Le texte perdu du théoricien et cinéaste Peter Gidal, un essai théorique dense rédigé en 1978 avec lequel Gidal traite des limites du langage et de la représentation dans la pratique du cinéma expérimental, et offre un aperçu du contexte théorique et politique de cette pratique. Avec une nouvelle introduction de l'auteur et une postface de Sezgin Boynik qui examine en détail les contradictions politiques de la non-objectivité filmique de Gidal.
« The process of the film's making deals with devices that result in demystification or attempted demystification of the film process. But by "deals with" I do not mean "represents". In other words, such films do not document various film procedures, which would place them in the same category as films which transparently document a narrative, a set of actions, etc. Documentation, through usage of the film medium as transparent, invisible, is exactly the same when the object being documented is some "real event", some "film procedure", some "story", etc. An avant-garde film defined by its development towards increased materialism and materialist function does not represent, or document, anything. The film produces certain relations between segments, between what the camera is aimed at and the way that "image" is presented. The dialectic of the film is established in that space of tension between materialist flatness, grain, light, movement, and the supposed reality that is represented. Consequently a continual attempt to destroy the illusion is necessary. ».
Peter Gidal
