Anthology Film Archives

Film Screenings / Programs / Series

AVANT-GARDE ADS, PART 2

February 10 – February 25

February 10-25, 2026

In November and December, Anthology presented the first part of the series “Avant-Garde Ads”, which aimed to question the distinction between non-commercial, avant-garde cinema and the allegedly diametrically opposed realm of advertising and sponsored films. The series – which concludes in February – attempts to complicate that conventional wisdom by calling attention to those instances in which (for lack of a better term) “avant-garde” filmmakers – even those who seem most indisputably to embody the anti-commercial purity and radicalism of this filmmaking tradition, such as Stan Brakhage, Peter Kubelka, Jordan Belson, Bruce Baillie, and Nathaniel Dorsky – have made advertisements, corporate films, public service announcements, or other sponsored works. The series further explores the relationship between experimental cinema and commercial/sponsored filmmaking by presenting films that may not have been made by recognized artists but which are nonetheless as visually inventive, formally audacious, and flat-out trippy as anything that has emerged from the underground cinema. And finally, it highlights other ways in which experimental filmmakers have engaged with the phenomenon of advertising, by making works that adopt the form, style, or technique of ads or by using ads as found footage.

The second half of the series features a wide array of programs, including a screening focusing specifically on experimental “trailers” (or other pre-show miscellanea); a program devoted to the British General Post Office, which throughout the 1930s was a hotbed of talent and filmic innovation, producing films by artists such as Alberto Cavalcanti, Len Lye, Norman McLaren, Lotte Reiniger, and others; a compilation of mind-blowing sponsored films by the innovative Chicago firm run by Morton and Minnie Goldsholl; an event featuring a live projector and light show performance by Genevieve HK; and much, much more!

Special thanks to all the artists, and to Carmen Accaputo (Cineteca di Bologna); Miguel Armas (Light Cone); Roger Bennet (Novartis Heritage & Company Archives); Michal Brezovský (National Film Archive, Prague); Jesse Brossoit (CFMDC); Bob Campbell (Gospel Films Archive); Sam Chamberlain; Rebecca Cleman, Karl McCool, and Jooyoung Park (Electronic Arts Intermix); Julia Curl (Film-Makers’ Coop); Sarah Davy, Susan Hughes, and Alexandra Porter (Len Lye Foundation); Friederike Gratz (Galerie Buchholz); Anke Hahn (Deutsche Kinemathek); Alyssa Hickey & Beth Rennie (George Eastman Museum); Richard Hillard & George Watson (British Film Institute); Agnes Iski (National Film Institute Hungary); Brett Kashmere & Zachary Epcar (Canyon Cinema); Blue & Laura Kraning; Derek G. Larson; Kevin Lutz (Austrian Film Museum); Kristin MacDonough & Emily Martin (Video Data Bank); Brooke Mallinger (Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision); Simona Monizza & Olivia Buning (Eye Filmmuseum); Romane Muller (Tamasa); Márton Orosz; Jake Perlin & Andrew Adair (The Film Desk); Frédérique Ros (Les Films du Jeudi); Frédéric M. Savard (National Film Board of Canada); Jeffrey Schissler (SC Johnson); Jon Shibata (Pacific Film Archive); Dietmar Schwärzler & Gerald Weber (sixpack film); and Tauni Western (Eames Office).

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