Response 9

1. Benning was very invested in the do it yourself model (a la the punks) and often put a focus on the performance (or lack thereof) of the non-professional actors. Riot Grrl embraced this, however, because Benning was a female filmmaker in a male world, the film had to be much more expressive than most punks would have liked.

2. Milliken uses the term "visual essay" because Benning often uses her own stories, which feel very documented or autobiographical, but she does not limit her films to this kind of style or medium. By doing this Benning can approach virtually any subject and the audience can understand that the film is devoted to her personal feelings or viewpoints. However, while this "radical feminist essayist" might be very thought provoking and open ended, it often does not provide solutions or conflict.

3. Barney can describe his work as sculpture because in a gallery space, the audience can interact with the piece, moving around it, typically not being forced to sit down and watch it, as they would with a more traditional film. It allows the audience to interact with the piece in a more 3D environment, as they would with traditional sculpture pieces.

4. The minimal sculpture is seen as postmodern because it seems that many of those pieces could be recreated by non artists or, at least, by artists with less talent. Many of the pieces also don't seem to have a real signature or theme that define most pieces or artists. Finally, many of the pieces do not elicit much emotion, or the meaning the piece is trying to convey is often unclear to the audience.

5. These artists attempt to test the actual human body as a piece of art. They try to use the body as art, testing some physical and emotional endurance of it.

6. Again, Barney focuses on what the body can be put through and attempts to use this as art. The word blockbuster was used because, for a gallery work, it had a very high budget and publicity, falling very close to a capitalistic kind of model, which is extremely unusual for the art world.

7. Mode of film practice refers to a particular style or practice within the film world. Some examples included classic Hollywood, French new wave, or postmoderism within the avant garde. As long as films follow the guidelines within these schools of though they abide by the mode of film practice. By adhering to these guidelines, it creates an expectation from the audience and often aids the artist in finding ideas, exhibitions, and an audience.

8. While many avant garde films are much more difficult to find then mainstream films, there are still often venues and festivals to see them in. Even now with DVD and the Internet they can be distributed rather easily and in a model similar to a corporate method. Gallery films are much more limited and difficult to access and seem very limited and somewhat limited and elite.