Skip to main content

Jem Cohen 2001: An Interview

Video Data Bank

2001 01:35:06 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3DV video
Tags:
Documentary, Environment, Experimental Film, Film Theory, VDB Interviews, Visiting Artists Program

Description

In this 2001 interview, filmmaker Jem Cohen discusses the origins of his film philosophy, and the circuitous route he has taken in his pursuit of an anti-narrative film practice outside the mainstream. Cohen sheds light on the many influences that have impacted his sentiments towards conventional film, and his desire to eschew both classical avant-garde and theatrical filmmaking in favor of a model rooted in the tradition of the 1940s New York School of street photography. Cohen also locates his aesthetic as being impacted by the 1970s hardcore and DIY scenes he was exposed to as a youth in Washington, DC.

The ethos of punk and its attendant embrace of local grassroots scenes would prove a perfect counterpoint to Cohen’s interest in street photography. As he explains, Cohen came to pursue filmmaking as a way of understanding and interpreting his immediate environment. This philosophy has continued to define his practice, and underscore his films throughout his career.

– Kyle Riley

Interview conducted by Abina Manning in April 2001, edited in 2014.

 

The Video Data Bank is the leading resource in the United States for videotapes by and about contemporary artists. The VDB collection features innovative video work made by artists from an aesthetic, political or personal point of view. The collection includes seminal works that, seen as a whole, describe the development of video as an art form originating in the late 1960's and continuing to the present. Works in the collection employ innovative uses of form and technology, mixed with original visual style to address contemporary art and cultural themes.

Founded in 1976 at the inception of the media arts movement in the United States, the Video Data Bank is one of the nation's largest providers of alternative and art-based video. Through a successful national and international distribution service, the VDB distributes video art, documentaries made by artists, and recorded interviews with visual artists, photographers and critics.