 | Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913)
Buy new: $89.95 / Used from: $70.90 1896-1913.
The filmic holy trinity of first filmmakers consists of the Lumier Brothers (documentary), Edison (spectacle) and Melies (magic). Someone who stumbled upon the jump-cut and double exposure. Even today his films inspire a sense of awe in the viewer.
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 | Unseen Cinema - Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941
Buy new: $40.49 / Used from: $39.95 1894-1941.
Quite a few Joseph Cornells, a couple Edwin S. Porters, even some Orson Welles. Possible one of the best introductions to alternative cinema out there.
Cornell is my artistic idle. He painted, drew, photographed, collaged and invented found footage filmmaking. I owe him my life.
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 | Un Chien Andalou
Buy new: $15.99 / Used from: $6.00 1927.
Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali made this film in an effort to prevent film from taking on a traditional narrative structure and formalist storytelling... Yeeeeeah...
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 | Man with a Movie Camera
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $13.88 1929.
Sought to make the Russian version of Berlin: Symphony, Vertov created so much more. This is the greatest film ever made. I am an editor so I am biased, but I find Vertov's politics and his philosophy to be very moving and truly unifying for all of humanity.
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 | Man With The Movie Camera (Enhanced) (1929)
Buy new: $21.99 1929.
He believed film should be silent and textless so that anyone, no matter where they were from, could enjoy and learn from his films. He also believed that everyone should be able to use the tool of filmmaking to document their world and share their voice so throughout he attempts to teach the audience how film works.
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 | Maya Deren: Experimental Films
Buy new: $23.49 / Used from: $18.33 1943-1958
Our first of two women on this list. They have an incredible connection to the subconscious. While male filmmakers search for something, women are telling something.
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 | By Brakhage - Anthology - Criterion Collection
Buy new: $35.49 / Used from: $21.99 1952-2003
He made 373 films in his life. He experimented with every aspect of filmmaking and it seemed as though he had exhausted everything film had to offer. The master of rhythm and light.
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 | The Lawrence Jordan Album
Buy new: $53.99 / Used from: $24.30 1955-1978
Joseph Cornell's disciple. His films are like moving Cornell boxes full of moving Victorian woodcuts that replicate his dreams. An alchemical man who sought to infuse people's minds with the past to change the values of the present.
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 | Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $19.35 A quick romp through video art.
The great Nam June Paik. Father of video art... or at least in the Fine Art world. There were many before him, he was just the one that hung around with John Cage and Fluxus.
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 | La Jetee/Sans Soleil (Criterion Collection)
Buy new: $35.49 / Used from: $21.95 On to narrative experimentation.
1963
A film made entirely of still photographs and narration. Truly breathtaking. One of the greatest things to emerge from France. So great, Terry Gilliam re-made it as 12 Monkeys.
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 | Solaris - Criterion Collection
Buy new: $30.99 / Used from: $21.79 1972.
Every Tarkovsky is a waking dream. His understanding of silence goes beyond other director's forceful removal, his is more of a comfort and understanding of its place in our world.
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 | The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Fando y Lis / El Topo / The Holy Mountain)
Buy new: $17.99 / Used from: $79.98 1968, 1970, 1973.
Our list's second alchemist.
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 | Eraserhead
Buy new: $23.49 / Used from: $15.64 1977.
While Lucas was making Star Wars, David Lynch was making one of the most profound and personal films about unplanned parenthood. Three years in the making, the finished product is his uncompromised vision.
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 | Mulholland Drive
Buy new: $12.49 / Used from: $3.08 2001.
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 | David Lynch's Inland Empire (Limited Edition Two-Disc Set)
Buy new: $18.49 / Used from: $6.95 2006.
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 | Charisma
Buy new: $22.49 / Used from: $3.07 1999.
Damn near shook this man's hand. One of the most beautiful films about man's relationship with nature. A poem in trees. The inheritor of Tarkovsky's legacy.
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 | Brand Upon the Brain! - Criterion Collection
Buy new: $35.49 / Used from: $17.90 2006.
If you see only one Guy Maddin film, this is it. A tour de force in every sense. Possibly my favorite film on this list next to Man with a Movie Camera.
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 | Brakhage
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $8.99 As with all good DVD collections: The Supplements.
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 | Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination by Lynda Roscoe Hartigan
Buy new: $47.25 / Used from: $41.95 |
 | Devotional Cinema by Nathaniel Dorsky
Buy new: $10.00 / Used from: $21.40 |
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