Indiscretions

"... delightfully personal even though it is solidly academic and documented... a welcome and rare bridging of the theoretical and the practical explication of particular texts." Choice "... influenced by Foucault, by Deleuze and Guattari ... in a style that is passionate and inventive. The essays reflect the author's enthusiasm for a kind of filmmaking and criticism which sidesteps the cautious scholarly mode. Mellencamp is a theorist ... who enjoys taking liberties with theory ... one moment an academic spokeswoman on behalf of the avant garde; the next a feminist critic; then a raconteur bringing us tales from the underground; then a cultural archivist putting down in print otherwise undocumented past moments; and finally, a postmodern writer pursuing a 'rhizomatic' path ... Mellencamp is remembering a history which made an enormous contribution to present-day film culture." Angela McRobbie, Screen "Mellencamp takes a fresh look at the American avant-garde cinema ... a lively intellectual romp, moving rapidly from one concept to another ..." Cantrills Filmnotes " ... Mellencamp writes well, with flair and style, with a kind of feisty eclecticism." East-West Film Journal " ... an invigorating read; its devotion to the avant-garde is infectious; and its optimism fires hope for a bold and transgressive future for feminist cultural politics ..." Journal of Gender Studies

• Prologue: Speaking Personally; 1. Historically Speaking; 2. Visionary Film and Sexual Difference; 3. Video Politics; 4. Surveillance and Simulation; 5. Theoretical Objects; 6. Postmodern TV; 7. Uncanny Feminism; 8. Last Scene in the Streets of Modernism; 9. Taking Cue from Ariadne; 10. Images of Language and Indiscreet Dialogues; 11. The Avant-Garde, the Everyday, and the Underground