I stumbled into some excellent avante-garde stuff last year.

1. "
   Last Chants for a Slow Dance
   " by Jon Jost. Chilling study of a midwest wingnut.
   I'm in no way a fan of trendy/sicko exploitation ('American Psycho', 'Natural Born Killers', etc) –on and on and on, glorifying violence in the same old dismal way year after year. So this was a rare type of film for me to give attention to. But it is intelligent and well-done; perhaps because it was conceived and released long before all that other schlock became the new norm. I admire how the director crafted it on a shoestring budget right down to composing and performing the country music soundtrack himself.
2. "
   11 x 14
   " by James Benning.
   No plot or narrative thread; just a kind of haunting 'fly on the wall' type experiment where Benning simply records ordinary people and places. Not sure whether they were actors or not; not sure whether camera was hidden or not. This flick is also set in the American northwest. But it's eerie in the way that the characters go about their business as if the camera is not present.
3. "
   Killer of Sheep
   " by Charles Burnett.
   An up-close depiction of life in an American ghetto. Somewhere in either St Louis, Detroit, or LA. Elegiac portrait of black family life.
   I'd recommend all of these to anyone.
   Paul P. Powell, Pool Player