FOUR TOP EXPERIMENTAL FILM MAKERS FROM UK AND AMERICA Essay

FOUR TOP EXPERIMENTAL FILM MAKERS FROM UK AND AMERICA - Essay Example Well, that last part isnt exactly true.† (Filmmaker, 2008, p.62) Robin had previously made three 16mm short films that were all semi-autobiographical. He employs a unique narrative angle in the making of My Olympic Summer: â€Å"I wanted to try to figure out a different point of entry. My parents had given me these old Super 8 home movies several years ago so I decided to create a fictitious storyline about them. Theres no relationship with the Olympics at all. There are kernels of truth throughout, but I wanted to create a more lyrical truth than a literal truth." (Filmmaker, 2008, p.62) Hence, what emerges is the experiment to combine literary aspects of Jorge Luis Borges to Woody Allen’s Zelig, whereby he’s pushing the boundaries of the documentary genre. Matt Wolf is another promising experimental filmmaker, who came to prominence through his Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell. This artistic documentary craftily weaves together the scarce video footage of iconoclastic New York composer Arthur Russell. This made Wolf to invent â€Å"his own visual language to bridge the gaps in the recorded history of Russells story. Lyrical and emotional moments-listening to mix tapes on the Staten Island ferry, running through Iowa cornfields, the act of musical composition itself - are represented with elements as disparate as Super 8 re-enactments and abstract VHS inserts.† (Filmmaker, 2008, p.63) The plot follows key moments in Russell’s life, from these early days as a sensitive country boy to his sudden interest in music to Buddhist influences in his life to the influence of Timothy Leary. The film is in a way a tragedy, for though Russell’s compositions are now seen as avant-garde and he received fame posthumo usly, he met a premature death due to AIDS. In Wolf’s own assessment of the film: "Im not an identity politics