A Response to Fred Camper's "What is Experimental Film?"

Fred Camper -- What is Experimental Film?

In this passage Fred Camper attempts to define "experimental film" -- something that by definition evades definition. As such, all of his "qualities" of "most" experimental film a subject to be rebuked within minutes, if they have not been already. 

His first point is that most experimental films are created by one person, or sometimes a small group. Avant-garde films are often defined by their opposition to the norm -- which is large groups of crew run by studios in Hollywood -- so it would make sense that he would make that claim (the second "quality" of experimental film). 

However, in the global age where we find ourselves now many films are being created that a "crowd-sourced" or massively created through the new tools of the internet. Though point number one may have been true once, experimental film is shucking, or has already shucked that definition. 

The problem with defining experimental film in opposition to the "mainstream" is that both the mainstream and, in turn, the opposition are in flux. Opposition includes all except what it opposes, and the one thing it opposes is itself constantly shifting. 

If the artistic life of film as a medium is a river then the mainstream, the convention is but a stick floating down the river. Experimental film (the rest) is the current on which it floats.