"Film as a Subversive Art takes an outstanding place…in the already extensive literature on film. It’s pictorial enlightenment and its text make it an invaluable work.”—Luis Buñuel “Vogel’s masterpiece is one of the truly iconic books on cinema.”—Greg de Cuir Jr., independent curator and writer “A manifesto that wages war on cinema’s orthodoxies.”—Nick Pinkerton, The Village Voice “Amos Vogel is the moral conscience of the world of cinema.”—Werner Herzog “One of the great pioneers of the avant-garde film.”—Yoko Ono “The man was a giant.”—Martin Scorsese Amos Vogel’s seminal book Film as a Subversive Art was first published in 1974 and, in Vogel’s own words, detailed, “the accelerating worldwide trend toward a more liberated cinema, in which subjects and forms hitherto considered unthinkable or forbidden are boldly explored.” It is now available again in this newly restored edition, in which hundreds of errors have been corrected. Accompanied by over three hundred rare film stills, newly sourced and re-scanned for this edition. Amos Vogel (1921–2012) was born in Vienna and emigrated to the United States in 1938, eventually ending up in New York City. From 1947 to 1963 Vogel and his wife Marcia ran Cinema 16, the most successful and influential membership film society in North American history. In 1963 Vogel founded the Lincoln Center Film Department and was co-founder of the New York Film Festival, which he ran until 1968. He was a longtime faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School and a regular contributor to The Village Voice and Film Comment.

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A classic returns! The original edition of Amos Vogel's seminal book, Film as a Subversive Art was first published in 1974, and has been out of print since 1987. According to Vogel--founder of Cinema 16, North America's legendary film society--the book details the "accelerating worldwide trend toward a more liberated cinema, in which subjects and forms hitherto considered unthinkable or forbidden are boldly explored." So ahead of his time was Vogel that the ideas that he penned some 30 years ago are still relevant today, and readily accessible in this classic volume. Accompanied by over 300 rare film stills, Film as a Subversive Art analyzes how aesthetic, sexual and ideological subversives use one of the most powerful art forms of our day to exchange or manipulate our conscious and unconscious, demystify visual taboos, destroy dated cinematic forms, and undermine existing value systems and institutions. This subversion of form, as well as of content, is placed within the context of the contemporary world view of science, philosophy, and modern art, and is illuminated by a detailed examination of over 500 films, including many banned, rarely seen, or never released works.

Film as a Subversive Art

D.A.P./C.T. Editions

FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART

Amos Vogel was one of America's most innovative film historians and curators. An émigré from Austria who arrived in New York just before the Second World War, in 1947 he created Cinema 16, a pioneering film club aimed at audiences thirsty for work "that cannot be seen elsewhere," and in 1963 was instrumental in establishing the New York Film Festival. He later embarked on an ambitious teaching career, synthesizing decades of experience and directing his ideas towards students and, eventually, the wider public. In 1974 he published the culmination of his thoughts – along with an extraordinary collection of stills – in Film as a Subversive Art. On his death, the New York Times wrote that Vogel "exerted an influence on the history of film that few other non-filmmakers can claim." Be Sand, Not Oil is the first book about Vogel, and includes uncollected writings, an unpublished interview, and new essays documenting his never-ending quest for what Werner Herzog, his friend of many decades, has described as "adequate imagery."

Be Sand, Not Oil: The Life and Work of Amos Vogel (Austrian Film Museum Books)

Austrian Film Museum

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Books by Amos Vogel