Underground Resources: Index
Below is a list of books written about the history of underground film. Titles are linked to their Amazon page if you wish to purchase a copy, but please note that many of these books are out of print — and so noted — and are only available from used book dealers. Bibliography formatting courtesy of EasyBib. This list is currently still a work-in-progress and many more books will be added.
Blaetz, Robin.
Women’s Experimental Cinema: Critical Frameworks.
Durham: Duke UP, 2007.
Brakhage, Stan, and Bruce R. McPherson.
Essential Brakhage: Selected Writings on Filmmaking.
Kingston, N.Y.: Documentext, 2001.
Brakhage, Stan.
Film at Wit’s End: Eight Avant-garde Filmmakers.
Kingston, N.Y.: Documentext, 1989.
Brakhage, Stan.
Metaphors on Vision.
S.l.: S.n., 1976.
Curtis, David.
Experimental Cinema.
New York: Dell Pub., 1978.
(Originally published: New York: Universe, 1971.)
Deren, Maya, and Bruce R. McPherson.
Essential Deren: Collected Writings on Film. Kingston, N.Y.: Documentext, 2005.
Dixon, Wheeler Winston, and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster.
Experimental Cinema: the Film Reader. London: Routledge, 2002.
Dixon, Wheeler W.
The Exploding Eye: a Re-visionary History of 1960s American Experimental Cinema.
Albany: State University of New York, 1997.
Frampton, Hollis.
On the Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters: the Writings of Hollis Frampton.
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2009.
Hall, Phil.
The Encyclopedia of Underground Movies: Films from the Fringes of Cinema.
Studio City: M. Wiese Productions, 2004.
Hoberman, J., and Jonathan Rosenbaum.
Midnight Movies.
New York: Da Capo, 1991.
(Originally published: New York: Harper & Row, 1983.)
Horak, Jan-Christopher.
Lovers of Cinema: the First American Film Avant-garde, 1919-1945.
Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin, 1995.
James, David E.
The Most Typical Avant-garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles.
Berkeley: University of California, 2005.
James, David E.
Stan Brakhage: Filmmaker.
Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2005.
James, David E.
To Free the Cinema: Jonas Mekas & the New York Underground.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1992.
Landis, Bill.
Anger: the Unauthorized Biography of Kenneth Anger.
New York: Harper Collins, 1995. (out of print)
MacDonald, Scott.
Avant-Garde Film: Motion Studies.
New York, N.Y.: Cambridge UP, 1992.
MacDonald, Scott.
Canyon Cinema: the Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor.
Berkeley: University of California, 2008.
MacDonald, Scott.
Cinema 16
Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2002.
(Originally published Athens, OH: Ohio University School of Film, 1997.)
MacDonald, Scott.
The Garden in the Machine: a Field Guide to Independent Films about Place.
Berkeley: University of California, 2001.
MacDonald, Scott.
Screen Writings: Scripts and Texts by Independent Filmmakers.
Berkeley: University of California, 1995.
Mekas, Jonas.
Movie Journal; the Rise of the New American Cinema, 1959-1971.
New York: Columbia UP, 2016.
(Originally published: Collier, 1972.)
Patterson, Clayton.
Captured: a Film/video History of the Lower East Side.
New York: Seven Stories, 2005.
Reekie, Duncan.
Subversion: the Definitive History of Underground Cinema.
London: Wallflower, 2007.
Rees, A. L.
A History of Experimental Film and Video.
London: BFI, 1999.
Renan, Sheldon.
An Introduction to the American Underground Film.
New York: Dutton, 1967. (out of print)
Russett, Robert, and Cecile Starr.
Experimental Animation: Origins of a New Art.
New York, NY: Da Capo, 1988.
(Originally published: Da Capo, 1976.)
Sargeant, Jack.
Deathtripping: the Extreme Underground.
Brooklyn: Soft Skull, 2008.
(Originally published: London: Creation, 1995.)
Sargeant, Jack.
Naked Lens Beat Cinema.
Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull, 2008.
(Originally published: London: Creation, 2001.)
Sitney, P. Adams.
The Avant-garde Film: a Reader of Theory and Criticism.
New York: New York UP, 1978.
Sitney, P. Adams.
The Essential Cinema. Essays on Films in the Collection of Anthology Film Archives.
New York: Anthology Film Archives, 1975.
Sitney, P. Adams.
Eyes Upside Down: Visionary Filmmakers and the Heritage of Emerson.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008.
Sitney, P. Adams.
Film Culture Reader.
New York, NY: Cooper Square, 2000.
(Originally published: New York: Praeger, 1970.)
Sitney, P. Adams.
Visionary Film: the American Avant-garde, 1943-2000.
New York: Oxford UP, 2002.
(Originally published: New York: Oxford UP, 1974.)
Small, Edward S.
Direct Theory.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1994.
Suárez, Juan Antonio.
Bike Boys, Drag Queens & Superstars: Avant-garde, Mass Culture, and Gay Identities in the 1960s Underground Cinema.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1996.
Tyler, Parker.
Underground Film: a Critical History.
New York: Da Capo, 1995.
(Originally published: New York: Grove, 1970.)
Vogel, Amos.
Film as a Subversive Art.
London: CT Editions, 2005.
Waters, John.
Shock Value: a Tasteful Book About Bad Taste.
Philadelphia: Running, 2005.
(Originally published: Dell Pub. Co., 1981)
Waters, John.
Trash Trio: Three Screenplays.
New York: Thunder’s Mouth, 1996.
(Originally published: Random House, 1988)
Underground Resources: Index