John Cage: I Have Nothing To Say and I Am Saying It (1993)

For the late composer John Cage, the goal of art was ''not self-expression but self-alteration. If we can begin to like what we did dislike, then the world is more open. No sound is not musical.'' As a conceptualist, Cage's influence was profound, affecting artists working not just in so-called serious music but in pop music, jazz, dance, and visual arts. In I Have Nothing To Say and I Am Saying It, the definitive video portrait by producer-writer Vivian Perlis and coproducer-director Allan Miller, Cage makes his case, aided by admirers including Yoko Ono and dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham. All that's missing are the voices of those sharply critical of Cage; he would have welcomed hearing them, too. A-