Below is a list of significant events and films in underground film history between the years 1970 and 1979. Reference key of sources appears at the bottom of the page.
1970
MAJOR EVENTS
October 12-19: The first New York Underground Film Festival is held at Max’s Kansas City and shows the work of Anton Perich, Jack Smith, Tony and Beverly Conrad, Andy Warhol, Fred Mogubgub and others.
Expanded Cinema, a book that collects the columns of the same name written by Gene Youngblood and published in the Los Angeles Free Press, is published.
D.E.J.
In the Spring, Film Culture publishes a double-issue, 48-49.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
ENGLAND
Malcolm Le Grice
Spot the Microdot, Or How to Screw the CIA Part 1
D.C.
GERMANY
William and Birgit Hein
Work in Progress Teil A (1969-70) (Six parts: Takes, Catania, untitled, untitled, The Jewellery Robbery, untitled)
D.C.
U.S.
Robert Beavers
Still Light
P.A.S.
Jordan Belson
World
P.A.S.
The Animals of Eden and After
P.A.S.
eyes
P.A.S.
Scenes From Under Childhood (1967-70)
P.A.S.
Morgan Fisher
Production Stills
D.E.J.
Pat O’Neill
Runs Good (1969-70)
D.C.
David Rimmer
Surfacing on the Thames
D.C.
Paul Morrissey
Trash
D.C.
1971
MAJOR EVENTS
Gregory Markopoulos publishes his collective writings, Chaos Phaos, but doesn’t include anything written before 1962.
P.A.S.
In the Spring, Film Culture publishes issue 52.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Robert Beavers
From the Notebook of…
P.A.S.
Jordan Belson
Meditation
P.A.S.
Peter Hutton
July ’71 in San Francisco, Living at Beach Street, Working at Canyon Cinema, Swimming in the Valley of the Moon
P.A.S.
Jerome Hill
Film Portrait
P.A.S.
Michael Snow
The Central Region
P.A.S.
1972
MAJOR EVENTS
Peter Kubelka gives a seminar of his films at New York University, which is “the first public and extensive expression of his theoretical position.”
P.A.S.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Robert Beavers
The Painting
P.A.S.
Work Done
P.A.S.
Jordan Belson
Chakra
P.A.S.
Hapax Legomena (1971-72)
Includes (nostalgia), Poetic Justice, Special Effects, Remote Control, Traveling Matte, Ordinary Matter and 1 other
P.A.S.
1973
MAJOR EVENTS
The Illustrated Canyon Cinemanews issue 72-3 is published by Canyon Cinema. Articles on catalogue publishing costs, the 10th Ann Arbor Film Festival, new film listings, and more are included.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
1974
MAJOR EVENTS
October 4: Peter Kubelka screens his films and participates in a discussion about his work at the San Francisco Cinematheque. A transcript of that discussion is eventually published in Canyon Cinema’s Canyon Cinemanews magazine.
S.M.
Kodak begins producing syncsound Super-8 film.
J.S.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
James Benning
8 1/2 x 11
P.A.S.
Morgan Fisher
Cue Rolls
D.E.J.
Pat O’Neill
Saugus Series
P.A.S.
Michael Snow
Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
P.A.S.
S.M. just calls it Rameau’s Nephew and says that Steve Anker helped work on the film.
1975
MAJOR EVENTS
In the autumn, Will Hindle is seriously injured in a car accident in Alabama. By July 1976 he is almost fully recovered.
S.M.
1976
MAJOR EVENTS
Idiolects magazine publishes its first two issues.
May 25: The Whitney Museum screens Warren Sonbert’s Rude Awakening.
June 7: MOMA Cineprobe screens new work by George Landow.
June 12: James Benning and Bette Gordon screen films at the Millennium Film Workshop.
June 19: The Millennium Film Workshop screens a retrospective of Stan Brakhage films.
October 30: The Collective for Living Cinema screens a retrospective of films by Mike Kuchar.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Robert Beavers
Ruskin
P.A.S.
James Benning
11 x 14
P.A.S.
Morgan Fisher
Projection Instructions
D.E.J.
New Improved Institutional Quality: In the Environment of Liquids and Nasals a Parasitic Vowel Sometimes Develops
P.A.S.
Wide Angle Saxon
P.A.S.
Curt McDowell
Thundercrack!
starring George Kuchar
J.S.
S.M. lists film as 1975 and without exclamation point.
1977
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Dominic Angerame
Neptunian Space Angel
S.M.
John Baldessari
Script (1973-77)
James Benning
One Way Boogie Woogie
P.A.S.
Manuel DeLanda
The Itch Scratch Cycle
J.S.
1978
MAJOR EVENTS
May 18: George Landow introduces his films at a retrospective of his work at the San Francisco Cinematheque.
S.M.
July 23: James Broughton “re-marries” Joel Singer. (Quotes used in original announcement in Canyon Cinema’s Cinemanews magazine.)
S.M.
Eric Mitchell opens fifty-seat New Cinema storefront microcinema on St. Marks Place in NYC.
J.S.
Boris Deutsch passes away. (b. 1892)
D.E.J.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Beth and Scott B
G-Man
J.S.
Black Box
J.S.
Letters to Dad
J.S.
James Benning
Grand Opera
P.A.S.
Manuel DeLanda
Incontinence: A Diarrhetic Flow of Mismatches
J.S.
Robert Huot
Diary 1974-75
P.A.S.
1979
MAJOR EVENTS
O.P. Screen screens Nick Zedd‘s They Eat Scum. Amy Taubin, film critic for the Soho Weekly News, sees the film and writes in the paper: “The aesthetic operative here is transgression, both in terms of the narrative, and in formal filmmaking terms.”
J.S.
Nick Zedd dreams up the concept of Cinema of Transgression, but doesn’t use it publicly until 1985.
J.S.
Robert Florey passes away.
D.E.J.
Gregory Markopoulos has P. Adams Sitney delete the chapter devoted to his films from the 2nd edition of Visionary Film.
D.E.J.
Film Culture publishes triple issue 67-68-69, which devotes several articles by and about Bruce Baillie.
SIGNIFICANT FILMS
U.S.
Howard Guttenplan
European Diary ’79
P.A.S.
Michael McClard
Alien Portrait
J.S.
REFERENCE KEY:
D.C: David Curtis. Experimental Cinema. New York: Dell Pub., 1978.
D.E.J.: David E. James. The Most Typical Avant-garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California, 2005.
J.S.: Jack Sargeant. Deathtripping: the Extreme Underground. Brooklyn: Soft Skull, 2008. (Originally published: London: Creation, 1995.)
P.A.S.: P. Adams Sitney. Visionary Film: the American Avant-garde, 1943-2000. New York: Oxford UP, 2002.
S.M.: Scott MacDonald. Canyon Cinema: the Life and times of an Independent Film Distributor. Berkeley: University of California, 2008.