Youngblood's title was itself inspired by Stan van der Beek's essay Culture: Intercom & Expanded Cinema, and Rees et al. credit van der Beek as a pioneer of ambient filmmaking (and reprint an illustrated version of Culture:Intercom). They also profile New American Cinema founder Jonas Mekas, and early video artist Carolee Schneemann, amongst others.
There is some overlap with new-media art and video art (discussed by Michael Rush in his books New Media In Art and Video Art). Underground filmmaking (Subversion) and art cinema (Art Cinema; Film As A Subversive Art, by Amos Vogel) are also closely connected.