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I just finished watching Bruce Elder's latest film "The Young Prince". Being a prolific artist and writer, this two hour "experimental" film was made at the same time as he was writing his book "Harmony and Dissent: Film and Avant-garde Art Movements in the Early Twentieth Century".
As I wrote in the short (preliminary) review on the book, my observations that modern-day avant-garde filmmakers (and artists in general) are interested in non-Christian ways of reaching the transcendence are being validated. Although Elder never elucidates this in his book (he takes a more of a descriptive approach, writing about this phenomenon, rather than expressing his views), his film is a clear indication of his approach. More on this later, but his final quote in his film, from the apocryphal Acts of St. John (which according to many Christian theologians is heretical), shows me that I am going in the right direction.
I am so glad that I went with my instincts, and refused to enter into the strange, trance-inducing films of these "avant-garde" filmmakers. Sometimes all you really have to go on is a non-rational, but equally strong and true, perception.
Again, I will write more on this, and how (and why) most modern artists are really in the realm that Elder and his filmmakers inhabit. And why art suffers and is destroyed as a consequence. Yes, strong words, but now I can finally say them.