The ultimate jam session

Peter Hoskin celebrates 50 years of American independent cinema

As so often, our story begins with Mickey Mouse and a child’s pliant mind. The child in this case was Amos Vogel, growing up in 1930s Vienna. His father had bought him a small hand-cranked film projector, and the kid Vogel used to sit there, winding the handle and watching Mickey, Krazy Kat and other cartoon characters dance across the walls. Only there was frequently something odd, something perverse, about their movements. You see, Vogel used to enjoy running the projector in reverse — making the films, and the characters, go backwards.

The experience must have tripped some wires in the young boy’s head. It surely can’t be an accident that he became one of the world’s most provocative, devoted and influential proponents of experimental cinema. And, 50 years ago, he proved it beyond doubt by arranging a landmark film screening which catalysed a change in how film lovers, artists and studio chiefs saw the medium.