Abstract
This article attempts to historicize the United States Information Agency (USIA)’s programming of experimental and student films in the sixties and early seventies. Previous scholarship mainly focuses on USIA-produced films during 1962-1967; it is argued that these films demonstrated that USIA was ideologically tolerant and allowed artists to express their creativity. Complementing this viewpoint, I suggest that it is fruitful to situate USIA’s film activities within a larger media environment and understand their programming and production choices as a way to respond to controversial films put out by Hollywood and other private media producers. The second part of the article turns to the receptions and reuses of the USIS-exhibited student and experimental films in Taiwan. Although these films and other cultural products were employed by the USIA to advance the US government’s interests overseas, these were also a major source for international intellectuals and artists experiencing new art forms. Here I use Taiwan as an example to show the various ways non-western audiences received and reused USIS-exhibited films. In the case of Taiwan, we can see that when the Taiwan government was creating an experimental film festival to support the local film industry, the USIS-exhibited films became a crucial resource for Taiwanese cinephiles and critics to imagine and theorize experimental cinema.
Recommended Citation
Liu, I-Lin
(2022)
"Useful Experimental Cinema: USIA's Experimental Film Programming and the Film Culture in Taiwan, 1973-1979,"
The Journal of e-Media Studies: Vol. 6:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1938-6060.A.478
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/joems/vol6/iss1/5
Figure 1: Xie's report in Yingxiang (1973) [Zhengguan Xie, “Shiyan Dianying Fabiaohui (Experimental Film Screening),” Yingxiang, May 1, 1973.]
Liu Figure 2.png (193 kB)
Figure 2: Totem (1962), selected image Director, Ed Emshwiller [https://archive.org/details/totem_201702].
Liu Figure 3.png (195 kB)
Figure 3: Incident in a Glass Blower's Shop (1969), selected image Director, Byron Bauer [https://youtu.be/lZlTFu16k4A]
Liu Figure 4.png (221 kB)
Figure 4: Xu's list of experimental films [Rulin Xu, “Zai Taiwan Kan Shiyan Dianying (Watching Experimental Films in Taiwan),” Dianying Tongxun, March 25, 1978]