Tom Gunning uses a quote in the beginning of this article that I love. Based on a study of Kafka, from Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari called Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature.
"There is nothing that is major or revolutionary except the minor. To hate all languages of masters."
By "Minor" in either literature or cinema, it is meant to be aware and celebrate it's marginal identity and fashion from it a revolutionary consciousness. Minor cinema reshapes our image of the avant-garde as Gunning lists examples of 6 filmmakers who practice and perfect their own language of images. He calls it a return to Brakhage, with submerged narratives by creating a complex rhythm of motion and not hitting you in the face with either "shock troop Battalions" or infuriating minimalist techniques that smack of documentary-style "art films".
The best part in the first half of the article is the use and embrace of the word "ghetto". Gunning writes that many alternative filmmakers intend to break down the ghetto of avant-garde film. yet he finds it most exciting when films proudly wear the badge of ghetto. " The tremors of history are felt with re-doubled intensity within the ghetto". Nice.
By not trying to become a "break-through" in competition with major motion pictures or in the mold of "art films", avant-garde is freed to become its best self. Always experimenting and perfecting the personal part of self and narrative into your own language, your own "masterwork" is where the art is.
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