Fertile Image Working Surface

A Disturbingly Elegant Bit of Filmmaking

I disurbing yet very will executed piece of filmmaking I ran into this afternoon; Here is the filmmakers description of his intent:

Playing time 8 1/2 minutes. Metachaos, from Greek Meta (beyond) and Chaos (the abyss where the eternally formless state of the universe hides), indicates a primordial shape of amoeba, which lacks precise morphology and is characterized by mutation and mitosis. In fact the bodies represented in Metachaos, even though they are characterized by an apparently anthropomorphous appearance, are without identity and conscience. They exist in a spaceless and timeless state. It is a multidisciplinary audio-visual project, articulated in a short film, in a set of photography and mixed-technique paintings. The purpose of the project is to represent the most tragic aspects of human nature, such as war, madness, social change and hate.

Brent Greene

Brent Greene is an animator whose work I really like. Here is a short story about his aunt who came to live with his family when he was a boy. Check it out. 

Ken Jacobs

When I was in college Ken Jacobs  was one of my professors. At the same time Nicholas Ray was teaching in the film department as well which of course was an unlikely match in such a small department as the one at SUNY Binghamton. In the end I got attracted to glitz that surround Nick and strayed away from the courses taught by Ken which I regret to this day.

But nonetheless I still remember sitting in Ken's classes, which were held in a large lecture hall, watching movies of all different types from the avant-garde films of Jack Smith and Stan Brakhage to hollywood films like Nick Ray's Lusty Men. It was those classes with Ken that created my interest in film and though I strayed off into a rather bumpy career in television I have never forgotten what his insights led me to believe about filmmaking and the world we live in. Last night I watched an interview with Ken Jacobs on Youtube talking about his films and filmmaking and I was reinvigorated. I hope you enjoy it too.     

an interesting problem

"Reporter" - Psychic Numbing from Facing History and Ourselves on Vimeo.

 

Broadcasting Into Eternity

The Interview Project that David Lynch started last June is done. They interviewed and posted a new person's story every three days for a year ..... and now it's over. This reminds me of the end of "The Making of the Representative for Planet 8" by Doris Lessing. At the end of the book all the people's stories are collected so that they can be left as a relic of a planet that is dying. The closing of this project feels like part of a similar process that is not quite done but is definitely underway, moving towards a complete history;  a memory of all the stories of all the people who lived here on Earth broadcasting into eternity over the internet.  

 

Me and the Devil - Gil Scott Heron

Here is an extraordinary music video from Gil Scott Heron that breaks all the rules of the form and creates a few new ones. 

Left Handed Propaganda

Last night I reluctantly went to see Capitalism: A Love Story. It was a chance to see some good friends so what the hell. The first fifteen minutes or so into the movie  thought to myself maybe I was wrong about seeing this picture, maybe something big is about to happen but by the end I was more convinced than before that the situation is almost hopeless. What situation am I referring to? Well what I'm talking about is a real critical analysis of the current moral crisis that led to this mess. An analysis of the  foundational cornerstones of just about everyones thinking; both the economic winners and losers alike. I want a critical analysis that reaches and convinces a broad audience to at least consider that some of what they have believed in the past is just not true anymore or maybe never was.

Without giving away the play by play of the movie, I think that just when Moore has the audience right where he wants them he trots out a bunch of folks to deliver the deciding blow that have such a questionable past with regards to their own behavior that for many of us it renders whatever they have to say as "you gotta be kidding, these guys have the answer"  ......   even though much of what they say is actually true.

I realize that the folks he "trotted out" are his champions and I don't mean to say he doesn't have the right to adore them but in the interest of delivering a clear message I think one has to be careful about including the voices of people one worships. The individual speakers I'm sure are wonderful people but one's affiliations does warrant consideration is a situation like this.  

In conversation with friends after the movie I expressed my disappointment. A dear friend who is also a really smart guy pointed out that if Moore had the made the film I wanted to see less people would have come to see it because more didactic films tend to have smaller audiences. After thinking about what he said I have to agree. It is a real shame but we can be counted on to behave true to form, like the addicts that we all are, and avoid the medicine that would make us well. 

Somewhat of a far reaching aside, but not really .....

I remember the last time I saw Steve Cokley speak in public. His audience had shrunk to almost nothing and Steve was a shadow of his former self. I hope he is alive and well somewhere having explored the reasons for his sacrifice, he is now preparing his next steps towards peace.   

Media and Experience

The notion that the images we see on television and at the movies play no role in shaping the way we see ourselves and our world is simply not true; though I do believe this is much less true of the movies because of differences in the technology. 

Actually what we see and hear through our senses presents us with tools we use to create foundational "truths" to support the veracity of our actions. Authorities in our lives play a role in helping us make sense of our experience but the driving factor for determining validity is what we directly experience and thereby believe we know for sure. Television and films mimic direct experience in a way that often makes it difficult to draw a clear line between the two and since one is manufactured while the other is natural (and for some sacred) therein lies an enormous opportunity for a self serving shaping of "knowing" that can be mistakenly embraced as truth. When we are watching flickering pictures on a screen we are not having an experience and though we may think we already know this, the truth is that many of us do not have the tools needed to actually tell the difference and in certain circumstances none of us will be able to tell the difference.

What To Do With Beasley?

I've been thinking about what to do with Beasley even before I met him. I mean that I have been pondering how to present Beasley and folks like him to the world; to give them all (as many as I have time to meet and interview) a chance to speak their piece. 

So what is the avenue for giving these folks a voice? I have a fewf thoughts about this but nothing yet that has stuck in the way that tells me I'm right. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm very open to suggestions right now.

 

Don Juan Beasley

This is an 8 minute edit of a 30 minute interview with Don Juan Beasley. Don is a 46 year old man living in south east Washington D.C. For the past thirty years he has struggled with heroin addiction. This is just a little of what he has said to me in the short time that I have known him. I want to let him say more and I am searching for a way to give a voice to him and others like him . The thing that moved me to interview Don was that right away I recognized that he was a decent human being who had suffered through a number of bad circumstances at a time when he could do little to set any of them right. Let me know what you think.

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