Critical Writing Index

Flowers in the dustbin: termite culture and detritus cinema

by Scott MacKenzie

CineAction, 1998, no. 47, pp. 24-29

An analysis of the ontology of found-footage film, especially as "detritus" cinema, film/video made from media garbage. MacKenzie finds theoretical precedents for this practice in Guy Debord, Walter Benjamin and Jean Baudrillard. He also cites numerous filmmakers as embodying this new avante-garde, which is more concerned with "seeing" culture than the Brakhagian "art of vision."

ITEM 1998.071 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Springtime in GreenlandJohn Paizs

Scorpio RisingKenneth Anger

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter StoryTodd Haynes

AltairLewis Klahr

Her Fragrant Emulsion

Downs are Feminine

Tribulation 99Craig Baldwin

Sonic Outlaws