Carolee Schneemann and the Canyon Cinema News

Carolee Schneemann joined experimental film distributor Canyon Cinema in the 1960s, at a time when filmmakers relied heavily on distributors and artist-run co-operatives to promote and disseminate their films through printed newsletters and catalogues. These materials provided descriptive texts, film stills, and reviews of new films in distribution and eventually helped form the historical canon of experimental film as known today. Unlike her male peers, Schneemann's work was largely neglected by popular film scholars such as P. Adams Sitney, prompting the artist to write herself into this canon by providing in-depth analysis of her own films in these newsletters. This presentation will focus on Schneemann's various contributions to the Canyon Cinema newsletters throughout the 1960s and 1970s as well as her personal correspondence with various members of Canyon's experimental film community including Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas. By revisiting these materials, Schneemann's writing is seen as both self-advocacy and artistic process within a particular community — deeply personal and political by design.