Notes on a Circus & Hamilton

Matthew Porterfield's film Hamilton is a tense and quietly forceful emotional portrait of realistic realationships. One thing i was unsure of when watching this film was whether or not they spoke so infrequently because they knew eachothers thoughts and emotions so well or because they were alienated by their life, environment, and relationships. However the silence of this film is what makes it so powerful. Emotions and thoughts are expressed vividly through the gestures and eyes of these non-professional actors. The emotion emitted from these performances seems to be that of a sad dissapointment. Lena, Joe, Kelly, Candace, April, and almost all of the other characters of the film seem overly solemn and dissatisfied with their life situations. Chris Myer's portrayal of Joe is a complete and positively contradictory portrait. It is a man who often assimilates the role and tendancies of a child. He rides a bike and doesn't drive, mows lawns for a living, and communicates best with the children in the film. Other childish attributes are given to him as he plays video games at 3:14 a.m. and gets a motley-crew bouquet out of a home garden. All of this is contradicted with the fact that he is over 20 years old and a father creating a constant battle of his character with itself. Though he might be slighted biased in his opinion of Hamilton Eric Allen Hatch of the Baltimore City Paper wrote what I thought to be an accurate description of Porterfield's work on this film-

"The crucial thing to know about director Matthew Porterfield's feature debut, Hamilton, is that it's fantastic. Porterfield's film aligns itself not only with Bresson, but also with works like Gus Van Sant's art-house comeback trio of Gerry, Elephant, and Last Days; Tsai Ming-Liang's visually lush What Time Is It There?; Claire Denis' gorgeous fever dream Trouble Every Day; and Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny. Hamilton meets world-class art-film aspirations often set but rarely met by indie filmmakers."

The ending of Hamilton is still somewhat of a question to me. I feel as if either I had missed something in the last sequence or that the entire ending and emotional investment of the main characters of this film was left open to interpretation. As the truck drives off with Lena in the back and we cut to Joe on his bike with flowers in hand I wonder if it is insinuating a realization that came too late, as if Joe had only realized he cared about Lena that morning and as he raced to give her the flowers he came up short. On the other hand he could catch up to the truck before it is out of town.

Jonas Mekas' 1966 film Notes on the Circus was a very interesting piece. The superimposed images and altering of fast and slow motion worked perfectly in achieving a "derangment of the senses." Selected by Matthew Porterfield to be screened prior to Hamilton this film makes perfect sense when thinking in terms of a derangment of the senses, personal history, and Bresson. Porterfield's film is emulative of Bresson in the way that he uses an "actor-model" technique to strip away all aspect of performance. The characters in the film carry an overt sense of realism that is divide from a sort of theatrical performance. This also proves to be the most engaging and unique aspect of Hamilton.

Jennifer Montgomery

After viewing 3 selections of Jennifer Montgomery's work I came away a bit upset and confused. While most of her work is at least somewhat inspiring and unique I fealt as if she resorted to a very untasteful from of audience shock for absolutely no reason; it was if she has an allusion that a form of pornographic urination was a proper art. As a viewer I lost most of the respect I had garnered for her at that point. I kept asking what makes this a highly acclaimed artist and piece of art when thousands of videos with similar content could be found on internet porn sites. Shock factor may work for Marilyn Manson because that is what his whole career is based off of but when attempted by Montgomery it fails, at least in my personal opinion. I can see how these images would invoke strong emotion but it doesn't seem necessary for such an accomplished artist. To contradict my position Karl Soehnlein of the Village Voice is quoted of stating that Montgomery's work, "Defines a lesbian identity thats playful, aggressive and unshamedly erotic." Though my appreciation for Montgomery and her work was somewhat lost with a couple of her choices the videos and films screened still conveyed an impressive insight inot themes of alienation, community, and transgressive/pack behavior. Having seen most of her film Art for Teachers of Children(1995) I am aware that she is capable of poignant and stunning work. That film is an example of great cinematic emotion and camerawork. The evocative realtionship of a 14 year-old student and a married photographer is explored in a film which holds its content very close to Jennifer's own life. The film is a great depiction of realsim through independent cinema and something that provokes more thought than any image designated for shock value could ever hope to achieve.

Explorations in Politics and Character: Moffet/Genet, Stark/Fonda, Goss

Frederic Moffet's piece "Jean Genet in Chiacago" was an inspiring insight into the life of Jean Genet and the unstable socio-political state of Chicago in 1968. Having never heard of Genet I was overwhlemed with how much sense some of what he said and did made. Though his lifestyle(prostitute, vagabond, thief, prisoner) was not completely enticing what he, and the other protestors in Lincoln Park stood for was something sublime to me.
Some Genet Quotes:

• "The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man... not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology."

• "To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance."

• "Worse than not realizing the dreams of your youth, would be to have been young and never dreamed at all."
• "Power may be at the end of a gun, but sometimes it's also at the end of the shadow or the image of a gun."

Moffet's use of several formats such as text, super 8, found footage, viewmaster, etc.. added an enticing element to the video. He was able to keep things fresh and interesting by constantly presenting information in different ways. This video, at least in my opinion, is capable of providing a genuine insight and has the potential to inspire its viewers.
Like Moffet Stark was able to introduce me to the inspiring side of an individual I had previously known almost nothing about. The irony that is Jane Fonda's life presented by Scott Stark in his video "More than Meets the Eye: Remaking Jane Fonda" is something so intersting I was able to watch thirty minutes of a 40-year old man doing aerobics just to read scrolling text of Fonda quotations. Vertically scrolling text were comments Fonda made during the Vietnam War and the horizontally scrolling text was taken from a recent autobiography. The latter of which was probably less inspiring and revolutionist but perhaps more comical and entertaining.
Some Fonda Quotes:

• "I don't know if a country where the people are so ignorant of reality and of history, if you can call that a free world."
• "To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power."
• "We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation."
• "I don't want my wrinkles taken away - I don't want to look like everyone else."
• "If you're ever in a situation where you're not getting served or you can't get what you need, just cry."

Some of her quotes seem to be genuine and humanistic while others seem to be conceeded, selfish, and materialistic. Her protest of war seems to be full of somewhat controversial but ultiamtely thoughtful and intelligent commentary. As she breaks into the 1980's with her outrageously successful workout videos she transcends into the vacuous consumeristic lifestyle of a locust like Capitalist America; somewhat the opposite of the ideology she seemed to stand for in the 1960's and 70's.
Jaqueline Goss' video selection shown "Stranger Comes to Town" was a clever idea that didn't seem to work to me. Using World of Warcraft and avatars to demonstrate the dangers and indeceny of an all seeing, all controlling view Goss gets a personal point across. Other than her weaving of different mediums and use of commentary I found this video to be boring, repetative, and not all that informative. Avatars seemed like an innovative idea but it became an annoyance after awhile, but after you realize Trey Parker and Matt Stone had already done that months before Goss it loses most of its allure.

To watch the South Park Episode Click here- go to season 10 and click on the episode titled "Make Love, Not Warcraft."
View a portion of Jean Genet's film Un Chant d'amour on youtube.
All quotes taken from Brainyquote.com