‘What is a mouth’: Joyce Wieland’s Pierre Vallières (1972) and the politics of the film portrait | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 9, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2045-6298
  • E-ISSN: 2045-6301

Abstract

Focusing on Joyce Wieland’s film portrait (1972), this article follows the Canadian artist and filmmaker’s practice as it evolved through her engagement with the New York film avant-garde of the 1960s. Through an analysis of Wieland’s collaboration with Shirley Clarke, I will also discuss in relation to US-American documentary practices from the same period. Referring to Clarke’s (1967) with its focus on the spoken word as well as Andy Warhol’s , I will place Wieland’s film within this line of film portraits engaging with identity and a performative notion of subjectivity. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze, this article concludes with a close reading of Wieland’s film, discussing her use of the close-up as a means of thwarting the linear narrative and logic of its subject’s political speech. ’ politics thus emerges within an aesthetics that crosses the boundaries of documentary and avant-garde, communicating with audiences beyond the film’s original context of French-Canadian emancipation.

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2020-04-01
2024-04-20
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References

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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Clarke; close-up; Direct Cinema; film portrait; Warhol; Wieland
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