ivaasks

Over Christmas,

I took a little road trip to Vermont, to my friend Tennessee Watson and her father Bill.
Their beautiful house on the creek, a “hotbed for radical feminism” was once owned by Aunt Lou,
a jailbird Suffragette, who fought for women’s right to vote in Vermont. Here’s her-story.

I’ve been quite busy developing my next project, feature documentary which I am shooting this summer in Cyprus…loosely based on an interview i did with Simon Khan. In thinking about the structure of the film, I’m exploring non traditional documentary forms, others ways of expressing and telling a story and so I have been researching such works.

I picked out a few highlights from experimental filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha’s book Woman, Native, Other – to stay on the topic of feminism. Her writing is abstract, involved and provoking, as are her films, here are some of her thoughts :

“In this unwonted spectacle made of reality and fiction, where redoubled images form and reform, neither I nor you come first. No primary core of irradiation can be caught hold of, no hierarchical first, second, or third exists except as mere illusion. All is empty when one is plural. Yet how difficult is it to keep our mirrors clean…Theory oppresses, when it wills or perpetuates existing power relations, when it presents itself as a means to exert authority – the Voice of Knowledge…And theory as a tool of survival needs to be rethought in relation to gender in discursive practice… He who represents his own discourse on myths as a myth is acutely aware of the illusion of all reference to a subject as absolute center. The packaging of myths must somehow bear the form of that which it attempts to enclose, if it wishes to come closest to its subject. One cannot seize without smothering,for the will to freeze (capture) brings about a frozen (emptied) object.”

I also recently read an interesting interview with Armenian filmmaker Artavazd Peleshian in which he talks about his “distance montage” method which “creates a magnetic field around the film…it allows you to defeat time…when you reach the end, you’re also back at the beginning…And the effect is that the film revolves; it is “revolution” in a new sense…Orbits are created. Sound and image cross each other, intersect each other, switch, change territories. The sound enters the territory of the picture and the image enters the territory of the sound. You start to see the sound, and you hear the picture”.

He closes his the interview with a thought that deeply resonates with me personally when talking about film and ones work:
“I’ve tried to simplify things to get ideas across. But my films are precisely not about language, about verbal communications. The difficulty is that one cannot express with words what one finds in my films. If it were possible to say it with words, the films would be useless. Words cannot express it. One should not talk about films, one should watch them. This is why I have always been against interviews.”

In terms of films to watch, I also checked out a screening of Yugoslavian Experimental Films this past week at Anthology Archives.

Two that stuck out the most are Zelimir Zilnik’s Inventory and Ivica Matic’s Classifieds. They are probably hard to find, but worth noting.

Enjoy.

Toward the end of last year,

My partner in crime Martyna and I filmed, quite a few actions that extended form the Occupy Wall Street movement, namely the student protests and teach-ins.
One of these was organized by Students United For A Free Cuny in which Louis Reyes Rivera, (poet, lecturer, activist, educator, freedom fighter among other things) passed on some of his wisdom from the 1969 Student Take Over of City College to a new generation of young activists.

Rivera has since passed, earlier this month…this film is dedicated to his memory.
Perhaps his words will resonate with you.
Enjoy.

On a filmic note :::
I just watched Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Distant – apparently available in its entirety on youtube though i don’t recommend you watch it this way.
The cinematography is mesmerizing (and youtube degrades it).
In watching, in its meditative pace, the viewer feels sucked in – enters another’s life completely.

But…
What I was really inspired by this week was a film by Srdjan Keca, whom I met at the Berlinale Talent Campus last month. His A Letter To Dad is premiering at Full Frame next month.
Brilliantly and sensitively crafted… transformative.

Catch it, somewhere.

Last year,

My wonderful teammates (Laura Hadden, Alex Mallis and Tennessee Watson) won the International Documentary Challenge at HotDocs in Toronto. The way it works is, you receive a theme and genre on a Thursday morning and have 5 days to find a topic, characters, produce and deliver a 4-7min documentary film. It’s fun for many reasons but also because you never know where you will find yourself over the course of the next few days.

So this year, we went back for more and welcomed the brilliant Jay Sterrenberg to our team and found ourselves on a 70 year old oil tanker…We can’t release the film just yet but the still image is a teaser. I love this challenge!

On the film front, I watched a couple of interesting docs that were in a way similar.
The first gives a larger scale portrait of modern day society spanning over 10 countries and the other concentrates on small town Middlefart in Denmark.

Abendland from Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter, though described as a demonstration of “the empowering, unifying, and alienating nature of technology” to me acts more as a brilliant overview of the European society in 2010s…African immigrants are denied residence, Big brother watches on massive camera arrays in London, annual anti-nuclear activist gathering, Spanish boarder patrol watches for illegal activity, thousands of ravers dance in a techno-liscious stadium…
all very very beautiful filmed.

The other film was The Average of the Average by Dutch filmmaker Michael Madsen (not the actor!). He attempts to define the town through 13 chapters of “average” events, approaching the subject matter as if it was to be exhibited in a museum. And it also happens to be Denmark’s first 3D film.

And to end with here’s what Filmmaker Mag’s Scott Macauley is looking forward to at SXSW.

Enjoy.

On Martin Luther King’s Day, a special treat…

With the elections at hand…and many people dreading the Republican wrath, I was reminded of Angela Davis’ talk at OWS last year (it’s already last year!). Here’s a little something on the Third Party System and OWS.

I’ll also include here a quote I enjoyed from the”Pedagogy Of The Oppressed“:

“The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.”
- Paulo Freire

On the film from, I just recently watched “I Am Cuba/Soy Cuba” a 1964 film by Mikhail Kalatozov… a brilliant resistance film but also visually the most compelling camera work and the increadible tracking shots, check out this funeral scene. It’s a beauty.

A few months ago, Scott Macaulay of Filmmaker Magazine recommended another must see, Gary Tarn‘s “Black Sun“. A brilliantly crafted documentary that’s a little reminiscent of Sans Soleil, not only is it artfully executed, Hugues de Montalembert (the storyteller) takes us into realms we forget to explore.

In November,

I saw a beautiful performance piece put together by some friends :::
A brilliant composer (and my collaborator) Alexander Berne whose music transforms, Karolien Soete a talented artist and the Stefanie Nelson Dance Group.
I was touched…here’s a little extract of it.

On the topic of dance…PINA in 3D! Yes!
Probably the first film I really enjoyed watching in 3D.
Though I found some of the cuts between interviews and performances a bit awkward, the film is beautiful.
Pina‘s quotes are inspiring as is Wenders‘ imaginative direction…and the dancers leave you breathless.
To paraphrase Pina’s words, “sometimes you’re left speechless, when words fail to evoke…then there is dance.”
Indeed, watching it I remembered how to feel.

I also recently saw Bombay Beach by Alma Har’el.
Though beautifully shot, dreamy and poetic, the film left no mark. I was struggling to find any transformative purpose to the film.
It portrays impoverished America, romanticizes it and brings it to a theater near you, to watch and feel better about not being an inhabitant of Bombay Beach. The protagonist (a tough old man) opens the film to offer some “wise” insights into life but also happens to be racist.
Is there something romantic about poverty? I saw some pretty pictures but learnt nothing new.

Read “What’s Wrong With The Liberal Documentary” by Jill Godmilow to get a better sense of what we should strive for in documentary films.

It took a while to post this…

In Amsterdam I met Anita, from Hungary.
We had a long chat in her red room in the Red Light district.
While would have loved to show you how it all went down, she asked me to only use her voice.
My intention to show the two pieces together, i.e. “Gawking Red” as my interpretation and then the interview with Anita as an alternate perspective.
Alas, you’ll never know how pretty she is.
Here’s a taste of the work.

Now, yes it’s an old film and I just recently watched it.
Paris Is Burning is brilliant.
It’s not just visually intoxicating but it also captures a indescribable moment in time, a subculture, a mode of survival, extraordinary creativity.
The whole film is available on youtube, here.
Watch it, it’s masterful.
(and not without controversy)

I also got a chance to check out A Brighter Summer Day by Edward Yang. A stunning four hour film, which flew by and I thoroughly enjoyed. An illuminating injection into Taiwanese culture. The cinematography is captivating, inspirational. NY Times article will tell you more.

Otherwise, Rooftop Films held a few screening of Occupy Wall Street films, two of our films screened this past week.
You can watch some of the other pieces as well on their site.

Enjoy.

On a lighter note,

Every summer steel drum orchestras gather in panyards across Brooklyn to gear up for the annual Steel Band Panorama Competition. The Despers come together every night throughout the summer. The sound is captivating, indeed trance-like. We, my brilliant film partner Sarah and I, left each time elevated. I was in cinematic heaven.

And speaking of cinematic heaven, this past week I checked out a few “ethnographic” oldies.
Film Forum ran a retrospective of Robert Gardner’s films and Margaret Mead Film Festival did the same for Jean Rouch.

I checked out Gardner’s Dead Birds and Forest Of Bliss. Both are cinematically brilliant, absolutely gorgeous. He carefully chooses his compositions, constructs his shots mysteriously, slowly revealing. He pays attention to details such as plants, insects and the silence of the atmosphere. The viewer enters the film, engrossed. He also uses the voice of god type of narration to inform the viewer about the Dani culture and the two main characters. He goes so far to tell us their thoughts, disappointments and exaggerations and I can’t help but wonder how he has come up with them?
It’s staged to a point (so are Flaherty and Rouch’s films) and somewhat problematic in the sense of exotic othering (he doesn’t mention his intent to the Dani people) but I find myself unable to dismiss its value. It’s fascinating. Here’s a tough and interesting critique of the film by Jay Ruby.

Forest of Bliss is equally as beautiful, though here Gardner looses his voiceover and also refrains from subtitles. We watch and interpret for ourselves. The films circles, repeating images and enclosing the viewer in what seems a small radius on the Ganges…death is theme but so is life…and life is struggle in this film.

Jean Rouch’s Jaguar is funny, entertaining and a sort of docu-fiction.
In constructing the story, he stages and directs the actions of his characters. He also uses his friends in the films and as crew members.
After some criticisms of his early films, he here gives the voice back to the people filmed by having them watch themselves and come up with their own narration to the film. They themselves comment on life in Accra, Africa, culture etc. (they make fun of different tribes and their nudity and gestures)..the exchanges are humorous and at times tiring, there is no natural sound of the filmed scenes and so the viewer is not really entering their world.

The people of colonized countries are or perhaps were somewhat subservient toward the colonizers and I wonder to what extent the narration is constructed to “please” Rouch. There is also a part in the film where one of the characters, upon arriving to Accra finds himself in a managerial position and treats his workers unkindly – this part immediately linked me back to a clip of Rouch I had watched prior to Jaguar.

Not an easy task, documenting, representing, respecting the theme, people and the message.
Let’s keep questioning ourselves, reflecting back to ourselves.

And in closing, here are the two men together, The Screening Room chat between Gardner and Rouch

In September,

(ask me for the password)

I was in Amsterdam for a couple of weeks and had some observations
Amsterdam has a bad rep ::: coffee shops, red lights and canals. And, for my first ten days here I experienced none of it…successfully and without trying i avoid the trap/crap…what a beautiful and romantic place…It’s the last day of my trip and i purposely engage in the tourist game of red lights…before i describe my first encounter, i’ll name a few fantastic things about this magical place.

The light ::: the most incredible light that illuminates colors and reflects everything brighter, cleaner and more intensely. At every moment, every light change, I’m amazed… (not because i’m high!)…

The bicycle ::: in an effort to promote being green, even the prime minister bikes to work. It’s the ultimate way to experience the town…

The air ::: you breathe, deeper, louder, happier … there is a crispness…it’s September, the leaves have started a paced descend…the rain is gentle, frequent and short, welcoming and we accept it…a perfect introduction to fall.

I could go on…but… let me make some observations.

The inspiration for this one came from Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil.
Perhaps most obvious here the female voiceover in English (by the brilliant Sarah Enid Hagey)- usually my disguises are foreign in which the melody of the language attempts to suit the images. There is so much to be said about Sans Soleil but one thing I really connected to is something Marker mentioned in an interview which very much reflects what happens during an artistic creation…That is, Marker confirms what most of us find to be true (at least I do) when filming : “I photograph a story I didn’t quite understand. It was in the editing that the pieces of the puzzle came together, and it wasn’t me who designed the puzzle. I’d have a hard time taking credit for it. It just happened, that’s all.”

Reminds me of The Song of Ceylon where Basil Wright just shoots on instinct not knowing why…but somehow magically these unconscious decisions manifest into a message through the work.

San Soleil is political, it’s personal, a stream of consciousness, observational commentary, a diary, an intellectual provocation and a historical document, a reminder to be all at once. The narration of film itself if full on brilliant comments, one among many that I relate to : “I wonder how people remember who don’t film, don’t photograph, don’t tape…(images) have substituted themselves for my memory. They are my memory.”

P.s. Fantastic sounds by Stian Westerhus

“In 1969, a group of black and Puerto Rican students occupied City College demanding the integration of CUNY, which at the time had an overwhelmingly white student body. The occupation spread to other CUNY campuses, forcing the Board of Trustees to implement a ground-breaking new admissions policy.”

Such occupations also occurred in the 1980s and 2000s.
It’s that time again.

As Graduate Film students at Hunter College in New York, we’re very excited to see how the spreading Occupy Wall Street movement is giving new momentum to the militant protest culture of Cuny (City University, NYC).

We filmed the second General Assembly at Hunter College, and the first “Occupy Cuny” teach-in at Washington Square Park on October 21st, 2011. During the last weeks, we learned how quickly small protest gatherings can turn into new social movements. This is a document about the struggle of students and adjunct faculty at Cuny. This local struggle is part of an international student movement against neoliberal dictatorship.
This is only the beginning. The time for action is now.

Find out how to support, participate, take action:
cunygeneralassembly.wordpress.com
studentsunitedforafreecuny.wordpress.com
resistandmultiply.wordpress.com (at Hunter College)
cunyadjunctproject.org
nycga.net (Occupy Wall Street)
occupywallst.org

Being in the midst of events, as they are manifesting is exciting. I was recently reminded of some brilliant films like Harlan County and Primary,
there is something very special in capturing moments that are of historical significance, even more so participating in them.

And the latest inspiration is Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin‘s experiment Chronique d’un été (Chronicle of A Summer). One of first introductions to Cinéma Vérité, it illustrates the problems of film reality, how it’s depicted, portrayed and relayed to the audience. The film poses questions “Are you happy?” and “How do you live?” in an attempt to comment on the state of affairs in 1960 Paris. What I was most impressed by is the concept itself; the idea of approaching a theme/situation/topic from the point of view of social engagement and conversation, a study, a research in real time “authenticity of life as it is lived”. The film’s outcome was not what the parties had anticipated but rather it was a revelation of the many layers of representation…the subjects assuming a role on the camera, their awareness of assuming the role, the creation of a “socio-drama to permit each person to play out his life role before the camera.”

(read : “Chronicle of a Film,” by Edgar Morin in Ciné-Ethnography: Jean Rouch ed. by Steven Feld)

It’s been over a month now since the Occupation of Wall Street.
And the movement is spreading like wild fire.
We’re working on our third film which should be up in a few days.
In the meantime, here’s a tiny clip from October 15th rally to Times Square.

In the film world, be sure to check out Kieslowski’s The Decalogue,
10 short films based on the principals of the 10 commandments…an incredible cinematic treat.
Brilliant compositions, color palette and light (or lack there of)…awe inspiring, i was moved.

And for finally, I leave you with an even more inspiring clip from the Chilean student uprising,
as a prelude to our next film.