I V A A S K S

Documenting The Masses

Jan 27

WATCH ::: https://vimeo.com/58313887

While working on my new film, a long form documentary that addresses displacement, tolerance, refugees and people migration and mainly takes place in Cyprus…I took a little trip to Israel and Palestine. Most asylum seekers in Cyprus are Palestinian, some have never even been to Palestine.I was curious to find out more about the land… conscious of the privilege I have to explore my curiosity, while they will never be allowed to come near their homeland.
During my brief visit to Palestine, I met Avram, also known as John…He chatted for a few hours. Here are his thoughts.

Over the winter holidays, I also took a short detour to Morocco…an intense and beautiful country also polluted by the remnants of colonialism. More visuals and thoughts from there in the next post.

On a filmic note, Sundance just wrapped and published a list of winning films, perhaps some to look out for.
In the meantime, I finally saw Women On A Verge Of a Nervous Breakdown, Pedro Almodovar’s brilliant imagination at its best. Besides the super intelligent narrative dramaturgy, there are various levels of cinematic gems, from colors, compositions, camera movement to symbolic use of objects and devices. Delight!
And one more delightful gem is Tsai Ming-liang’s short film Walker that won at Cannes last year, you can watch it in its entirety online. Patience is the word. We’re working to break and challenge the 30 second attention span.
If you’re looking for more stimulation, IDFA has a list of short films available for online watching, all of which took part at the festival.

Enjoy.

Over Christmas ::: http://vimeo.com/39613317

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.

On a lighter note,

WATCH ::: http://vimeo.com/32553320

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

Nov 21

On a lighter note,
WATCH ::: http://vimeo.com/32553320
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, I was in Amsterdam for a couple of weeks and had some observations.

WATCH ::: http://vimeo.com/32831374

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

Nov 14

In September, I was in Amsterdam for a couple of weeks and had some observations.
WATCH ::: http://vimeo.com/32831374
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

I V A A S K S

Posted on Sunday January 27^th 2013 at 06:47pm.

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WATCH ::: https://vimeo.com/58313887

While working on my new film, a long form documentary that addresses displacement, tolerance, refugees and people migration and mainly takes place in Cyprus…I took a little trip to Israel and Palestine. Most asylum seekers in Cyprus are Palestinian, some have never even been to Palestine.
I was curious to find out more about the land… conscious of the privilege I have to explore my curiosity,
while they will never be allowed to come near their homeland.

During my brief visit to Palestine, I met Avram, also known as John…He chatted for a few hours. Here are his thoughts.

Over the winter holidays, I also took a short detour to Morocco…an intense and beautiful country also polluted by the remnants of colonialism. More visuals and thoughts from there in the next post.

On a filmic note, Sundance just wrapped and published a list of winning films, perhaps some to look out for.

In the meantime, I finally saw Women On A Verge Of a Nervous Breakdown, Pedro Almodovar’s brilliant imagination at its best. Besides the super intelligent narrative dramaturgy, there are various levels of cinematic gems, from colors, compositions, camera movement to symbolic use of objects and devices. Delight!

And one more delightful gem is Tsai Ming-liang’s short film Walker that won at Cannes last year, you can watch it in its entirety online. Patience is the word. We’re working to break and challenge the 30 second attention span.

If you’re looking for more stimulation, IDFA has a list of short films available for online watching, all of which took part at the festival.

Enjoy.

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Posted on Monday November 19^th 2012 at 05:30pm. Its tags are listed below.

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WATCH IT HERE : https://vimeo.com/53804072

In April I took a little trip down the Mexico. I purposely left the camera at home and brought only a sound recorder and the sick addictive device that is the iphone. The idea was to not spend the entire trip behind the camera lens but to discover what could be created as an alternative…So, I resorted to my other (neglected) loves, illustration, photography and animation. It”s what a day in a small Mexican town felt like.

Last night Union Docs hosted a beautiful screening of shorts by the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, it included my short Gawking Red.

I’ve been deeply impressed by two films recently, one fiction and documentary.

Leo Carax’s Holy Motors is a must see, a very Brechtian approach to filmmaking. The viewer is never relaxed into a passive indulgence, but is continuously interrupted by new possibilities. The film is densely layered; it addressed our voyeuristic society, our need for sensationalism, how and why we are entertained. It very much comments on acting, roles and audience.

At the same time watching it, the viewer is trying to decipher between multiple realities, that on film and their own. What is real and for who?

What is beautiful and who decides it is so? It also brings to mind the idea of hybrid identities and as Audre Lorde would say, the possibility of being and assuming multiple identities at the same time.

At the other end…

In his 10 advice tips for aspiring filmmakers, the brilliant Russian documentary filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky says “Don’t film if you want to say something – just say it or write it. Film only if you want to show something, or you want people to see something. This concerns both the film as a whole and every single shot within the film.” Michael Glawogger’s Workingman’s Death is a perfect example. The film covers volumes with its succinct simplicity. Just brilliant.

Enjoy.

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Posted on Monday August 20^th 2012 at 07:54pm. Its tags are listed below.

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WATCH HERE ::: http://vimeo.com/50014012

This August,

I ventured off to Pozega, a beautiful small town in Serbia where summer nights are cold and people are warm. While there for a 10 day film workshop InterDOC, we stayed at Hotel Pozega. Each meal was heavy but brilliantly flavored by Milena’s colorful presence. We caught her just before she took off on her Greek vacation. My partners in crime here and new fantastic friends Isabella Rinaldi and Ana Lucia Ordonez lend their skillful hands. Otherwise the workshop with Zelimir Zilnik and Dragan Elcic were brilliantly insightful.

Otherwise, most of my time was spent in Cyprus and working on my feature-length documentary, working title : Five Star Country. The blog updates are not as frequent because of it but will be done monthly while I orchestrate this beast of a project. In the meantime, some inspiring films…oldies, yes…

Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror is a beautiful abstraction of past and present, reflecting on time, memory, spaces between reality.

It’s also cinematic ecstasy.

On the same principle, of time, space, memory, life and death is Gaspar Noe’s Enter The Void.

This one kind of disturbs you from the inside. But ultimately, the creativity inspires and you remember why you love making films.

More for September coming soon.

Enjoy.

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Posted on Monday July 16^th 2012 at 07:52pm. Its tags are listed below.

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Across the seas ::: http://vimeo.com/45797403

I’m dwelling in Mediterranean waters over the summer and working on my first full length documentary
that addresses the lives of political refugees and asylum seekers on the island of Cyprus. Specifically, it addresses tolerance, migration trends, nation-states/nation-building, changing global dynamics and collapse of Eurocentrism through the lens of current migration trends in Cyprus. It has been an interesting journey and a surreal one.

In between incomprehensible refugee stories of exile and plight I return to my life and consider my own reality.
It’s a difficult adjustment. But more than anything else, it reminds me to appreciate it all.
Here on a full moon night, we enjoy Xartini’s song…and appreciate the night.

On a filmic note :::
Here’s a brilliant film by Aris Chatzistefanou and Katerina Kitidi that analyzes the crisis in Greece and elsewhere, political agendas and effects of privatization - it features Naomi Klein, Zizek and others. It’s brilliantly executed and free online ::: CATASTROIKA.

And another brilliant project from Greece, a web doc series that dig into all cultural, socio-economic aspects of the country :::
THE PRISM.

Enjoy.

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Posted on Monday June 18^th 2012 at 07:48pm. Its tags are listed below.

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June’s Steel Drum Orchestras ::: http://vimeo.com/45010190

This is very quick and dirty.
Last summer my partner in crime Sarah Hagey and I made a short film on Despers USA,
a full steel drum orchestra from Trinidad. Throughout the summer, various bands gather
throughout brooklyn to practice and prepare for the annual competition in September.
Last year’s winners were Adlib, this is a small excerpt of their performance that Sarah and I
had a pleasure of checking out. The Despers put on a night that featured the best of the best
and asked us to film the event. We haven’t yet had a chance to edit the entire thing.
But here’s a little taste, I was elevated by Adlib and perhaps you will be too.

Our short film, Despers USA is screening at Rooftop films on June 29th, and the
Despers are performing!

Be sure to check it out - they transport you into a trance!

Otherwise, I’m currently in Cyprus working on my first feature films and so the posts are less
frequent but are nevertheless coming…I will be posting some interesting stuff over the summer.

In the meantime,
One of my new all time favorite films 5 Broken Cameras.
Absolutely ingenius, done jointly by a Palestinian and an Israeli director.
It’s conveys the problems as you have never seen it before, cleverly and emotionally structured.
Brilliant editing too.

Find it!

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Posted on Monday May 14^th 2012 at 07:45pm. Its tags are listed below.

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It’s been a super busy year so far. Since last year I’ve been working with Benjamin Moylen on a short film that addresses schizophrenia. It’s not finally complete, in its 13 minutes of length. Here is a very small excerpt from a the film. Ben is a character portrait of a person living with schizophrenia. The film addresses behaviors and challenges associated with the condition and illustrates how it is channelled into an artistic process.

I was lucky to have lots of advice and assistance on the film namely from the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, my comrades from Hunter’s IMA MFA Program and the brilliant Laura Poitras.

You might enjoy the teaser ::: http://vimeo.com/45010218

On a filmic note :::
Yes, I’m late with this one…but…Michael Haneke’s Cache is a must see, (he also just won Palme d’Or at Cannes for his new film Amour)
Brilliantly constructed, it investigates social infrastructures as a direct result of of French colonial practices and
how these translate into the modernity as social tensions, immigration intolerance, phobia of the outsider and pseudo liberalism…
all this through a window of a guilty conscious of the protagonist.

Here’s an interesting interview with the director.
An insightful quote from it :::
”In all of my films, I try to fuel mistrust in our faith in reality. We know nothing about the world, except the things we have experienced directly. And we can examine these things. But everything else we experience through the media. And this functions like Chinese whispers, a piece of information is related from one person to the next. You only have to look at what Bush does with that. I see it as my aesthetic duty to reflect this. It’s no coincidence that post-War literature signalled the end of classical narrative literature. It came from the experience of fascism, and the same applies to film.”

Enjoy.

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Posted on Thursday April 26^th 2012 at 07:41pm. Its tags are listed below.

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Over Christmas ::: http://vimeo.com/39613317

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.

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Posted on Monday March 26^th 2012 at 07:39pm. Its tags are listed below.

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Toward the end of last year ::: http://vimeo.com/39156555

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.

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Posted on Monday March 5^th 2012 at 05:09pm. Its tags are listed below.

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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.

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Posted on Monday February 27^th 2012 at 12:00am. Its tags are listed below.

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Just got back…from travels around Europe…specifically the Berlinale Talent Campus.

A really unique experience that I highly recommend…a week of film film film, workshops, meeting and mingling with incredibly talented people from every place imaginable. Inspiring, energizing, educational and super fun. While there I was contacted by Christoph from RADIUS Magazine, a new online publication to produce a short film for them. It features a wonderful Persian dancer Modjgan Hashemian from Berlin. The encounter added a special sweetness to my whole experience…you might enjoy it.

Otherwise, I was a bit disenchanted with the films at the Berlin film festival, in general from the films I saw the quality was poor…however, I did catch a gem, Death For Sale by Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaidiwho is also a character in the film. An intense complex plot with brilliant cinematography, engaging acting and beautiful tunes.

One of the most intriguing workshops was a discussion with Nuri Bilge Ceylan in who (i’m paraphrasing) makes films so as to solve his life situation, to understand something through film, by making a film that relates to something that’s important to him at that moment.

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Posted on Monday January 16^th 2012 at 07:36pm. Its tags are listed below.

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On Martin Luther King’s Day, a special treat… http://vimeo.com/35467813

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.

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Posted on Monday December 26^th 2011 at 07:32pm. Its tags are listed below.

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November was a dance month,

WATCH ::: http://vimeo.com/34694148

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.

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I V A A S K S

Posted on Monday December 19^th 2011 at 07:29pm. Its tags are listed below.

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It took a while to post this… http://vimeo.com/34008180

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.

I V A A S K S

Posted on Monday November 21^st 2011 at 07:26pm. Its tags are listed below.

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On a lighter note,

WATCH ::: http://vimeo.com/32553320

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

I V A A S K S

Posted on Monday November 14^th 2011 at 07:21pm. Its tags are listed below.

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In September, I was in Amsterdam for a couple of weeks and had some observations.

WATCH ::: http://vimeo.com/32831374

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.

P.s. Fantastic sounds by Stian Westerhus

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