“Phill Niblock’s Observational Cinema” is a lengthy survey of the unsung film career of an internationally renowned composer of avant-garde minimalist music. It will be published in 2012 in English and French in an interdisciplinary monograph on Niblock’s work. My essay represents the first attempt at a comprehensive critical survey of Niblock’s prolific career in non-fiction cinema, including a thorough consideration of his “Movement of People Working” films. This series, which he began shooting in the early 1970s, encompasses over thirty hours of 16mm films documenting labor practices from the most remote corners of the globe.
