DVD news that most likely will excite only Jog and myself:

EARLY AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE FILM

David Shepard and Bruce Posner have just completed work on a seven DVD, twenty-hour box set called Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film(to be released towards the end of 2005 in the USA and in 2006 by the British Film Institute). It is a collection of short films made in America or by Americans abroad from the beginnings of cinema until 1941. According to the makers it is considerably refined from the touring program of films which has been going around the world under the sponsorship of Anthology Film Archives.

The set contains over 150 films and is drawn from 60 major collections including Anthology Film Archives, BFI, Eastman House, LoC, MoMA, Gosfilmofond, and the Nederlands Filmmuseum. Each of the seven DVD programs runs around 150 minutes and is organised thematically: 1: THE MECHANIZED EYE: Experiments in Technique and Form; 2: THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND: American Surrealism; 3: LIGHT RHYTHMS: Music and Abstraction; 4: INVERTED NARRATIVES: New Directions in Storytelling; 5: PICTURING A METROPOLIS: New York City Unveiled; 6: THE AMATEUR AS AUTEUR: Discovering Paradise in Pictures; 7: VIVA LA DANCE: The Beginnings of Cine-Dance.