Web Excursions

Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky) creates something that is of topical and politicla importance in internet media, something that is rare in todays youtube generation. All to often this form of media presentation and interaction is used frivilously to stream millions of videos, that while they may be entertaining, do not constitute constructive commentary on our society. Spooky's video 911: State of Emergence is a montage of images pervading in political and societal themes that comments on timely and touchy subject matter. Miller illustrates the conflict and destruction religion and the American lifestyle/mindset have on our society and the world as a whole. Images of 9/11 are used effectively to provoke thought and emotion, forcing the viewer to think about the effects of a world that is driven by conflict and opposition: liberal vs. conservative, smokers vs. non-smokers, one religion vs. another, etc. This is a great progression however from the popular original streaming web videos like the always annoying Hamster Dance.

Goshogaoka

Sharon Lockhart creates a very minimalistic approach to arthouse cinema and film in general. Throughout the entire 63 minute duration of her film Goshogaoka the camera remains stationary, in a constant single frame position. While valid arguments can be presented as to why this is useful artwork and a presentation of something completley unique, to me this film was very hard to sit through. As Steven Holden of the New York Times writes, "Goshogaoka is rife with metaphoric implications about the individual and the group. The girls look almost interchangeable and appear devoid of personality or even sexuality. Even when they separate into twos, they are little more than smoothly functioning cogs in a sports training machine. ''Goshogaoka'' celebrates a rigid conformism that feels at once comfortable and deadeningly dreary. Nothing bad can happen if you stay safely within the formation." Labeling the film as a message of ambiguity and metaphoric dance like sequences is about as concrete as you can get with Lockhart's film. It is a presentation with no solidified meaning but to me one thing is certain...it is not a film about basketball. But how could it be without any presence of a hoop or standard practice routines.

I believe Holden sums it up appropriately when he says, "(Goshogaoka) is a detached, methodical deconstruction of the body language of basketball that invites you to supply whatever interpretation you want. If you're not inclined to read multiple meanings into its choreographed groupings, it also invites you to doze off."

Lockhart's introduction to the class and her work was the most interesting part of her presentation. It is apparent she has a lot of interesting creative ideas and a unique approach to art. Hearing of her influences and path into her chosen career was something that sparked my interest in her work and what she was saying. Unfortunately this also offered a false impression to me of the type of film she would be presenting. Citing Linda Blair and John Cassavetes as strong influences lead be to believe she would be working in the same context as they had. Cassavetes almost single handidly invented American independent cinema in the late 1950's with his film Shadows, a great narrative film which confronts sexuality and racism in a time period which was not so accepting of the subject matter. He also brought a distinctinve flare for realistic character interactions and dialogue, stemming from his origins as an actor. This made me think that Lockhart's work would be more of a functional, realist form of filmmaking.

Her work is almost depressing to me personally. Not only is it a very long sequence of only a few altered shots there is no attention grabbing aspects to be found anywhere in the film. I feel like this film and her approach to cinema is unproductive and celebrated for self-aggrandizing reasons of a pretentious art community. It seems like it would do better as an installation piece where people could just walk up, observe it for a few mintues, and maybe return later to see any progression in the film because watching it for an hour can become irritating. Goshogaoka does present a non-narrative film which offers surprise, expectation, and creation while functioning as a notion on the environment of community and communal achievement but it still becomes despondent and much too calibrated.

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

The Renaissance of the Viewmaster

Vladimir constructs a very nostalgic and unique media experience through her revival of the viewmaster which she calls "Vladmaster." Each story is comprised of four discs and an original soundtrack. The images she makes are all well compsed and manage to hold my attention for an extended period of time. The 3-D effect also adds another interesting characteristic to the experience, allowing the images to interact with the viewer on a more realistic and personal level. One of the most impressive aspects of this entire presentation, besides the fact that she constructs all of the materials by hand, was the soundtrack for all of the Vladmasters. The voices of the narrators provide a very dramatic and interesting climate for the audience and the music is always well composed. The only real downside of the experience was having to hold a crudely shaped plastic bax against your face and up to the light the entire time, but even relief of that held th eimpressive sight of a massive audience all totally entranced in hundreds of viewmasters. Her first Vladmaster was titled "Lucifugia Thigmotaxis" or, coackroach. It was a fictional story of the secret life of a cockroach named Stanley as he ventured out from behind the refrigerator. While the images managed to be a little gross they were all eye-popping, and along with the narration, allowed the audience to attach a feeling of sentiment and sympathy to Stanley the cockroch; an insect normally thought of as repulsive to most human beings. Vladimir also incorporated some interesting informtion with Lucifugia Thigmotaxis giving insight into the anatomy and nature of the cockroach. Apparently they are unable to see the color yellow? That is kind of a weird thing to think about...
Next we saw "The Public Life of Jeremiah Barnes." This story was an incredibly enthralling story about an outsider who steals heavy machinery from across the country and keeps them as some sort of showpieces in the middle of the woods. When Vladimir was answering questions of the audience I was kind of upset to hear her say she had made the story up, as if she would have let us go on thinking it was truth before the question was asked. But in actuality it seems to be more impressive that she was able to create such a stroy by herself. The images of this Vladmaster were composed with hand carved wooden characters and small plastic toys. She said she chose to do it that way because she is somewhat of a control freak or perfectionist so this would allow her to manipulate and move all of the objects with ease. Hearing the idea of just photgraphing toys does not sound all that impressive but the way she frames the shots and uses the 3-D animation, though admittedly mostly by accident, turns a photograph of a small toyland into something much more real and compelling.
"Fear & Trembling" was the next installment. This was easily my least favorite of the four. It was a somewhat ambiguous portrayal of posed human limbs combined with seafood and a dining room. Watching this gave me the feeling that Vladimir might have been a veagan; portraying some person with a god-complex needlessly butchering sea creatures and butchering them with a fork. Mainly I did not liek this video because I just didn't understand it or the realu purpose it served. The soundtrack was very experimental and abrasive which I enjoyed a lot, however its juxtaposition with the images did not work for me.
Last was "Actaeon at Home." This was one of the best of the presentation utitizing more of a standard narration and more audience interactivity. Actaeon at Home reminds me a lot of the Twilight Zone television series. Eerie black and white images and a creepy soundtrack provide a lot of intrigue and suspense. Even the standard "ding" to remind the audience to change the picture or card was replaced with a strange piano lick. In culminating the story the audience almost becomes involved in the soundtrack. The signal to switch the slide starts repeating faster and faster and the clicks of the viewmasters create a train-like sound to accompany the images of the steaming locamotive.
What Vladimir has managed to achieve in the medium of the viewmaster is incredible. For the most part her work is effective, extremely engrossing, and very unique. I was shocked to see how well this format can operate as effective storytelling, but much credit has to go to Vladimir for her innovation and resurrection of a "dead" technology.

Ethan Jackson's Camera Obscura

Ethan Jackson's presentation of his camera obscura in Kenilworth Square was an astounding sight. As you looked up at the wall with light holes carefully positioned on it a picture perfect image of the surrounding street and scenery was shown. The image was inverted just as it is when it is first seen by the human eye. I was not expecting to be able to see such vivid colors or detail in the image, I was more expecting a shadow than an actual large-scale picture. Most interesting about this sight was the movement outside. As people walked by or cars drove past they seemed to be like ghosts, dissapearing behind stationary objects that were a more permanent fix in the image. When Jackson presented a short video of a camera obscura he had installed in a former church i was amazed. The walls on the church completed a natural, ever changing mural. It is surprising that this is not a more common practice in modern art. Museums could incorporate this technique not only as an exhibit but as a way of design and accentuation of architecture; artworks could be displayed in correlation with the images presented by the camera obscura image.
The work presented in Monday's March 7th class by Minyong Jang acted as a precursor to this exhibit by Jackson. When watching Jang's video The Dark Room I wasn't impressed until i realized that the flowing, shimmering images of water were captured, in essence, in a second party view. His images were so clear and detailed I din't think that it could have been made from filming the inside of the camera obscura.

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.