This is a controversial book that examines the implicit assumptions of other scholars advocates an alternative to dominant approaches to the avant-garde cinema and questions some long-standing clichés about the history of the avant-garde. In spite of the difficulty of most American avant-garde films one can read volumes and find almost no mention of how to view these films. Dreams of Chaos Visions of Order addresses precisely this question: how--and to what extent--can viewers make sense of American avant-garde films? It is a controversial book that examines the implicit assumptions of traditional scholarship advocates on alternative to dominant approaches to the avant-garde cinema and questions some long-standing clichés about the history of the avant-garde.