# P. Adams Sitney [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._Adams_Sitney) ( b. 1944 ) ## Description American film critic and historian whose *Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 1943–2000* is the field's foundational survey, coining the term "structural film"; co-founder, with [[Jonas Mekas]] and others, of Anthology Film Archives and its "Essential Cinema" collection. ## Key Tags #theorist #critic #institution-builder ## Essential Works - *Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 1943–2000*. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2002. - foundational critical history; establishes the trance film, lyrical film, and structural film as organizing categories ## Details His writing organizes the postwar American avant-garde into successive modes — the trance film of [[Maya Deren]] and [[Kenneth Anger]], the lyrical film of [[Stan Brakhage]], and the "structural film" (a term he coined) of [[Hollis Frampton]], Michael Snow, and others — and remains the primary reference framework the field still argues with or against. Co-founded Anthology Film Archives (1970) with Jonas Mekas, Jerome Hill, Peter Kubelka, and Stan Brakhage, and helped select its canonizing "Essential Cinema" collection. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Avant Garde Film]] - *Visionary Film* is the field's foundational historiography, and the source of the term "structural film" ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators - [[Jonas Mekas]] - co-founder of Anthology Film Archives (1970– ) - [[Stan Brakhage]] - co-founder of Anthology Film Archives; central subject of *Visionary Film* ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements - Anthology Film Archives - co-founder, 1970; helped select the "Essential Cinema" collection ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography Sitney, P. Adams. *Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 1943–2000*. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2002. [PDF](https://dn720703.ca.archive.org/0/items/Visionary_Film_The_American_AvantGarde/Visionary_Film_The_American_AvantGarde.pdf) ### Secondary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %%