Presentation Responses

1. Jonas Mekas
I wholeheartedly appreciate the kind of cinema that Mekas makes. The home videos of his family with his dialogue creates a personable experience and that give a sense of nostalgia, even though I have never seen any of the footage or heard his voice before this presentation. He reminds me of my grandfather who obsesses over taking pictures of the family and wants to give his grandchildren life advice. To another, the experience is most likely different, but it spoke to me on an emotional level that related to.

2. Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter
I found Eggeling's work to be stimulating on a visual and sound level. Even though the video had no sound, the moving of curvy lines created an inner symphony that my mind composed. It's unfortunate that he didn't make much in his lifetime though. Richter's work was fascinating to me in that it was purposely made to insult Nazis. Ghosts Before Breakfast was awkward to watch yet comical to poke fun at the Nazis attitude towards heritage art.

3. Len Lye
The vibrant colors and seizure inducing movement was very stimulating. I find that he sometimes inserted ads to fund his films weird, but they awkwardly work enough for them to not be an issue. The fact he was from New Zealand also made me interested in him as I want to live in that country someday, he is definitely someone I would watch more of.

4. Harry Smith
This is a man that I can relate with on a spiritual level. His laid back attitude and WTF inducing visuals stuck out to me. The amount of effort that it takes to create such a monstrosity is brilliant. It makes you think about how resilient he was to those drugs to be able to sit down and create each frame for months, possibly years.

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