Laura Marks: Recent videos from Beirut

Visiting scholar Laura Marks offered a look into a world of film that goes almost unnoticed to the general public. Islamic art is something i never even considered to appreciate until the recent presentation given by Marks. The collection of videos she screened was enough to see that Islamic and Arab filmmakers have something important to say and a fascinating way of saying it. She stated that the people in Lebanon use experimental film because "their reality is hard to wrap your head around." It is experimental in terms of how to tell the truth or how to represent reality.
Usama Alshaibi's video was a trance like film animation that made great use of sound/image continuity. His video lets us know that geometry has content in the the Arab world. While the image may hold some sort of religous connotation it doesn't seem to be concrete. Akram Zaatari's video In This House was "a story about archiving." The movie is largely a political piece which carries a very anti-climatic ending with it. The story does a good job of painting a portrait of what war-time life was like and providing an interesting insight to the mindest of resistence fighters on the border. Democratic socialist resistence fighters consciously thought to write an apology for the destruction of an olive tree while they occupied a christian home. That kind of subject matter is never the content of a film concerning war and it made this piece unique.

D'Est (1993)

Chantal Akerman's film D'est, or From the East, is an intimate look into the lives of a different culture. The steady shots presented of Eastern Europe and Russia had a way of bending my perception of time. Watching this film gave me the impression of a document in the 70's or 80's when in reality it was filmed in 1993. This realization made me question my association of personally experienced cultural trends with distinct periods in time. There are two scenes in this movie that really stood out to me. First was a silhouetted crwod walking down a street subtly lit in a soft, glowing, yellow light. As they all walked steadily and quietly down the street it appeared as a scene out of a Dawn of the Dead. As the scene progressed music and talking became more audible seemingly making a commentary on the relationship held between foreign cultures. The second shot was a rolling dolly-like shot through a packed terminal. The camera carefully passed by the benches of a frequently responsive and tiresome crowd. Sometimes motions would be directed at the camera but the most effective, and most frequent, type of interaction came from a blank, senseless stare. Unfortunately for me those two scenes were not enough to make up a 110 minute film. The first half was able to retain my attention throughout but it became to feel repetative. Akerman's composition of the frame was visually impressive and her camera movement was insightful but the lack of contrasting motion made it bittersweet.
Thinking of this film as a documentary is an impressive thought to me. It uses almost no narrative content but is still able to convey a large amount if information about a certain part of the world. D'est offers a portrait of a foreign world that is in some ways, looking back at the viewer and for this it is a very interesting and worthwhile film staying true to its description of a "documentary on the border of fiction."

The East, no longer monolithically impersonal, is shown as both familiar and completely strange. This is a haunting and, quite literally, extraordinary film."—Francette Pacteau, San Francisco Film Festival

For Chantal Akerman's filmography check imdb.

Gently Down the Stream (1981)

Filmmaker Su Friedrich creates a very innovative and visually appealing dream journal constituted by text and emotion with this short film. She correlates text with accompanying images of water, saints, and women which share an indirect but powerful connection. Gently Down the Stream is able to form a personal attachment with the viewer because the text allows the viewer to hear the words as they would say them rather than the foreign voice of a narrator. This film's use of rythym and flow of the text creates the allusion of sound in the subconcious of the spectator; it becomes apparent that Friedrich's piece stood as a precursor and influence to Michael Snow's film So Is This.

Body Works

Running from January 17th through April 29th Gunther von Hagens controversial art exhibit Body Worlds 2 will be presented at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL. The exhibit uses a technique invented by von Hagens called plastination. The process preserves anatomical structures by replacing water and fat with a special plastic, resulting in bodies which can be touched, do not decay or rot, and retain almost all accuracy even down to the most microscopic detail. I felt as if this was an important event to share with anyone interested because it is an incredibly stunning and unique exhbit which has been the subject of much criticism and equal praise.

- Body Worlds Video

Personal Video

With the invention and ultimate progression of personal and home video the world gets to see an abundance of personal documentation that never would have been seen without things like youtube and google video. Traces of this though have been prevelant since the beginning of film. The same basic principle was the basis for cinema of atttaction, only with internet access and ease of video use the media is able to reach all modern civilization. The use of non-professional actors and actresses is also something that is rare in entertainment but vital for the survival of home video. Once again video takes something from classical film as the Italian Neo-realist movement, with directors like Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini, utilized non-professional actors to further the realism in their films.
Though these types of media have a close semblence to real life it still constitutes a performance, an act, a presenation of our reality. Nothing can be true reality unless the presence of a camera or spectator is unknown to all the individuals involved in the footage.

Data Diaries

Cory Archangel's Data Diaries is essentially the documentation of computer activity over the course of each day. The work takes a different approach to art than most uses of modern video and film. Data Diaries does not comment on global, emotional, social, or political issues; it is the deconstruction of narrative art, the "anti-narrative." The humanistic quality attributed with modern technology, whether intentional or not, is the most engaging aspect of this work. Archangel demonstrates a concept of daily routine, activity, documentation, and a confine of time which is usually non existent outside a human way of life. Though it is useless, as well as annoying, to sit through the entire daily cycle of a computer in video form I enjoy the way it is presented; not as art open for individual interpretation or bound by symbolism and meaning, but rather a purely superficial entity that ambiguosly connects with a social function based on the intention of it being contradictory.

* For some interesting thoughts regarding the piece click here.

The Shape of Sound

Sound can shape the way film is viewed. films with no sound will force the viewer to concentrate more on the image being projected on-screen. When sound is added the effect is varied; it could increase the emotional intesity of the film, represent certain ideals, or it could distract from the piece. Experimental and innovative sound is something that could be used on a wider basis in filmmaking. When an unknown image is presented with a familiar sound the mystery and feeling of something new is lost, but when a radical sound track is presented with the film it can alter your perception greatly. Not only that but, if for nothing else, it is a different form of entertainment.

-In film 116 we had explored this idea with trek 03. Above is an example from my previous blog.(click on the picture to view)

Ways of Seeing Presented in Popular Media

Through popular and comedic practices Conan O'Brien displays alternate ways of seeing, dealing with perspective, prior knowledge, assumptions, and even hints of surrealism.

O'Brien's sketch entitled "What in the World?" is a prime example of what Stan Brakhage is discussing in "The Camera Eye." Brakhage discusses the possibilities of altered impressionism and perception finishing with, "One may become a supreme trickster..." and though he is clearly not speaking with thought of Late Night with Conan O'Brien in mind his concepts and ideals are still apparent.

What in the World? - Conan is shown an extremely magnified portion of a picture. He throws out a wild guess as to what he is looking at, at which point the picture zooms out. Then Conan tries again, although it's not yet evident what the picture is of. It zooms out again, and the picture is now recognizable and seemingly mundane, for instance a celebrity or other normal situation. The final time it zooms out, something unexpected or outrageous that had previously been out of frame is revealed. The opening audio cue for this bit is an annoying sounding man saying, "What in the world?" which Conan often asks not to have repeated.

- Descriptions of skits which titles appear in bold are taken from wikipedia.

If They Mated- Pictures of two famous celebrities, usually believed to be dating at the time, are shown. The pictures are then combined into a grotesque new picture of what their offspring would look like if they mated. The segment became so successful that it later spawned a book. The last item in the sketch is usually the mating of a person and an object or two objects: the resulting offspring usually ends up being an unaltered photograph of a celebrity. For example, if Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were to have a child, it would be Steve Bartman.

- If they mated is a hysterical insight into how we view other individuals and physical attributes. It proves to be an adequate social commentary on the public's infatuation with celebrities and superficial mindset, pointing out that not even the most beautiful of people are perfect. This is deffinately not the case in every instance but it says more than almost all popular comedy of the time.

Selective viewing is something O'Brien and the writers for late night incorporate to put a different spin on a video or put it in a different context. It is apparent with the use of his Walker Texas Ranger lever.

The Walker, Texas Ranger Lever- This sketch sprung from NBC's purchase of entertainment company Universal in early 2004, creating NBC Universal. Conan introduced the Walker, Texas Ranger lever, which allowed him to play a video clip from the television show Walker, Texas Ranger at any time he wanted to, without paying a dime in royalties. The clips from the Chuck Norris series were sometimes taken out of context, other times not. A clip example could be something such as Norris karate-kicking through the windshield of a moving car, and Conan would comment on each clip's absurdity after it aired. In late summer 2004, the bit seemed to have been retired as Chuck Norris walked in and fired a prop gun at Conan. Norris also revealed his own lever and pulled it, playing a clip showing him "beating" Conan up with martial arts in the back of the studio. On March 8, 2005, the lever returned to the show. Notably, the premise of the bit was technically incorrect, since Walker was owned by CBS, Sony Pictures Television, and a few other companies; Walker just ran on NBC Universal-owned USA Network at the time. One of the last and most popular clips to be shown was one where a young Haley Joel Osment uttered the sentence, "Walker told me I have AIDS." The airing of these clips subsequently led to Chuck Norris becoming the focus of an ever-growing trend in which people invent satirical random "Chuck Norris Facts." The "facts" tend to involve absurdly exaggerated claims of Norris' toughness, attitude, virility, and masculinity.

To view a musical produced by the ASU theatre department based on a scenario in which Conan "loses his funny," click HERE.

Personal Declarations in Video: Week 3, February 5-11

As I examine the video blogs on cogblog they remind me of Vito Acconci's video address in Theme Song. His demonstration is a youtubes-esque production almost 30 years ahead of its time. Direct address of the video monitor, one on one, is like a safety net for Acconci and other video bloggers. While they present themselves on a screen they are still ommitted from the presence of those viewing, leaving total control of the situation into the hands of the video maker. Acconci says of this, "my image breaks the face-to-face contact: the viewer faces a screen of me, an image under glass, me in a fishbowl. Rather than being in a situation with me, the viewer is in front of a situation of me." In this particular piece Acconci is able to confine the spectator by confining himself in the video. THe video entitled "sad-eyed anime girl" on cogblog reminds me of Theme Song because i assume the creator is acting, he/she is not theirself, they are a variations of themselves. This and the whole concept behind video is what allows them to be displayed; because no interaction is concrete and what they do is an act of some sort they have a safety net.
These personal declarations in video become ironic. They are often thought of as a way of connecting to people you would never meet otherwise but what you see is never real, it is a production, planned in some way; it is not natural. Connecting in this way can also lead to alienation and a lack of social skills. I notice that the older the person, in most cases, the more open with strangers they are. Myabe this is just because they have become more comfortable with themselves and others but it may also be influenced by the fact that they were forced to connect with people on a much more personal level throughout life- no email, no internet, no video blogs, etc...

Argument, a film by Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall is a test on radical media intervention and a viewers way of seeing/understanding. Sustained images, alternating text, and voice-over techniques that contradict the screen's written word make this film an excercise in viewing. Using men's fashion to create a question of ideologies and film practice proves to be an interesting concept. Repetition is used, assumingly to force feed the film's message to the viewer, but this could also be a statement on conformity and lack of innovation or progression in society and popular filmmaking. As three male voices inspect and reveal the latency and bias of an issue of the New York Times we as viewers are actually foreced to think about the "argument" and attempt to comprehend all opposoitional media forms being presented to us concurrently. Argument is a subversion of popular filmmaking, politics, and viewing that is able to retain effectiveness and a unique quality almost 30 years after the original release.


- Medium is the message
- Andrew Tyndall still questioning ideologies in media and news broadcasting today.
- Jonas Mekas has a more real, progressive form of video blogging.
= February 6th
= February 11th
- Acconci Videos/ Biography