For a small publication with no advertising to support it, publishing on a quarterly basis was an ambitious and impressive achievement for Idiolects. This second issue covers avant-garde happenings in New York City from August to November 1976, primarily film, but not exclusively.

In 1976, a crudely published fanzine devoted to the experimental film scene made its debut. It was called Idiolects and the first issue offered a definition of its name: “An idiolect is the language of an individual at a particular time.”

In 1983, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with Media Study/Buffalo, created a touring retrospective of avant-garde films, primarily feature-length ones and a few shorts, which they called “The American New Wave 1958-1967.”

Nov. 9: Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman will screen and lecture about Jack Smith’s legendary underground classic, Flaming Creatures.

A list of 10 film books that have been overly inspiring and influential to me, including books by John Waters, Jonas Mekas, Jack Sargeant and more.

Some notable underground film events in 1971 were Jonas Mekas ending his Movie Journal column, Willard Maas passing away and the first festival was held.

Anthology Film Archives presents restored versions of Robert Downey Sr.’s earliest films, like Babo 73 and Chafed Elbows. Downey was inspired by Jonas Mekas.

In both Dear Lori and Kill John Wayne, underground filmmaker Vivian Wong examines war through a politically, violently and sexually charged lens.

The Dream Life by J. Hoberman is an excellent survey of the cinematic and political scenes of the ’60s that has some segments about underground film.

J. Hoberman is the long-running film critic at the Village Voice, who is screening some of his favorite underground films, like Eraserhead and Black Box.