2145517’s Film blog

This week’s reading was incredibly thought-provoking. In ‘Affect and Environment in Two Artists’ Films and a Video’ (2014), Sean Cubitt leads his analysis by framing environmental matter within the substructure of the contrast between the ‘Apollonian’ and ‘Dionysian’ as introduced in The Birth of Tragedy (Nietzsche, 1872). Zeng (2024) elaborates on ancient Greek mythology, in the context of environmental science; Apollonian (from the deity Apollo, son of Zeus) signifies balance, orderly logic and rational ecology, reflecting control and efficiency. In contrast, Dionysian (from the God Dionysus), reflects an ecstatic, tragic and communal relationship with nature (McInnis, 2023). Cubitt establishes the Dionysian to argue “The phenomenological connection that places the human in the world belongs also with the American Transcendentalists traditions out of Thoreau”; a prominent branch of Romanticism, framing humans to be active beings embedded into the world. For clarification, Romanticism was an English period of the late 18th century to the early 19th century, which rejected the preceding Enlightenment period of scientific reason and order. At the same time, transcendentalism was “a curiously American manifestation of the Romantic Movement” (Smith, 1973, pp.303). Cubitt’s foundation reflects the notion of experimental cinema, particularly in this week’s film, Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man (1961-64).

After the screening, we were asked to interpret certain aspects of the film, such as meaning and techniques. Dog Star Man’s visuals of distortion, such as scratched film, flickering and overlaying, amplify an overwhelming trance with nature beyond a lucid understanding. When applying Cubitt’s analysis, Brakhage’s approach presents as a rejection of the Apollonian and factual environmental filmmaking. Instead, Brakhage’s film corresponds with Romanticism’s aesthetics of the sublime, which Goodall (2019) defines as “art that has the ability to terrify and overwhelm the viewer” and the Dionysian in the potency of nature’s overwhelming effect. Whilst the Romantics embraced a symbolic concept of rebirth as humans and nature are interconnected, Cubitt demonstrates that “Brakhage will go on to deny that it is possible to return to this Edenic state” (pp.252). In other words, the film is not a return to a state of reconnection, but rather captures the grapple in doing so with an environment not complying with human control.

To explore a more objective analysis of the film, I looked into relevant material and found Albert Baracco’s Philosophy in Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man (2019). Baracco links Brakhage’s cinematic methods to Maya Deren’s concept of ‘vertical exploration’ in which experimental cinema prioritises emotions, symbolism and depth over plot-driven narratives. In the previous week, we initiated our film group projects by brainstorming and selecting a theme, of which my group decided on ‘trauma’. Brakhage’s film approach influenced our production by incorporating his manner of delivering a film’s concept by focusing on expressing the lingering feeling of trauma concerning the environment. Our original film idea, which we expected to change in the following weeks of experimenting, depicted a woman as the subject of trauma, dancing in the forest. Based on our film idea, we drafted a moodboard that captured the sensorial elements such as the sound, visuals, atmosphere, and materials. Before beginning the production process, we had already decided on using similar techniques as their influence was grand. This pushed us to think beyond traditional storytelling and brainstorm how the complexity of trauma could be communicated experimentally, as Dog Star Man, though silent, expressed so much.