I BEGAN WRITING Visionary Film in 1969 for a series of books on cinema conceived and edited by Annette Michelson. Even though its ultimate publication was not in that series, she has consistently encouraged and aided me in every stage of its production. I am deeply grateful for the advice she has given me concerning both the general structure and the details of the book.
Over the same span of time Ken Kelman has been a sounding board for many of the ideas and observations that I had during the time of writing the first edition. His responses are often reflected in this work. Willard Van Dyke and the Film Department of the Museum of Modern Art invited me to give a series of lectures in the spring of 1971 where I was able to give the first public presentation of the central theses of the book.
I cannot imagine how this work would have been possible were it not for Anthology Film Archives. In its theater I was able to re-see numerous times the films discussed here, and its vast library of books and documents on the avant-garde cinema was the foundation of my research. My assistants there, Caroline Angell and Kate Manheim, spent many hours helping me prepare detailed screening notes from which much of the book was written.
Cecily Coddington who typed most of the manuscript suggested many stylistic changes that were incorporated. Jonas Mekas and Steven Koch read and commented on the typed text. For their insights I am grateful. At Oxford University Press my editor, James Raimes, and Leona Capeless were uncommonly helpful common readers of this specialized book. My particular thanks go to Robert Pattison who worked with me through the more than seven hundred–page typescript with exceptional patience.
The more elaborate and complex stills reprinted here were made by Babette Mangolte; other illustrations were provided by Anthology Film Archives, the Stills Archive of the Film Department of the Museum of Modern Art, and Artforum magazine. Tom Hopkins kindly helped me through the proofreading and Nora Manheim made the index. Georges Borchardt, my agent, helped me in numerous ways.
Julia Sitney, then my wife, convinced me, in 1968 on a train in Norway, that this book should be written. She was consistently encouraging, especially in my most desperate moments.
The intellectual debts of The Visionary Film are numerous. There were no times during the writing of it that I was not covetously reading or rereading articles and books by Maurice Blanchot, Geoffrey Hartman, and Paul de Man. But my debt to Harold Bloom must be singled out. While I was at my typewriter at least one of his books was always on my desk and in continual use.