Make Love, Not War

Subversive cinema took a variety of forms throughout the 1960s, from explorations of sexual transgression to protest against the war in Vietnam. In Song for Rent, Jack Smith plays a camp version of Rose Kennedy—alcoholic and festooned with American paraphernalia—while Kate Smith belts “God Bless America” on the soundtrack. Dangling Participle is a found-footage work made entirely of old classroom films, re-edited to an organ music soundtrack and new narration that spoofs sex-ed instruction. Draft Card Burners is a straightforward and invaluable record of downtown New York war protests from the fall of 1965. Viet-Flakes is a more experimental antiwar film, a dynamic collage of American pop music and harrowing still images showing the aftermath of US military attacks on women and children in Vietnam. Real-life cats are cops and rats are rebels in Joyce Wieland’s metaphorical film about tyranny and protest, with the rats looking to escape to Canada. The films by Paul Sharits, Scott Bartlett, and Rosalind Schneider use different cinematic strategies to depict the sexual act, from impressionistic abstraction (On) to rapid-fire mechanistic structuralism (Piece Mandela/End War) to the straightforward, lyrical approach of Lovemaking. Song for Rent. 1969. USA. Directed by Jack Smith. 16mm. 4 min. Dangling Participle. 1970. USA. Directed by Standish Lawder. 16mm. 17 min. The Draft Card Burners. 1966. USA. Directed by Hilary Harris. 16mm. Silent. 7 min. Viet-Flakes. 1966. USA. Directed by Carolee Schneemann. 16mm. 7 min. Rat Life and Diet in North America. 1968. USA. Directed by Joyce Wieland. 16mm. 16 min. Piece Mandala/End War. 1966. USA. Directed by Paul Sharits. 16mm. 5 min. On. 1972. USA. Directed by Rosalind Schneider. 16mm. 4 min. Lovemaking. 1970. USA. Directed by Scott Bartlett. 16mm. 13 min. Program approx. 73 min.