floor , 170 St. George Street
Why Look at Animals?
A film series at the Jackman Humanities Institute
This series takes as its starting point the title of John Berger’s 1980 essay, “Why Look at Animals?” and asks, quite simply, why we so frequently look at animals on film. As a way into this question, the series places films with divergent disciplinary, generic, and thematic interests in animals in dialogue with one another. The first screening looks at cinema’s enduring interest in animals as subjects of scientific observation and experimentation, while the second screening considers how avant-garde filmmakers make use of animals as material for aesthetic experimentation. Both programs will run about an hour and a half, with informal discussion invited at the end. Snacks will be provided. All are welcome! Please email Sarah O’Brien (sarahjane.obrien@utoronto.ca) with any questions.
Program 2: Animals and the Avant-garde
Thursday, December 2, 6:30 p.m.
- Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s iconic Surrealist film Un chien andalou (Andalusian Dog, 1929) and Buñuel’s lesser-known Las Hurdes (Land Without Bread, 1933)
- Selected films by Surrealist underwater film pioneer Jean Painlevé
- Selected films by American avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage, including Sirius Remembered (1959) and Mothlight (1963)
The series will resume in the winter term, with a selection of (mostly) feature-length narrative films meant to expand on and complicate the generic and thematic concerns introduced in the first two screenings. A tentative list of films includes Rescued by Rover, Le sang des bêtes (Blood of the Beasts), Au hasard Balthazar, Killer of Sheep, Gates of Heaven, Willard, The Animals Film, The Fly, Pets or Meat, Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel (The Story of the Weeping Camel), Grizzly Man, and Wendy and Lucy.
