The Absolute Film

We were assigned The Absolute Film, written by Dr. William Moritz. As stated in the article, this term was coined through comparison to "absolute music", which is defined as music that has "no reference to a story, poetry, dance, ceremony...besides the essential elements - harmonies rhythms, melodies." Mainstream music tends to follow a pattern, have an overarching message to its rhyme and reason, but absolute music does not. Similarly with absolute film, the film itself does not follow a plot line or rely on human characters to convey a story. The visuals created on screen do not present a story, but rather an aesthetic. Absolute film falls under the realm of experimental, and immediately I thought of Stan Brakhage while reading this article. The article talks about various filmmakers, specifically Hans Stoltenberg, who painted directly on the filmstrips. Brakhage practiced this same technique with his films using other materials where direct manipulation of the film was created, such as Mothlight.