10.0b Programme Texts: 1992 - 1997
The programmes are the most
important trace left by the Exploding Cinema events, and their visual content
has been discussed in a separate chapter. The graphic content was classified
and a sample analysed with a theoretically framed semiotic approach. The
semiotic analysis also contained a historical/ cultural contextualisation of
the chapbook A6 format that has a long history in European popular publishing.
Apart from the first six
months, for which I have seen only two programmes, very few programmes have
been lost. The surviving set of over 70 programmes up to June 1998 has been
scanned and transferred to a set of 8 CDRs.
The films and filmmakers are
covered in other chapters so this section will catalogue and comment on the
remaining contents of the programmes: the texts.
Texts in the Illustrated
Programmes.
I have classified the texts
found in the programmes up to May 1997[1]
under the headings[2]:
Reviews;
Pop diversions (1992 only);
Self descriptions and reports;
Lists & glossaries;
Critiques;
Intervention reports;
Rants and polemics;
Quotes and reprints;
Satirical and propaganda graphic texts;
Adverts for political events or other film groups.
I will only discuss the
first four categories here. The following six types of text are covered by the
discussion in this chapter (Section C) on 'Politics and Policies'.
Reviews: From June 1992 to June
1993 very short reviews of work from the previous shows were included in every
programme. There are fifteen of these short review sections in all which review
about 50 movies. After this the review sections become sporadic.[3]
It should be emphasised that
after June 1993 the individual works shown at Exploding Cinema is rarely
reviewed anywhere. The media coverage of Exploding Cinema that does appear is
of a general nature, so although the reviews in the programmes are slight they
are important due to the absence of any other critical literature. A selection
from these reviews is included in the Appendix.
Pop diversions: These die out after 1992.
There is a series of four mini articles called 'Ripley's Believe it or Not'
that include stuff on Bette Davis and John Cage. These show how people were
keen to use popular magazine rather than more literary idioms to produce
written material. Which we can assume was an effort to avoid the studious tone
of establishment film discourse and to align written texts with oral culture.
Self-descriptions and reports:
Nearly every programme has an, often jokey or poetic, introduction, which
will often include elements of self-description.
[4]
(See illustration
14)
Lists and glossaries: This is another format from
popular publishing. These range from a 'definition of underground'
[5]
, to satires of independent film and the avant-garde.
[6]
They include a satire of aesthetics with
a 'We Love / We Hate' list by Donal Ruane,
[7]
and a seven point guide on 'How to Be a Successful Spectator'.
[8]
There is an Exploding Manifesto
[9]
(see illustration
15) and a satirical glossary.
[10]
There are programmes that
mark the seasons, such as the 'Up Your May pole with the EXPLODING SINEMA' in
the programme of 2nd April 1994. That text is on the front cover. The back
cover has a blasphemous anti-Christ graphic. Part of the counter cultural
stance is to be pagan and generally anti Christian. The tendency to mark
seasonal holidays is quite strong.
The content of the texts
does give a very good idea of the concerns of the Exploding Cinema and the
range of their counter cultural ideas. The literary forms used also give us
clues as to the broader cultural forms that they wish to relate to. Basically
they are 'inferior' literary forms such as the list, the satire, the report,
the rant, the quotation, the graphic proclamation, the cheap advert, the comic.
There are no poems and the very format itself makes any extended prose style
difficult. The rant polemics are the most common forms that approach what would
be defined as prose in the literary world. I will discuss the polemics in the section
on politics. These stylistic forms do have precedents in the early chapbooks
and penny books.[11] They are
signifiers of forms that emerge from and address oral culture and create links
with a wider counter culture.
_______________________________________________
[1] I stopped listing in May
1997 as after that date some of the texts were written by me as participant in
the group.
[2] Singular texts include:
Portrait of Rosalind Grainger (11-9-93); a noticeboard (22-12-94); a comic
spread on 'how to make a film' (22-12-94); Andy Lowe on singing (1-5-94); a
video distribution announcement (19-3-94).
[3] Further reviews can be found
only in the programmes of 19-3-94,
2-4-94 & 1-5-94
[4] For descriptive
introductions see programmes from; 13-2-93, 1-5-93, 11-9-93, 2-10-93, 11-12-93,
19-3-95 & 9-11-96.
[5] IP 18-6-92
[6] 'Independent Film A to Z', a
glossary of eleven terms (IP 10-9-92); Avant-Guarde / Underground (15-5-93)
[7] IP 11-9-93
[8] IP 29-10-94
[9] IP 29-10-94
[10] IP 19-3-95
[11] See Tessa Watt's Cheap
Print and Popular Piety (1550 - 1640) (Cambridge UP 1991)