카메라를 버린 사람들

The Men without Movie Cameras: Some Thoughts on the Handmade Found Footage Films

Avant-garde film artists Peter Tscherkassky and Naomi Uman have utilized two distinct film-making approaches rooted in the 1920's and the 1930's, namely handmade film and usage of found footage. These artists have recently visited Korea, showed their works, and gave talks through film festivals. This study examines some of the aesthetic issues brought up by their works and public talks. In order to help better understand the full possibilities explored by both artists, I investigate the historical circumstances that led to the emergence of these two traditions, both of which were introduced in the golden era of the avant-garde movement in reaction against the illusionist basis of narrative cinema. While the works of Tscherkassky and Uman embody the self-reflexive strategies of the avant-garde, they evoke violence and death, inevitably driven by their formative concerns. I suggest that the element of death in their films are not simply the reflections of the artists' individual interests or the inherent theme of the found footage, but rather an inevitable effect of meticulous scrutiny on the essence of the film medium. The avant-garde pursuit of self-reflexivity is itself a thanatoid decomposition of the creative drives that characterize the cinematic medium and culture.