There are few genres of film as polarizing as avant-garde cinema. Growing out of 1920s surrealism and artists like Salvador Dali and getting a foothold during the 1960s with Andy Warhol, experimental films either inspired audiences to think about what they were seeing and discuss the art of film or were dismissed as nonsensical garbage. The documentary Visionaries, by Oscar-winning director Chuck Workman, rises above polarization and, instead of praising or rejecting, it instead lets you understand the machinations behind the avant garde movement.
Splicing together both old and new interview footage with underground directors such as Jonas Mekas, Bob Downey, Kenneth Anger and Stan Brakhage, along with footage from their films, the documentary analyzes the motivations behind filming seemingly random footage and puts it in a context that even those that have previously dismissed the genre can begin to appreciate. The film actually embraces its detractors, acknowledging that many of the films mean nothing and are intended simply as a rejection of Hollywood and the necessity for plot and storyline. Some of the most eye opening footage comes from an NBC interview with Warhol where he is asked if he is trying to say anything with his films, and he bluntly responds “No.” Workman recognizes the absurdity of a film where a character says, "We are robots, yet we can love,” and uses it to make the documentary accessible to everyone.
The conversations with directors Kenneth Anger and Bob Downey (father of Robert Downey Jr.) are the highlight of the film. Both give interviews while their movies play in the background, and several moments are laugh-out-loud funny, particularly when a 5-year-old Robert Jr. is shown in the movie Pound and asks a bald man if he has any hair on his balls, or when Anger shares that drugs were part of the filmmaking process because they helped him relax. It never gets to the point of mockery, but damn if it doesn’t toe the line.
The documentary does have its faults, as some of the film footage shown is audibly abusive, assaulting the audience with minutes of loud feedback; the film’s editing is slightly jerky at times, and the quotes flying by on top of the screen can be quite distracting, but nothing is disruptive enough to throw the film off entirely. A great portion of the film is dedicated to the work being done by genre hero Jonas Mekas to preserve the films as part of the Anthology Film Archives, but the future looks fairly bleak-- despite having installations of film prints around the world, not one has ever been sold. With Visionaries, Workman breathes life into the dying video art form with an army of appreciators at his back. The film avoids all pretension and never takes itself too seriously. If only the same thing could be said for all underground cinema.
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