A Reflection

While I cannot on behalf of the class, I can say that all that I have learned from this Avant Garde cinema class has radically changed the way I see and perceive film. It is amazing to me to look back and see how far I have come from the beginnings of the class. I never thought that I would be making my own film. Viewing all of my fellow peer's film essays was quit enjoyable to say the least. Each avant garde film we have seen during our screenings has had some kind of effect on me. I also never thought that I would be seeing so many films this semester. Needless to say, I have left this class knowing more about analyzing Avant Garde films, but more importantly, I learned about how to learn.

-Michael

Reflection

Overall I was really happy with the outcome of my video essay. There were definitely some aspects I would have improved, however, if given an extended amount of time to do so. I think the main thing I would have done differently would have been to interview more people about the most ordinary object in their room and their room and their idea of ordinary. Though the input from my suitemates was insightful, I could have probably gathered a more in depth view by interviewing a greater range of different kinds of people. I also might have cut down some of my shots a little bit more. I intentionally focused on the ordinary objects for long enough for them to appear mundane and make the viewer bored with them, but I think this could have been achieved without showing the objects for quite as long. I struggled a lot with the idea or the toothbrush and would have liked to spend more time on that, as I believe I showed a clearer distinction between ordinary and extraordinary with the other two objects. There were also some clips that I found that I would have worked into my film had the time constraints been different.

I feel that my film has some very strong points as well. I was very happy with how my film was structured because I felt that I was able to structure it like a true essay. I stated my question at the beginning (What is Ordinary). I then proceeded to interview and collect data as I explored ordinary objects and how they could become extraordinary. Finally, the questions about what ordinary in served as almost a conclusion to my essay. I was also happy with the flow of my essay. I felt that it flowed logically and coherently, very easy to follow. I, personally, felt that the idea was presented clearly and concisely. My use of editing techniques were strong as well. The transitions utilized between shots helped the movie move along smoothly. My reverse motion with the tissue contributed a lot in making the tissue appear extraordinary as did the fast motion with the origami tissue paper crane. I have learned a lot about how much time and effort goes into making movies. We often take for granted the crazy camera shots and special effects we see in movies today and do not realize how much time and meticulous planning goes into the filming and editing process of every film, but this process showed me how much it takes.

multiple thoughts...

Last Mondays Screening

I liked the disorientation and static-ness of this film….however what the heck was with the random lady and her boob…”squeezing the breast of her nipple” to quote professor Langston …I found that scene extremely unusual…now that I’ve gotten that of my chest..[;) haha, it’s a boob joke]..anyway….I felt this film merged different patterns and objects that generally do not go together…I loved how all these “patterns” came from things that weren’t man made…it was a nice collaboration between mans work and Gods work…the “kid rock” baby confused me too but I guess it went along with the idea of wanting to see what someone else sees, since what we see as children we interpret as something different when we grow up…idk..this film was pretty neat minus the random use of a body parts and naked child[s]…I actually liked the psychedelic aspect of the film with its “macy gray-ish” track, and its shroom trip colors…but let me get serious…even though this was “avant-garde” I didn’t feel as if it was a positive depiction of the film category…I expected us to end the year with a bang, however I was greatly disappointed…it’s really interesting thinking about how far we’ve come since “das kabinett des doctor caligari” but somehow even the advancement of avant-garde film makes me want to revert to the classics once again…but I guess that’s the great thing about life…the disappointments make me want to work even harder to create a more thrilling future…and these films [since the first screening] served as an expression of that…once again I’m rambling but I’m glad the last screening didn’t feel like the end…




Reflection

To start of my reflection, I guess I found my film successful. As I watched other people’s films on Thursday, I found myself admiring how a lot of them incorporated footage that they filmed. Although my original idea was to use only found footage, I kind of wish I filmed a few things myself. I believe things we choose to capture incorporate even more of ourselves into what we do because they express our point of view to others. I also feel as if my film was overly definitive, but I understand that this result came from my belief that obscurity would disrupt the understanding of my essay’s purpose.
Although, there is room for improvement in my film essay, I feel as if I communicated what I set out to convey. I would hope I gave people a new understanding of the concept of humanitarianism especially since it’s an idea that is based on helping others. Just as some of the essays made me want to put away my cell phone and read, appreciate freedom, define music and sound[s], determine individuality, appreciate home, etc. I hope I inspired others to continue helping those who may be unable to help themselves.
One of the most important quotes I’ve ever heard in my life is “Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice” verbalized by Adolf Hitler whom I’d consider foolish and cowardice because he choose to gear his intelligence in the direction of hate, rather than help those he choose to annihilate. I’m always inclined to help others because of such statements that harbor ignorance, and lack empathy/respect for mankind.
What I learned from this process is that filmmaking can be challenging when attempting to portray an idea, but it’s really fun going through the creation process, frustrations of editing, and overall success of burning your finished product onto a disc.

Student films

I just want to say, Thursday night's student film session was amazing. I felt so touched by everyone's creative expression, and amazed at how talented and thought-provoking the films were. From religion, love, dreams, and tension, to music, individuality, and dance, the films encompassed so many aspects of life. Yet the best part is they each portrayed these aspects in different ways, approaching them using varying methods. I am so proud of everyone in this class, and I will miss meeting with you all to view and discuss films. Thank you, Dr. Langston, for putting together such a great class, and for being an amazing professor.

Sincerely,
Jade Palmer

Reflection: To Be a Transcendentalist Today

Nora Alter says that the film essay can present “reflections that are not necessarily bound to reality, but can also be contradictory, irrational, and fantastic.” In my film, “To Be a Transcendentalist Today”, I was most concerned with explaining and exploring the complexities of bringing the ideals of 19th century Romanticism and Transcendentalism and applying them to today’s world in both a modern historical context and a philosophical evaluation of what that can mean on an individual level. My film’s pace is slow, languid, meditative, which I find fitting for this subject, although, looking back now, I wish it provided more excitement. My film is also heavy on audio from one individual, Richard Harris. The choice to dominate the film so heavily with spoken words may seem strange, but Transcendentalism is deeply intertwined on a fundamental level with the importance of language as a means of creating literature, poetry, and a forum for the debate and exchange of ideas. The decision to only use Harris as a source may seem flawed, but I believed it was most important to receive an expert opinion and explain his interpretation. A key component of Transcendentalism is individualism/self-reliance, and it is important to recognize this film as simply one individual’s understanding of the modern meaning of Transcendentalism. It is an understanding that I agree with and that has influenced me, but Transcendentalism seeks to motivate people to explore and decide their ideas for themselves. Richard Harris is therefore not telling the audience what to think; he is merely seeking to discuss it, to pose ideas and questions for further reflection. As a hardcore Transcendentalist, I was obviously intrigued by the subject of my film. While I sought to make the ideas relatable and intriguing to non-Transcendentalists, I am uncertain whether I was successful. If I could do anything about this film differently, it would be to condense the content and create a more visual flair through stronger cinematography. But, what’s done is done, and I was pleased with my film in most respects.

the past two weeks screenings have been bizarre, but interesting. What seemed to separate Minh-ha's "Reassemblage" from a commonplace National Geographic-esque documentary was her unique editing style. She infused her personal viewpoints and commentary on the role of women in these cultures through her disjunctive editing.

I can't believe that was our last screening! Viola's films were really interesting to me, as was the interview of his that we read. Something about the ambiguity and symbolic nature of these two were reminiscent of Maya Deren's trance films we saw earlier. With the reflecting pool, I felt as if the reflection of the man in the water symbolized his soul, or inner self. It had a separate existence, yet it was still related to his physical form. His films were quiet and meditative, which I really liked.

Farocki and Rist

Eye/Machine was a pretty interesting movie to me. I admired the amount of patience this movie took to make. There are so many different mediums that he uses to provide an empirical idea of what progressive technology means. I think the ideas that he provides causes the audience to think further and deeper, fueled by the questions he asks in the film. It provides a fantastic background for moral, ethical theoretical and political discussion. What happens in the absence of organic direction? At what point in the development of robotics do they develop a conscience? By advancing robotic intelligence do we reach a point in the development of the robot where we've programmed it with individual choices and the ability to make choices with an informed background wherein we've made them a moral object? Why do we put humans in danger when we can just send in a robot to do what we would otherwise risk lives to do?

I Want to See How You See by Pipilotti Rist was very interesting. Very interesting. I don't quite know how I can analyze it. At all. But! My only suggestion is that her Life is a massive overlapping of many different feels, ideas, experiences, and color, as that is all I could see in the video. It was a weird movie.

final films

Apart from I Want To See What You See, all of these films felt somewhat flat to me. I relate this opinion back to the fact that these films use technology that I am familiar with, seeing and using daily. As some of the most modern films we've seen, I cannot help but notice these usual techniques and evaluate them more than I would in another film. I have seen the distortion of images as is used in

Sun in Your Head. Of course I could not tell the exact technique, but I recognized the effect and this knowledge dulled the viewing slightly for me. After discussion I can now appreciate the particular use of the effect for this film.

Bill Viola's films were the two of the most unoriginal (for lack of a better word) to me because they used effects which I have played around with myself and could even explain. Though they were probably avant-garde in their time, my conditioning to technology makes these film less impressive today. It was still entertaining to see how Viola used water and video effects to distort reality.

I was much more interested in how I Want To See What You See used technology to manipulate the breadth of human perception. Using different effects (montage in high contrast, color blends, negatives, odd camera angles) to manipulate what can be seen and "see what someone else may see." By seeing more than one image in multiple exposure, the viewer sees one view (supposedly the "I" of the title) and another view (supposedly the "You" of the title) at the same time.

I want to see what you see

I have to admit I am not entirely sure how I feel about some of the films from the last screening. I was pretty disturbed by “I want to see how you see” mainly because I think it may have been taken directly from one of my nightmares. I was really confused by the whole film and in the scenes with where different images were on top of each other, I could not really make sense of what I was looking at. One of the most frustrating things for me in a dream is not being able to see a person’s face and so never knowing who the figure in the pink flowing dress was really frustrated me. The music was disturbing to me as well. The creepy almost screeching sound was not pleasant to listen to for the duration of the movie. The camera angles were really interesting to me. They made me feel as if I were some sort of peeping tom watching from behind chairs and sometimes even down on the ground as if from the perspective of some sort of small animal. Overall it was just a really uncomfortable movie for me and I could not really figure out what sort of point it was trying to get across.

I found the films from this past screening to in interesting but a little less so than previous films. Something about these new 1990s films was missing. Sun in My Head was an interesting way to look at the televisions affect on our life and the numbing sensation it has after hours of watching it, which can easily be compared to the sun and its blinding effect. I feel like it had a good idea to work from but almost fell flat in its ability to be "avant garde" and innovative. I guess that is what was lacking from the majority of the films was their sense of purpose and ability to show you something like no one else has look at it before. To me the films we watched, while they were important to see as an understanding of the class they also justify the idea that the avant-garde died in the mid 1960s.

postmodern 90s

I was not a huge fan of the last screening for this course. It seems like everything else we have studied is about pioneering ideas, exciting techniques, revolutionary ideas... these last films seemed to have more of a scornful, sarcastic attitude towards the world that I think sometimes accompanies postmodernity. There seems to be a lack of this bursting new creative energy but rather a desire to mock or critique life as we know it. I think this exemplifies a lot of pop culture around us currently, that the attitude of creating something completely new and original is overshadowed by the doubt that anything is new and original. I really liked the concept of the Kino-Eye in this course, of allowing the eye to see more than it can naturally see, and I don't think that films such as "I want to see how you see" uphold this priniciple but are more focused on the effects, the margins, and the mockery that goes along with postmodernism.

Meditative

My favorite of this week's movie was Viola's "The Reflecting Pool" because of its visual trickery in the way it split the screen and the way that it paced itself so deliberately slow. It seemed to be saying something about the disconnect of being in the moment and the inevitable, cyclical passage of time. How do we bring those ideas together? What does it mean to be stuck in time as it continues to move around you? Do we get lost, just as the mysterious figure disappears? There was something distinctively Eastern/Asian/Buddhist in Viola's films, and I thought it gave them a forcefully meditative tone. In a course where we have seen so many filmmakers self-reflecting, it seemed interesting to see Viola using a reflecting pool. My only complaint was that the grainy low-quality video seemed to lack the artistic quality or endeavor of previous films.

To be honest, I had little reaction to Monday's screening. The first three films we watched (Sun in Your Head, Migration, and Reflecting Pool) were all interesting enough; I remember thinking how glad I was not to be epileptic while watching Sun in Your Head. I hated that, in Migration, the sound and the water weren't at all in sync. They were so close, I kept waiting for them to line up, but they never did. It definitely left me a bit unsettled. Reflecting Pool was a similarly thoughtful experience; I remember staring at the guy for so long, looking away for a minute, then looking back and realizing he was gone, or different. I liked that though the man froze, pixelated in a way that it looked like he were almost moving extremely fast, the water in the pool still moved as serenely as before; it was in no way afraid of a disruption from the hovering figure.

I found Eye Machine I utterly forgettable and I Want To See How You See extremely annoying, in the sense that the song was stuck in my head for the remainder of the night and returns every time I think about the film. I was a trippy film; that's really all I can say.

Television: A Limit on Perception

When I first viewed Wolf Vostell’s Sun in your Head, I wasn’t really a fan of it. However, I watched it a second time, and I’m really beginning to like it or at least appreciate it. The stark contrast between the rapidly moving black and white objects throughout the film fits well with the title. When you look directly at the sun, you are blinded by its intensity and can see and think of nothing other than the bright light your eyes are being subjected to. Vostell’s comparison of the blindness caused by the sun and that caused by television is extremely interesting. In a country where the average viewer watches almost five hours of television per day, it’s refreshing to see someone so skeptical of it. Television programs these days cover almost every topic possible. There are teen dramas, how-to shows and even educational programs for children, but are these shows taking the place of other necessary aspects of life? I personally don’t have a television, and I get by just fine without one. Now, I’m not advocating that television should be completely eradicated, but maybe the population needs to take a good look at the meaning behind Vostell’s piece and reassess their dependency on television.

Thoughts

I found "The Reflecting Pool" to be the most interesting of the films we watched last week. I agree that there is something about the way water reflects, yet distorts images that is so intriguing. The nature sounds and the forest also go along with the calmness and the "rebirth" of the man. However, some things irk be about this film, mainly the quality. The scenery reminds me of the backdrops of waterfalls/forests that you see in cheap restaurants. I think that this may have to do with the fact that somehow video doesn't have the same timeless quality that celluloid film has.

I thought Viola's other work, "Migration," was intriguing in the beginning where everything was so blurred, but after a while I didn't really get the point of it. Harun Farocki's "Eye Machine 1" was also interesting and portrayed how relevant machines are in our lives and brought up ideas of having machines fight wars, not soldiers. However, the film did repeat some scenes and in some cases I couldn't figure out what I was looking at and this made it hard to interpret the film. Pipilotti Rist's “I Want to See How You See” was one of the strangest films I have seen. I’m not quite sure if the film was supposed to be creepy, but the audio certainly made it to be.

Admittedly, Monday's screening was not my favorite of the semester, but I nevertheless enjoyed a few of the films, particularly Vostell's Sun in Your Head and Viola's Reflecting Pool. I think one of the main reason I enjoyed these two more than the others is that they were slightly more ambiguous in terms of era. True, you knew they were more recent than other films we've watched because of the technology present in them, but they had a more timeless, universal quality than some of the other films we watched (in particular Farocki's Eye Machine I). Eye Machine I dealt so much with modern technology (even giving dates), that I found it less interesting and engaging, which is ironic considering that it would theoretically provide more relevance for me. Instead, I just found the specificity alienating.

And while I Want to See How You See was drastically unlike anything we've seen before, I still thought there were some interesting effects visually that created a true sense of disorientation, which, I would imagine, would result from seeing the world as another person does. At the very least, I think it was a mark of how far we've all come this semester that we could watch a baby in a long blonde wig and not immediately dismiss it as ridiculous.

Last

Something about Monday's films from the 90's made them less aesthetically pleasing. My guess would be that it had something to do with the nature of video over film. I think more than anything that it was the colors that were really gaudy.
Perhaps the most gaudy of the films was I Want To See How You See. This film reminded me of a terrible winamp graphic visualization set to some bad music. And of course, the nipple was uncomfortable to see. But as always, "I'm sure there's some deeper meaning behind it all."

"The Reflection Pool"

"The Reflection Pool" was my favorite film from Monday. I really like water, the way it moves, it's mirrorlike qualities, the way it portrays objects, the calming effect it has on me. This film was just that -- calming. And yet my eyes were anything but calm as they raced about the screen looking for the slightest change in scenery. Once the actor doing a cannonball into the pool froze in mid-air, I started looking for other evidence of editing. I really liked when the reflection of two actors walking around the pool was shown, but the actors were not physically present. This added a sense of fantasy and magic to the pool, and made it seem unearthly and gave it greater power and presence than the average pool. When a man appeared from beneath the water and climbed out, nude, he seemed to have been born from the water. I also liked how, even though the pool was the main subject, a great deal of forest was shown in the background. After the nude man rose out of the water, he walked for a significant amount of time through the woods in the background, and was shown exiting the screen after he retrieved his clothing. Each succeeding event in the film made the pool more amazing. Some events were obvious, such as the nude man climbing out of the pool, but many were barely noticeable at first. The subtle changes in the scene challenged me to search the screen actively. Most of the films we have seen guide the audience's eyes to what the director wants them to see. This film, to me at least, made the audience work harder to perceive everything that happened in the film. Especially the things that occurred as reflections in the water, without subjects from which to be reflected. The constant movement in the water and slightly changing scenery around the pool disguised such occurrences to some extent, blurring them and softening their impact on the screen.

The Last Screening

I think I liked all of the films from the screening on Monday in some respect. I really enjoyed "Decollage" and the Viola films. They way the images were manipulated on screen was amazing to see. In "Migration" the manipulation was all about the clarity with the water droplet, which I thought was interesting. I kept wondering what was being focused in on in that film.

I didn't relate to "I want to see how you see" as much. The visual aspects were interesting enough to witness, but after awhile it was like looking at a cheap poster at a souvenir shop. The music was really jarring too-- I can't figure out why, except that it didn't treat music like other films had. All in all, it felt like a weird note to end the semester on.

The Last Screening

Although Bill Viola's movies were a little tedious, I really liked his ideas, or what I thought were his ideas anyway. In "Migration" I liked how he focused on a single area of space, and how every time it zoomed in, some part of the image became a little clearer. However, the gap between the water dropping and the gong sound really bothered me, I felt like it was out of sync, thoguh maybe that was his point. With "The Reflection Pool" the whole idea of water reflecting reality, but in a distorted manner was rather interesting, the way things are not quite as they appear in their reflection.

I also really enjoyed "I Want to See How You See." I think that maybe it was not entirely clear and very strange, but still very intriuging. I mean, sure it maybe took the idea of perception to an extreme, but this only emphasized how really, you don't know how differently someone could be seeing something from the way you do, which is an important concept to grasp in life. Looking past its eccentricity, it really was a good film.

The Eye of the Machine

The film that made the most impression on me was Harun Farocki's "Eye Machine 1." In my opinion, "Eye Machine 1" was the most intriguing of all the films we watched. "Eye Machine 1" provided an interesting perspective in how much we rely on machines in our daily lives. Every image and scene was from the machine or technological standpoint. It was a film that made me rethink the profound influence to which machines seem to be able to have an eye of their own. I had never thought about how cameras were eyes to a missile or robot. It was quite interesting to see how cameras were portrayed as similar to human eyes. However, there was something oddly discomforting about the camera eyes. Although the idea of making of film about the eye of the machine was creative, the repetition of certain scenes such as the one with the missile did not need to be repeated. Farocki's "Eye Machine 1" reminded me a little bit of Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera with its intense usage of Kino-Eye.

I was quite frankly disappointed by Viola's "Migration" film. Although the beginning was intriguing, once I realized that the rest remained blurry and indistinct, I failed to see the point in the film. The falling drops of water that created a gong sound was slightly irritating. I was frustrated throughout the entire film when the camera never fully revealed the individual who was sitting in the chair. It seemed as if Viola was merely messing around with a certain idea that actually executing and carrying out a developed concept.

I want to see how you see

I think the film that most resonated with me from monday's screening was Pipilotti Rist's "I want to see how you see," not because I particularly liked it, but because it was the most engaging. I have to admit that this film made me more uncomfortable than any other film we've seen this semester, aside from "Flaming Creatures." The bright, vivid technicolors and obnoxious soundtrack reminded me of an eighties music video, and I think they were intended to inspire some sort of pleasant feeling. Instead, I was offput. The film was creepy in a little-kid-in-horror-movie kind of a way. Everything was so bright and happy, but it was done in a way that made me want to look away. The scene in which a hand groped and shaped a nipple was particularly grotesque. I've seen nipples before, yes, and I've even seen them upclose on screen, but I don't think I've seen that sort of violence towards them before. And the child explaining about the wonder of the nipple behind it just added to the strange and horrific feel of the scene. As for the title, I have no idea what that means in context of my reaction to the film. I remember there was a second title that was called something like a portrait of a woman's name, which makes sense in that the film could be a visual representation of how she sees, or how Rist sees her. I don't know though, I've probably got the wrong impression. Oh, and what was with the baby wearing a wig?

Sink or Swim

Sink or Swim took an interesting spin on describing the hardships of a child with father problems. She separated each individual stories while still maintaining a linear meaning. With each story was a video clip that was either representing directly what was going on or used as a metaphor. I found the film intriguing because of how it brought you into the girl's story without too much emotional attachment that makes it difficult. Her deep connection with the material while still remaining apathetic to the situation made it compelling to watch. Even the visuals were able to bring you into the idea while still keeping a strong distance from the emotion. Something about the film sparked ideas in my mind on what I would say about my childhood and how I would describe it. I thoroughly enjoyed this piece because of its utter truth behind the words and stories portrayed.

The two films last week seemed to be from very different ends of the spectrum. The first film I found to be very interesting although it did seem to get a bit tedious by the end. What was being shown in the film seemed to get repetitive. The screening left me a confused though. I was unsure whether or not to feel bad for the people of the tribe. They lacked all of our modern technology, yet seemed content with their way of life and probably would not be able to function in a society such as the one we live in today. This led me to wonder if I should feel bad for us and all of the stuff we have that seems so important and gets in the way. Many shots of the tribe showed older members as well as young children spending a lot of time together and I got the impression that they were much more family oriented. Women doing work had their child strapped to their back as they did their chores. It just reminds me how unnecessary a lot of what we have today is. Granted our life style is much more comfortable, it was a strong reminder that a lot of it is highly unnecessary.

Sink or Swim

This movie was really interesting to me and I enjoyed how all the stories were individual events that related to one another and portrayed a bigger picture of a life. The individuality and personal story related by this film was readily accessible to viewers through the use of the found footage and also the 'fictional' short stories that were presented in a manner that was not biographical. The story was compelling and evoked empathy and emotion that made the viewers have a vested interest in the film. I personally enjoyed this film even though I did not catch on to the structure of the narratives. The film was personal and self-reflective yet appealed to a wide range of audiences. The cathartic release shown through this film is interesting to me and made me want to watch it again.

...Insightful

Reassemblage...I find this film masterful when I think about it...however the delivery still sits poorly with me...this is not because of the filmmaker, but because of the stereotypes [the filmmaker visually represented] placed on African people in general...i can remember when my classmates [and on occasion some adults] used to ask me questions about my home as if they expected it to still be a tribal setting filled with half-naked men and women who's every action somehow depicted them as uncivilized...i make this connection to the film because although it was about senegal, it was about all Africans...Africans share a connection that is unexplainable...even though we are separated by borders on a map and tribal differences, we are the same people in the end, and i think that's why i was almost offended by the images because i could feel the filmmaker depicting my people in ways i wasn't comfortable with...i enjoyed how the filmmaker didn’t abuse her outsider perspective of the Senegalese…she chose to speak of them without labeling them or using stereotypes to establish who they were as people… her approach was commendable, I believe this is the most appropriate way to view people of all races and creeds…overall, after gaining understanding of the film, i realized how profound Trinh T. Minh-ha's thought process and delivery for this film was…i really appreciated this one...it made me THINK!!!

p.s. [not that the others haven't...but this thought process was unique and more personal…I really like that about both films; they had personality]

Reassemblage

I have no idea what this film was about but from the first statement, "I wish not to speak about, just near by" I assume that the meaning behind the film was meant to be ambiguous. Unfortunately the accent with which Trinh Minh-Ha spoke made her statements difficult to understand.
From what I do understand, the film seems to be about the lifestyle of the villagers in Senegal. My guess (this being an avant-garde film) is that there's more to it than that. Why would she want to speak near and not about? Probably because it's impossible to totally describe a group of people by making direct and presumably precise statements. By speaking near, Trinh Minh-Ha is able to speak subjectively and provide a portrait with more perspective than if she spoke directly about these people of Senegal.
But then again, these are all assumptions. Whether these ideas were executed well in this film is up for question. I didn't enjoy watching this film.

Sink or Swim

I was very moved by Su Friedrich’s Sink or Swim. The story of the young girl desperately trying to gain her father’s love was very sad, yet Friedrich seems to have grown up to be a strong and confident woman. Some people don’t have the best childhood or relationship with their parents and they feel pain and anger because of this. The best they can do is to learn to forgive their parents and learn from their experiences. I feel Friedrich made the film partly as a way of releasing the anger and pain that she has experienced. The ending where she realizes that she doesn’t need to swim across the lake was the most poignant and showed that she had really moved on from the constant pain in her life. In the article she mentions how she feels ambivalence towards her father, so I feel that this film does accomplish creating closure in feeling this pain and anger towards him.

Also, I really loved the technical aspects of the film. The visuals during each story went perfectly along with the voiceover. I agree with others that this film is very reminiscent of a novel or a memoir. Sometimes I can’t recall if what I picture in my mind was what really what happened on screen, because of the influence of the voiceover. The cinematography, home movies, and type writer scenes, create a nostalgic quality that reminds me of childhood.

"Sink or Swim" and "Reassemblage"

I especially enjoyed Su Friedrich's "Sink or Swim." The ending particularly resonated with me. She was singing the ABC's in a series of rounds and ended with a peculiar "What do you think of me?". "Sink or Swim" is easily one of my most favorite Avant Garde films we have seen thus far. As I was watching the film, I thought that each mini story referred back to certain part of her life. In a more societal context, whenever the narrator talked about Greek myths in which the girl was just as good as the boy, I felt she was using it as a metaphor for gender roles. I did not see the fatherhood nor divorce themes. The most enduring theme was gender roles and Friedrich was making a statement of that issue through her film. Her film comes around full circle with the provocative ending of singing the ABC's and her challenging question. The cinematic techniques utilized with the singing of the ABC's were visually as well as aesthetically pleasing to see on screen.

After our discussion in class, I have now understand and have greater respect for Minh-Ha's film, "Reassemblage." Her film makes so much more sense now. Through her editing of sound, she has distorted our perception of sound to the point that our previous perceptions of Africa as an underdeveloped society full of poverty and unhappiness is completed reverted. She induces a paradigm shift in our frame of mind, knowingly challenging the way we perceive Africa. We are made aware of our own judgmental perceptions of Africa. Needless to say, "Reassemblage" is a "reassemblage" of our perceptions of Africa. Minh-Ha breaks down the stereotypes through her distortion of sound in the film. Although, I was not immediately impressed by her film, "Reassemblage" is a film that must be digested slowly in order to be fully understood.

History...

Remember La Jetée?
Well I remember it…the week we watched it wasn’t a thrilling one in avant-garde film, however this film managed to be my favorite. As we reflected upon in it class, I found it interesting that a lot of us forgot the movie was comprised of pictures rather than continuous footage. I watched bits of it again and found the “waking up” series to be my favorite. It was extremely relatable; it seemed slow paced an lagging; words generally not used in a positive manner, but I feel they presented the action of waking up very well. Watching the film again reminded me of picture books. I used to love seeing each image after the page was narrated. The film also had that nonchalant pace that a picture book reader takes upon.
Honestly, I didn’t gain much insight as I watched the film the first time. After, looking up what it was about [The survivors of a destroyed, post-apocalyptic Paris in the aftermath of World War III live underground in the Palais de Chaillot galleries; Wikipedia] I wanted to watch again with this new perspective; but once again, I was left in a state of ambiguity. I like sci-fi films with this type of plot line, but I feel La Jetée didn’t live up to my “twilight zone” expectations. However, I’m glad the film was black and white, even though it was supposed to be depicting the future. I also appreciate the continuous and narrative nature of the film, even though its images were disconnected.

[[[Koyaanisqatsi]]]
Life was, is, and will forever be out of balance. Why else would we be here if not to try and find a balance if not the ultimate balance [42]. We all interpreted this film in different ways independent of one another yet resulting in the same general ideas. There is always something wrong, but how are we expected to interpret what “ails” the world. Is it the existence of what is manmade, or man himself. This film is excellent because it leaves so much room for interpretation. It allows us to each create our own understanding of the world today, and furthermore determine what we believe the history of the relationship between man and earth consists of. Some of us were positive, and others negative, but the interesting thing was we were all right in our justifications. This film was full of contradictions because of the various juxtapositions featured throughout it. It challenged the representation of the superficial versus natural, which I thought was more dominantly represented as manmade vs. nature. All in all the most significant debate, to me, was the debate on whether it was too long a film. I believe it wasn’t; sometimes it’s more important to be in the moment and appreciate what has been presented to you especially if it’s a reflection of what you would otherwise unable to visualize or grasp. Furthermore, the film was time lapsed, compressing hundreds of hours worth of film into short reels; thus the overall film was a combination of multiple reels representing the larger more complex “history of the world”. This film spoke to me; it was inspiring visually and its message was short and bittersweet.

Sink or Swim

My favorite film from last weeks screening was definitely Su Friedrich's "Sink or Swim" It felt sort of like I was seeing a woman's diary over her lifetime. Her memories played out for us in a very simplistic and straightforward manner, and even though they didn't match the narration exactly (I'm not sure if the narration is non-diegetic or non-synchronous, or if those catagories even apply to narration?) hearing her voice explain the significance of particular scenes helped to make the film more audience friendly. I think the reason that I enjoyed "Sink or Swim" so much is because Friedrich works hard to make her presence felt in the film, and even though there isn't a very strong story line, there is a character that you can identify with. Hearing the stories about a little girl in a time when her parents were getting a divorce, its hard to not care. The seemingly random aspects of the film, like the part about the birth of Athena, made the film more whimsicle and helped us remember that the film is from memory, not from reality. As a child she probably thought she had come directly from her father, just as Athena did.

Questions Unanswered

After watching "Reassemblage: From the Firelight to the Screen", I was left a bit confused. The narrator said multiple times that her friends would ask her what her film was about, and she would tell them a place in Africa. But she never elaborated on exactly what in Africa. I was deeply intrigued by the way of life of the women in the tribe, and how they openly displayed their breasts without shame. The narrator's statement that it was not inappropriate nudity for them struck me and encouraged me to not view the nudity with distaste, as I have been conditioned to do, but rather accept it as natural and beautiful, which it is. I also noticed the limitations of their work, how the women were confined to domestic work, but in the way that the narrator spoke about the tribe, she emphasized that the women were essential in the fact that they were the only ones who knew how to make the food and prepare it. I liked the calm atmosphere of the film, overall, but wondered what the significance of fires in the woods was.

sink back or swim foward

I think my favorite thing behind sink or swim was the linkages it made between past and present without overanalyzing them in a phsychiatric sense. The film allowed the narrator to rehash memories through a new light as she struggled to come to terms with her past, but yet she did not blame these events for her present state but rather she was just taking them into consideration. The filmmaker crossed into what seemed to be several different "camps" of film- she clearly used autobiographical techniques in telling the story, but she combined these with what seemed to be structural qualities of formalism and perspective like that used by Stan Brakhage to show the way in which she really saw the world. I found this combination to allow the film to be able to go beyond a simple analyzation of self, and I think this makes it one of the better films we have seen this year. It allows for constant re-evaluation of self through the ties of present and past events.

Sink or Swim

I really enjoyed watching Sink or Swim during last week's screening. I thought that it described a great story about a woman's relationship with her father during her life.

The voice over used by Friedrich was extremely powerful, especially as it moved from the girl's viewpoint to when she becomes a woman later on. It anchored the film into a narrative, even though the images on screen remained more disjointed, even complementary to the story at hand. I liked watching the graph of the "American Family" drawn, especially after the metaphor of how wives should be and the woman's father's dissatisfaction in married life. While nothing worked for him within these structures, the narrative would reveal that he still had strong feelings for his daughter.

The end tied up the film quite nicely. I like that it allowed the woman to finally let go of her father through the lake-water moccasin repeated symbol.

To be simple, I loved Su Friedrich's Sink or Swim.

From start to finish, I was captivated by the short stories, all adding up to one telling tale. In the beginning, I felt a strong connection to the young girl, who looked up to her father so lovingly. Being a girl who loves her dad, it hit me in the best way. Even though our stories are different, her father being someone she can't seem to make a love/hate decision about and mine being someone who has always been there for me, I could still relate. There are always times when your parents feel like they're just drifting further and further away from you; for a girl and her dad, those are the worst.

I found myself trying to find the relation between Friedrich's one word titles and the clips of stories she was telling; some were obvious, others hidden beneath irony or sarcasm, others still seemed completely ambiguous. But, whether you understood them or not, each one drew you more invested into the story.

A Look at Life

Trinh T. Minh-ha's piece “Reassemblage: From the Firelight to the Screen” gives its viewers an excellent view into the life of a different society. This film showcases the lives of people in Senegal, but it is not an entirely objective work. Throughout the movie, Minh-ha reminds her audience that she holds the power of persuasion in this scenario because she created the piece. For example, the brief jumps in the sound or the complete lack of sound at certain points in the piece work to show viewers the filmmaker’s voice. “Sink or Swim” was a bit slow at times, but I feel like the timing was excellent for this piece to be made since the '90s were definitely a decade filled with divorce. Coming from a home with two parents, certain aspects of this film were really interesting to me. I particularly liked the scene in negative where the girl writes a letter to her dad on the typewriter. The last part where she says she wishes she could actually mail the letter depicts just how awkward her relationship with her estranged father is. I have some friends with similar stories, and I think it’s great that Friedrich took the time to make a movie about this subject.

I really enjoyed the view into the African tribe we saw in last weeks screening. It was an interesting perspective to take on something that would normally be presented in a very dry, history book sort of way. Also, she clearly made her stand as a woman filmmaker, focusing her film mainly around the women and their roles in life in the tribe. She emphasized how important they were to survival and overall I thought the film had a nice effect.

The second film was a little more depressing than the first. The storyof the daughter always trying to please her father, and his stern, and often cruel responses to her was something that made you sympathetic toward the unnamed girl. I thought it was interesting of Friedrich to include the poems written by the father, it was as if she was trying to vindictively show the fathers cruelty, but still wanted to demonstrate his more humane side and prove that there were things that made him the way he was, and he wasn't all bad, just certain things he did to her were. I also thought the idea of using the ABC's helped the film have that feeling of childhood and naivety, especially with the inclusion of the song at the end, acting as almost an epilogue to the whole thing.

Last week's viewing was intense. I admired the rhythm that appeared out of the daily routine. It was inspiring to see the work that goes into another way of life. What we as Americans are so accustomed to is so much different than what the Africans were doing. I don't know if it is necessarily harder work, but it is another type completely. The tribe life was romanticized to a certain degree, as it refrained from showing the sorts of modern advancements that defeat the small sicknesses that can wipe out a people. I was left feeling a bit disoriented by the montage of culture that I watched. It just isn't something I could ever understand, no matter how hard I could try.

Life out of Balance

Koyaanisqatsi. It was beautiful and engaging with a vibrant score reverberating underneath the images but what did it mean? To me, I think Koyannisqatsi, which means "life out of balance" in Hoti, was an attempt to make people think. It's not a film you would go to the midnight screening of but its elegance and prestige shown through its elaborate National Geographic like shots allow the audience to think in a way that no blockbuster has even tried to do. I like the way the class was split on what it meant because to me that expressed the diversity not only of our class but also the entire country and world. I was overwhelmed by the responses from other class members because of the intensity and passion each person had for the film regardless of their take on it. As mentioned in class, the film resonated with the same idea and structure that our film essays are attempting to achieve. Greggio asks many questions to stimulate the audience into their own imaginations and to answer questions about life and nature and human existence for themselves.

Koyaanisqatsi

I must admit that on the first viewing of the film, I found it to be boring (although beautiful) and I fell asleep during the middle of film. However after rewatching it, I gained a greater appreciation for the film and its message. I'm not sure if I am as amazed as everyone else by the film, but I do think it does raise some interesting social and political questions. I don't think that it is solely anti-technology/anti-modernization as the city scenes, particularly the amazing time-lapse of the traffic, have a rhythm that is similar to blood flow and the human body as Erika mentioned. I also think there were more scenes depicting modernization as beautiful than there weredepicting it as ugly- mainly the scenes of explosions and the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex. I think what Reggio meant by life out of balance is that humans should try to live in ways which does not impede so much on the environment, maybe even like the simple life that Reggio described in the interview. I’m curious as to if this film was ahead of its time in thinking of ideas like conservation and recycling and maybe even today’s trend of being "Green".

I feel like Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi was an extremely strong film. The scenes were utterly breathtaking. I do, however, have to agree with Stewart who said he found the film to be longer than necessary. I feel like such a strong point could have easily been conveyed just as well in 10 minutes rather than eighty seven. I really enjoyed Reggio’s use of time lapse and camera angles. The film made me feel so small an insignificant. Lots of shots from the bottom pointing up made the buildings and landmarks seem looming and powerful. He made the ocean and the sky seem endless. Some shots reminded me of the old movie advertisements that made you feel like you were on a space ship as he offered birds eye views rolling across huge plains and bodies of water. His use of time lapse is also very instrumental throughout the film. It makes the clouds appear to be big fluffy pillows rolling along and cars and people appear to be tiny ants scurrying about their every day business. Sometimes it is easy to feel like we are the center of the world and become wrapped up in all of our own issues but shots like these really put into perspective how small we actually are in the grand scheme of things.

best film so far

After watching Koyaanisqatsi a second time, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a wonderful film full of beautiful landscapes, cityscapes, and skyscrapers. I enjoyed the balance between the nature and industrialization, and some of the most beautiful scenes were when that balance was being depicted. The moon behind the skyscraper or the clouds reflected in the glass were both wonderful depictions of this balance. I believe the message was that this balance is what we should strive for, and that nature and man can coexist harmoniously if we make it happen.

Put simply, this was a beautiful film with a great message that I will probably watch again at some point.

la vida loca

I am guilty of falling asleep after about the first fifteen minutes or so of the film had passed. Although the nature sequences were absolutely extraordinary—especially the gathering and rolling of the clouds— the images, combined with an extremely stressful day, simply put me to sleep. Conversely, the sequences featuring the bustling city life renewed my energy. I actually found the nighttime footage of the city, captured from a bird’s-eye point of view, to be extremely beautiful. From above, the human activity did not seem nearly as chaotic or unnatural as seen from street level. Rather, the motion of cars represented by fast streaks of light reminded me of blood racing through the organized arteries and veins of a living, pulsating body. Everything and everyone seemed as though it was headed for something, with a definite purpose. It was not until the motion slowed down and the music synchronically slowed tempo that the city seemed like a dreary concrete jungle, constructed for an offensive purpose. Once the camera focused on the faces of individual persons, we could notice how dissatisfying the invasive existence of man can become. I agree with what was said in class: we do not need to eradicate the presence of humans to make an ideal Earth. We just need to learn to live in harmony with our planet, and not strive to conquer or distance ourselves from it.

One of the aspects of Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi I loved the most was its unabashed ambiguity that highlights most of the film. While the grand images of nature in the opening of the film would seem to suggest a particular viewpoint, I often felt disoriented during this screening, as cityscapes were often filmed with the same sense of grandeur as nature. I couldn't tell if Reggio was celebrating our "progress", condemning it, or simply suggesting more moderation. Reggio's careful ambiguity makes viewing this film an intensely personal experience. For example, as I said in class, I was struck by the beauty of the moon rising behind a large skyscraper and really, for me, this one scene could be used to summarize my thoughts during most of the film. Thinking about it more, I was not so sure I was supposed to garner the sense of peace that I did from this image. Maybe I was supposed to be outraged at the skyscraper blocking the gorgeous moon. Is the skyscraper a blot on a beautiful scene of nature, or an integral part of the beauty? This realization made me question my initial satisfaction with the image-- have I already been ingratiated into the mentality that "progress" is necessary-- that we cannot exist without it, that the glowing moon cannot stand on its own? How did we get to such a point? Is our course irreversible, and should it be reversed? It's questions such as these that Reggio's ambiguity gives rise to. Skyscrapers and sand dunes are filmed with the same degree of care-- almost everything in this film appears beautiful; even the bustling urbanization. The viewer is forced to question their surroundings and the idea of progress. As Reggio said, "the question is the mother of the answer" and his often disorientating, but always beautiful film, has hopefully cleared the path for many answers.

Koyaanisqatsi

I missed class on Tuesday so I hope I don't really say anything too derivative.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that noticed the incredible similarities between this film and Man With A Movie Camera. This film had perhaps a bigger universal sense about it as to literally describe the world that we live in rather than focus on a single city.
The beginning was really beautiful with all of its landscapes and the movement of nature. Without showing any lifeforms, the film showed that there was a different kind of life on earth. Earth was shown as a really dynamic and animate "being." (Props to the cinematographer for achieving these shots. They seemed almost impossible to capture at least to me.)
When humans were introduced to the film, things got incredibly hectic quickly. I'm not really sure precisely what theme was coming through to me at this point. Later on, I got the impression that things were speeding up and soon it was too much too quickly and the film ended. I was confuse as to whether this was a feel-good film like Dr. Langston described because the title means life out of balance and such and the film seemed to support it. All the stuff about ashes and cobwebs and the purification of the world kind of confused me though.
I thought the first and last scenes were really powerful. Thinking about it, maybe the director was trying to say that it was bad for mankind to try and reach the stars so to speak and that mankind was writing it's own death sentence by "progressing" technologically. It seemed as though there was some critical point where things have gone too far because of our own modernization and so nature takes it's own action against people. Crazy Stuff.
Philip Glass' soundtrack was really good but got old with the endless repetition. I know a little bit about minimalist music and it's cool how it was used for such a non-minimal topic, but in the end I wish he had broadened the music up a bit.

Let the Movie Speak

(I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never be able to spell the title right).

I like the movie a lot; I thought the interview was so-so.

Seeing the powerful nature shots in the beginning reminded me of the recent influx of feature films right now that are natural world base, but my expectations were ruined when the film changed to looking at human creations. I really loved how the film was framed with the rocket launching and then exploding. The music was really powerful as well, as Philip Glass works usually is.

In the interview, I liked hearing some of Godfrey Reggio's points about his works, especially how he decided to use time lapse photography as the main style for his movie and the important influence of other contributors. While I can't separate his morals from the reason why he made Koyaanisqati, I wish I hadn't heard about it like that in the interview. In many ways, the film spoke for itself in that respect, and reading how he put those moral beliefs into words made him sound like a pedagogue again.

koyaanisqatsitojuojrppthoiswqa

Not even in the mood to use pretentious language right now so this is going to be really frank and short.

Loved, loved, loved this film. This was not my favorite film of the semester, but I have absolutely nothing negative to say about it. Regardless of whether or not it was avant-garde, regardless of whether or not it was too long, regardless of whether or not it was conceptually unoriginal, it was beautiful. I feel like Koyaanisqatsi influenced the trend of "Plant Earth" type films and specials with its jaw-dropping interpretation of the majestic world that we live in. To be honest, I did not even see the theme of negative attitudes towards the human impact (civilization, technology, etc) because I thought that even these scenes were beautiful. The colors are crisp, the angles are interesting, the music is powerful, etc, etc etc. The most striking image for me was the shot above the waterfall, showing the rocky cliff face through the clear, flowing water. Damn damn damn das art if I had eva seen it. Also, I would like to say that I did not accuse this film of being a cheap rip off of Man with a Moviecamera as Dr. Langston joked at the end of class. I agree with how Katelyn put it in her post, it shares a similar exploration of city/nature - especially in juxtaposition. There are obvious similarities, but I think that they took different spins on this theme of presenting the world in its best light. Might I add that I wish a lot more filmmakers would explore this theme for, if nothing else, my viewing pleasure. Please and thank you.

Koy-aan-i-sqat-si

I had no idea what to expect from this film when it began. At the very beginning it looked kind of like a DVD version of a Iron Maiden concert, what with the red block letters against the black background and the low, ominous tones that seemed to foreshadow some kind of chaos to come. Though the chaos was not heavy metal, it did come. The nature scenes that followed the immediate beginning (of the debris falling business that is repeated at the end) were overwhelming in their beauty and scope. I couldn't believe how excited I was to be seeing them...from the majestic towers of red rock in Utah to the rolling clouds that looked like flowing water, WOW. I'm pretty sure I could have taken 86 minutes of just that. Part of the reason I liked this film so much was personal and has to with connections I feel to the desert, the ocean and the moon as well as my love for New York, despite the fact that many of the scenes filmed there had a negative, over-crowded-yet-empty, broken angle. I don't agree with the idea that this film is about one straightforward concept. I don't think it's too long for its content. Especially after reading MacDonald's interview with Reggio, it is clear that this film comes from a completely new and different angle and is concerned with the state of the modern world. It looks to and calls for change in a way we had not encountered. I think it's important to look to the title. I don't think the Hopi word "Koyaanisqatsi" can be justly translated into English, that's why there's several different definitions that apply to it including: 1) crazy life 2) life in turmoil 3) life disintegrating 4) life out of balance and 5) a state of life that calls for another way of living. None of these are the same idea. The only thing that really remains constant is "life" as well as some sort of movement or change. You can't watch Koyaaniqatsi all the way through and say: 'Reggio is saying that life is out of balance. Man now values technology over nature.' Yes, he is saying that, but that's not the end of it. This film has a social agenda and an artistic one. More importantly, it has a personal agenda. It IS Reggio's personal struggle for social justice but it is also meant to be a visual feeding ground for the viewer. We are supposed to watch this film and make what we will of it. It is supposed to inspire us, make us aware, overwhelm us, whatever. Reggio stressed that its meaning was totally subjective. Personally, I don't think it's anti-technology or urbanization. I think it's kind of defeatist in the sense that it acknowledges that our world has been consumed by modernization and technology--that part is irreversible--the question now is what to do with that. How can we reconcile the images of nature with the realities within cities? I think it's a crucial question in the world we live in. I think Reggio was brilliant to turn to the film medium to convey his ideas. I still have the chant stuck in my head.

koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi was a truly empowering film. The meaning behind this pieceis still resonating within me; I just can?t seem to get it completely outof my head. I must admit that this is one of the few times this semesterthat one of the movies we?ve watched has had such a strong impact on mydaily life. Unlike some of the other pieces we have seen, say Drifters orRhythmus 21, Koyaanisqatsi was relatable to me. In this modern day andage, society is changing as fast as technology is allowing it to. Justthink about how different people?s lives, both at work and at home, arecompared to a mere fifty years ago. This time frame that is so minusculein the existence of the world has brought about countless change. Modernsocieties are facing new problems like the disappearance of the nuclearfamily and a new found reliance on technology. In Koyaanisqatsi, GodfreyReggio was able to show audiences the importance of leading a balancedlifestyle without seeming like he was preaching. It was this attributethat I most appreciated about this work. Reggio was able to make viewerssee the difference between man and nature, while still emphasizing thebeauty in both. For example, one of my favorite scenes in the piece is theone at left where the moon is being compared to a night lit building. Bothare sources of light, but this does not mean that they are competing withone another. I feel like, in this movie, Reggio was simply trying toexplain that we shouldn?t be competing with our surroundings. Instead, weshould be finding a way to harmoniously bring together human ingenuity andthe environment to create a better, brighter future for the both of us.

mmm i think i'll write about...Koyaanisqatsi

In comparison to other films we've watched this semester, I would say that I enjoyed Koyannisqatsi more thoroughly than many. I liked that its sould purpose was devoted to one idea- the balance of man and nature- and that it sought to explore this through time. I think by focusing on one element, the film was able to achieve a higher level of not really understanding, but of questioning. I think the film seeks to explore this balance rather than understand it, and I thought the use of time lapse helped show that this exploration is everlasting, insatiable. By speeding up time, the film is able to establish the premise that this exploration of the balance between man and nature has neither a beginning nor an end, but it merely fluctuates through time. I never really play much into editing techniques but after class on tuesday, I really think that the use of a still camera helps to reinforce this one idea through time, rather than show many ideas at one time. I really liked the idea that this film was in the reverse- that instead of a picture being worth 1,000 words, it is 1,000 pictures to display 1 word: balance.

Koyaanisqatsi on Koyaanisqatsi

Reggio's "Koyaanisquatsie" was an intensely, moving film that was had a profound impression on me. The time lapse scenes were especially compelling to me. However, throughout the first fifteen minutes of the film, I felt rather bored. The nature scenes were nice to look at, but got old after a while. Upon reaching the scenes portraying the city, I became pumped and absorbed into the film. The music complemented the time lapse of the traffic and passing of days. Although I felt quite overwhelmed, I also was struck by the ability of Reggio to create something out of the ordinary. Normally, one would not find observing people crossing a street or cars traveling in and out of traffic to be of any interest. Through this film, on the surface level, Reggio captures the mayhem and chaos that modern life consists of. One would think that he or she would be numb to the time lapse moments of bustling pedestrians and cars, but rather, one is captivated by the sheer impact of the mayhem of modern society. Reggio has a way of allowing the viewer to see modern society in a new perspective never quite visualized in such a way. Similar to Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera", Reggio's "Koyaanisquatsie" contains that same element of familiarity. The entirety of "Koyaanisquatsie" was a film of looking at the inside from the outside. Reggio's "Koyaanisqatsi" would have to be my second most enjoyable film after Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera."

This Crazy Life

For me, obviously, I was somewhat underwhelmed by "Koyaanisqatsi." Which isn't at all to say I didn't like it, because I did, and the visuals were literally stunning. Reggio captures the majesty of nature and human creation side by side in a jaw-dropping way. My problem with the movie as an avant-garde film in this course is that, at 86 minutes, I believe it needs more to say with all that time. It was frustrating to watch such a long movie whose only point seemed to be: Nature is awesome, and Man has tarnished that. The films we have watched this semester have all been very intellectually complex and been as much about changing the film medium as the ideas they present; at times this film reminded me of "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her," but without that film's deeply curious sense of thought. The other fundamental problem that bothers me is that the pure & perfect natural world that Reggio focuses on is completely devoid of man, and then he contrasts this with the tackiness and industrialization of man. It feels like he could be advocating that man should not be here rather than that we should be finding a different path in life, which I do not support. But, maybe I am wrong, and he is just observing the changes that we have caused. Still, it's a beautiful film with a beautiful score. I just wanted it to delve a little deeper, and in a more condensed fashion.

Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi was an incredibly powerful movie. I enjoyed it to no end. The quality of the footage was extremely impressive, as was Reggio's usage of slow-motion. It really emphasized how majestic all of the landscape was. I did find it ironic that it was a rejection of high technology, yet the only way this film could be shot was with the most advanced film technology available at the time. Reggio admitted in an interview that he saw how ironic and 'hypocritical' it was that we would do such a thing, but that he embraced the irony as there would be no other way to convey his message. My favorite part would have to be the zoom-out that begins close on the beach and then out a little bit showing the beach-goers, and then the full scene was the beach with the massive looming nuclear power plant in the background. I loved the music and I think it went extremely well with the movement on screen and I was simply in awe that these places exist on our planet.

Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi was an impressively beautiful film, but I can't say that I enjoyed it quites as much as everyone else did. Yes, the images were exquisite, but there is only so much "pretty" that I can watch for an extended period of time with out becoming impatient. I was reminded of pictures of nature in calenders or on screen savers. They're really pretty, but it doesn't make up for the fact that you're not experiencing it for yourself. I feel like I would've gotten more out of my time had I sat outside and actually watched nature in action in real life and real time. That being said, I like that the film was intended to raise questions instead of answer them. Sometimes the political and social motives of a film can take away from its artistic merit, but Koyaanisqatsi only lightly hints at politcal/social/environmental actions and instead invites the viewer to consider their own point of view. I guess in a way it is the difference between looking and seeing. Instead of looking at the way a filmaker views the subject, we are being invited to see the subject and make our ideas.

Koyaanisqatsi

After the previous week, this weeks screening was a great improvement. I really enjoyed Koyaanisqatsi, its images were poetic and beautiful, even if some of them were trying to convey the essential imbalance between man and nature. Although I agree with what was said today, that maybe the film was a little long for the idea it was trying to present, but I feel as if it was interesting enough to not become redundant or boring. I enjoyed every cloud and city scene, and I also liked how it came full circle in the end. Also, I'm not sure if Reggio ever saw Man With a Movie Camera, but some of the scenes were undeniably similar. I don't think Reggio ripped off the ideas for his scenes, but it is interesting to note how portraying both the greatness and issues with industrialization can come out so similar in two different films. Overall though, Koyaanisqatsi was probably one of my favorite films all semester.

Koyaanisqatsi was awesome, in all senses of the word. It both filled me with awe at the power of environment, whether it's a city or a natural one, and was really, fantastically, just plain cool.

I was struck while watching it at the similarities between it and Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera. Both of the films look at the cities with these omniscient eyes. There's that repetitive, yet perfectly placed music in both, setting the most mundane of actions (like walking through a city or working at a Twinkie factory) against the most awesome of things (the invention and growth of transportation) and working perfectly with both of them.

I don't necessarily think Reggio ripped off Vertov in his filmmaking; it was more of an equally as impressive update from a slightly different point of view. The movies were in the same vein, as all soap operas, for instance,are, but each can survive and be moving and fantastic on its own.

And Phillip Glass, too, fills me with awe. The score is one that seems to embody and define the progression of life, which seems to me like it would be a pretty hard thing to accomplish.

koyaanisqatsi

Some of the films a week before last failed to move me as others in the past have. No matter how seemingly pointless or inaccessible a film we watch seems to be, I can usually form some sort of personal explanation or conclusion about it. Even if it's not exactly what the film is really about, or what the director wanted one to get from it, I like reaching my own conclusions about a film. However, I couldn't form any sort of personal conjecture about these films to give them a deeper meaning. Perhaps that is due to their structural nature, which sets them so far apart from the others anyway. Part of what makes them what they are is the method in which they were compiled, so maybe this just made them seem drier and less emotional to me. And Kren's news pieces didn't seem remotely avant-garde to me. I'm not trying to be a snob; I simply didn't see any distinction between them and any other old news piece.

Koyaanisqatsi. I loved it. I was as absolutely immersed in its existence as I could ever imagine to be. The world became a rhythmic music video of the orchestral score accompanying it. the only thing that disheartened me was the fact that the underlying themes (and methods/content to portray them) are very similar to the ones in my film essay. Or at least my ideal film essay. It's as if Koyaanisqatsi visualized, on a much more grandoise and professional scale, the essence of the idea that I've dreamed of explaining through my essay. Nature is the only true and reliable aspect of this life that we are living in. It is natural, true, and reliable. Technological advances and human conventions muddle this clear view of the natural pure take on life.

Trees

Out of all of the films we watched last week, 3/60 Bäume im Herbst was probably my favorite. Not only because it was two minutes long but also because I loved the sound and images. I love looking up at webs of branches and thinking about the different interesting pictures that could be taken of them so to see an endless sequence of them was really interesting to me. I cannot even begin to grasp the amount of dedication and patience it must have taken to make this film. Two years of work for a five minute film is a mind blowing concept to me. I have never attempted any sort of stop animation or still shot filmmaking but I understand that it is quite a tedious process, something hard for an ADD mind such as my own to handle. The metriculous planning of each and every shot must have been overwhelming. I don’t quite understand the concept of sound being written into the film because I am only familiar with the editing techniques used in film making today. I did feel like the sound contributed to the film a lot. The roaring seemed to give the whole movie a more intense tone about it and made the trees seem almost menacing and frightening. It could have been a sequence in a horror movie.

moviessss

I must agree with Katherine, the screening last week was anything but captivating. Kurt Kren’s 15/67 TV seemed completely ridiculous. What was supposed to be so interesting or innovative about watching a German guy puff on a cigar and say a few random news briefs? Malcolm Le Grice’s Berlin Horse was visually appealing at first, but as time went I found it to be rather repetitive. However, this film was much easier to endure than many of the films we previously viewed. I really enjoyed the seeing crazy colors and watching the horse’s movements. Chris Marker’s La Jetée was one of the more narrative pieces we’ve seen, so I liked that aspect of it. On the other hand, it didn’t hold my attention as well as I thought it would. Maybe it was the drab coloring or the monotonous voice that lured me into a state of stupor, but I did appreciate the concept Marker was aiming for. My favorite piece of the night was by far Peter Weiss’ Studie II: Hallucinationer. The images he created were truly enchanting, and every scene made me think of a new idea. The angles that he explored and the juxtaposition of body parts from different people were great.

Kurt Kren

I liked the idea that Kurt Kren had such a set idea of what he was going to make in 3/60 Bäume im Herbst. Initially I thought that it was just a bunch of random stills of different angles of trees. It's really cool that he knew precisely what angles he wanted to create this film. To me, it was almost like a kaleidoscope or some abstract painting. The entire film seemed circular and this was apparently achieved through the speed in which the frames were switched. In some ways the pseudo-randomness of it reminded me of the free-form, naked eye kind of camera use in Brakhage's films.
I also enjoyed Peter Weiss' work. The body parts appeared to be from the same body but did not connect. I'm not sure why I liked it. I guess it was cool looking.
I wish I had the attention span to fully enjoy Chris Marker's film but alas I fell asleep for some of it. The film seemed to be one of the few films with a certain narrative but what was portrayed on-screen was quite different.

15/67 TV

Our last screening was kind of a blur. Watching so many short films, a few of them blended together, or were forgotten almost completely until a review of the syllabus. The two pieces that stuck out the most in my memory were Kren's 15/67 TV and the News series.

I liked the simplicity of repetition that 15/67 was composed of. Learning that the five or however many scenes were cut apart and puzzle-pieced back together from our readings was not so much enlightening -- you could definitely find shots repeated and some of the cuts were jumpy and noticeable -- but just interesting. I put '15/67 TV kurt kren' into a Google search and the first result was "Lord of the Frames: Kurt Kren." This random website really tied together the readings about Kren's cut and remake methods with his reputation.

I also remember reading that Kren added the TV to the end of the title because, to him, it reminded him of watching TV. I didn't get this feeling at all, really. I felt more like I was in the pub, near the dock, watching the girls pass time rather than sitting on my couch at home, watching it all from my own world. However, once we watched the TV news series at the end, which was simply a bunch of short shots of a man reading the news while smoking a cigar, I felt like I was watching TV and could, in a way, relate to Kren. It almost seemed like the casual manner of the newscaster, smoking his cigar, reading news from the paper, should have been more connectable but, because it was in the setting of a newsroom, I immediately related it to television.

Kren's films, though clearly not driven by narrative, are very intricate in their details. His technical work makes them more watchable and enjoyable, for me at least.

Last week

Last week was, in my opinion, the most boring screening that I have endured so far this semester. A few films were interesting, such as Berlin Horse, but the majority of them merely put me to sleep. Unfortunately, the film I thought was the most interesting was the one that I slept through the most of. La Jetée interested me, and I believed it had great potential to be a complex, interesting film. However, once the sound was turned off, I was out like a light. I am disappointed that I missed much of the second half of this film. Berlin Horse interested me because it reminded me of the artwork of Kandinsky and the film was just beautiful.

To be honest, last week's screening was probably one of the most forgettable for me. None of the films in particular really stood out or spoke to me (at least in comparison to many of the other films we have watched this semester). but just because these films didn't initially enchant me doesn't mean they are boring or without merit. I've been re-watching some of them and one that I have completely changed my mind about is LeGrice's Berlin Horse. Last Thursday I was horribly annoyed by the seemingly mindless repetition, both in terms of Eno's music and LeGrice's visuals. But watching it again, I was struck by the beauty of the colors and the haunting quality the visuals obtain through such repetition (even if the endless circling did start to make me feel sick).
I can't say I've achieved quite the same appreciation for the repetition of Breme's Baume im Herbst, but I am very interested to discuss it more and try to find the same beauty in it that I found in LeGrice's film.

La Jetée

Chris Marker's film "La Jetée" is probably one of the top five films that I have most enjoyed this semester. So much of the film is unique - from its plot to the use of screenshots. The post- apocalyptic setting and time travel combined with the romance aspect works so well together. I’m not sure if I would have liked the film if it didn’t have the romance aspect, because I probably would be to creeped out by the idea of the world ending and time travel. However the man’s obsession with this image of this woman and the science experiments that allow him to imagine his life with this woman raised a lot of questions when I was watching the film. Is he really imagining this woman or does she actually exist? In the end we learn what really happened, but I think this does relate to our life through our dreams. Can people really imagine the person of our dreams while we sleep? Can we really control what we dream of?

I especially loved the use of screen shots. It added a genuine romantic quality, like photographs of a real couple together. The music is another element I must mention. I rewatched the film online with sound and I was struck by the juxtaposition between the haunting gothic-like music in the beginning of the film that goes along with the post-apocalyptic setting and the beautiful romantic music in the scene where the couple visits the museum.

Overall, I was very pleased with film.

second time's a charm

So I have a confession… this was actually my second time watching Chris Marker’s La Jetee. I last watched the film over a year ago, and my feelings towards it have not changed. I was happy to realize that I still found the film as beautifully and tragically intriguing as before, despite the loss of sound. Marker’s decision to use still photographs seems so very appropriate, especially during the sequences depicting the man’s time spent with the woman of his dreams. It is the only time when you can witness pure joy in the laughter and amusement of the characters. It is almost as though Marker has captured a treasured memory, trapped in a time which can never be lost. The camera sort of freezes motion and yet preserves it in such a perfect way that, in my opinion, surpasses the ideas of cinematic motion of the 1920s avant-garde artists. I love how he inserts just one clip of motion within the film; the woman blinks and smiles so naturally that the viewer has difficulty ascertaining if she just imagined it. Watching the film on Thursday, I vaguely noticed a few similarities in theme with Meshes in the Afternoon, particularly the concept of drifting in and out of time, of being unsure whether you are awake or asleep. And, of course, they both have that crazy twist at the end. What does it mean for a man to witness his own death?

Blow Job Revisited

Sorry for the out of order posts, after this I will stop. I don't feel as though I can attack or defend Andy Warhol's Blow Job. Both have been done--we're over it. Yes it was boring. I couldn't help thinking, 'Wow, this is taking forever...' as I was watching it. And that was pretty much the point. Warhol was totally interested in the temporal axis, in investigating film's nuances as a medium and the characteristics that make it unique. Although the guy in the film probably got more out of it than I did, it was NEW and totally obsessed with the passage of time, and that's what really mattered to this structuralist film movement. It's interesting how Warhol slowed the number of frames per second to a crawl when thinking back to filmmakers like Breer who were pushing the human eye past its limits by speeding up the pace of the film. I like the way Blow Job forces you to pay close attention to what is happening because of the sheer lack of action and movement. Each blink of the man's eye and the tilt of his head is a major happening within the context of this film. The shadows he creates unintentionally add to the chirascuro happening in the basic shot, which adds to the overall mood of the film and its interest in low-lifeness. Reading the interview with Warhol actually made me a little more annoyed with this film, just because of the randomosity that he was spewing about his views as a filmmaker and the fast pace with which he was making films at the time. It almost felt as though individual films like this one didn't count for much in his crazy whirlwind world of film exploration. I guess his inability to speak clearly about his work and even to take it seriously made me a little more skeptical of the value of an experiment in time like Blow Job.

Trees in Autumn

I found Baume im Herbst to be very intriguing. Yes, it was simply a film depicting "Trees in Autumn" but to me I found a lot more in it. For my production class' midterm we were asked to pick a theme and film variations on it. Before seeing this film I had chosen fall, specifically leaves falling during autumn. After screening this film I adjusted it to be "Nature during Fall." Kurt Kren was able to use much shorter durations for his shots than I attempted but the feel of my film echoed his in the way the wind dominates the sound and the complexity of trees and their branches weaving in and out of each other. Kren gave me the ability to interpret my footage in a way I'm not sure I could have achieved before viewing this film. The simplicity was helpful in translating it for my uses and I was more able to determine which footage was more interesting to view. This film is a collection of shots that consist only of the trees. The black and white gave it another layer on intensity which was probably subconscious, nature looks a lot more eerie in black and white than it does in color.

My favorite film from last week was La Jetee, because it was just the kind of weird Science Fiction that I love to read. The limited movement created by showing still frames instead of animated film made it wonderfully unique. I only wish that the sound had been working better... maybe the MRC will update to the Criterion Collection version? (ah, I wish).

While the parts that took place during the nuclear holocaust were low budget, literally underground affairs, the atmosphere remained spooky and threatening. Even though the main character succeeded by being useful to the scientists, it still seemed like they would always take the chance to get rid of him needlessly. While the story was beautiful, it also doesn't make too much sense for the scientists to have tried to send him back to the past anyway. It works well for the story because it gives the loop back to the airport, but on the basis of helping the remnants of humanity, nothing happens. Perhaps it was showing that he held the real control during the dream journeys, since he did as he pleased (more or less)?

The looped affect to the end was subtle, unexpected, and a little sad, but it made for a great ending.

Berlin Horse

Berlin Horse caught my eye and kept my attention for many reasons. As separate as it felt from most of the other films we've seen so far, it called upon some earlier pieces in a striking way. There was a serious parallel between the second part of Berlin Horse and the early Lumiere Brothers film Workers Leaving the Factory. I felt a similar sort of relief and calmness (even though the building is on fire...) as the horses were being through the door to what I felt when we watched that film way back when. The simplicity and the variations on a theme called to mind our initial discussion of "looking" vs. "seeing." I felt as though I saw Berlin Horse. I've always thought that horses are particularly fascinating animals. They are so strong and muscular but at the same time are really graceful and beautiful--that rich contrast really propelled the footage that Le Grice used. It was also sad, the way the horse was tied to a rope, running around and around reiterating the same circle over and over again, and yet, especially in the second part, it seemed like the horses were invincible in their strength and beauty. It was dizzying, but in a way I was able to deal with (unlike many of Brakhage's whirlwind sequences of nature). Whereas filmmakers like Warhol were exploring the temporal axis of film, it seems like Le Grice is much more interested in the spatial axis--in realizing the full potential of this found footage within each frame. Le Grice utilizes many stark editing techniques including the use of negative exposure of film, reversing the film to make the horse move backwards, double exposure, speeding-up and vibrant color filters that called to mind the horses in the city of Oz. Often, all these techniques and others I can't name or am not aware of are combined in a single sequence. Le Grice's overwhelming editing and creation of simplistic but beautifully rich abstraction made this film rewarding for me.

15/16

I found the film I most recall from last week's screenings was Kren's 15/16. There was something about the simplicity and repetitive quantity of shots that made me really try to figure out Kren's objective. The film seemed to suck you into its multiple layers- the silhouettes sitting in the cafe, with the people walking in the middle ground and the dockyard in the background. I seemed to focus on different things at different times, yet it all also seemed to be repeating itself. It seemed almost like Kren was trying to mess with you by making you look at one layer, switch to another, and then by the time you came back to the layer you were looking at before it was repeating itself. I think this sets up an abstraction of time that changes the literal perception of things going on around you to constant cycles.

Color & Horses

Re-watching "Berlin Horses" by Le Grice again on YouTube, I have decided it was my favorite of the many movies we watched last week. Its simplistic, lo-fi beauty and shimmering use of color leave a lasting impression. In fact, its use of bright colors is perhaps so fascinating because all of the other films we watched were so devoid of color. Its mixing of negatives, its play with rhythm, and its reverse play give "Berlin Horse" a look and feel that create something unusual from the banality of these two horse scenes. Brian Eno's music throughout gives the film a playful, psychedelic, carnivalesque vibe that accentuates the vibrancy of the color's, and I especially like the way the rounds of music seem to mirror the path and pattern of the trotting horse. In its extreme use of color and exploration of visual texture, Le Grice seems heavily influenced by Len Lye's work, though the lyricism of Brakhage is also very apparent. This is a stirring and addictively beautiful film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDj8Tc6259o

tv-news

My favorite film from last week's viewing is TV-News by Peter Weibel. This was really really humorous to me, but also had some substance behind it. It had all of the makings of an over-the-top parody, yet used these aspects to portray meaning. The newscaster in the film is the typical character - smooth voiced, sharply dressed, excessively hairsprayed. The most important (and campy) part is the fact that he is puffing heavily on a cigar throughout the film. As he drones through the day's news, the frame fills up with his cigar smoke. The smoke begins to haze him out and induce coughing fits which obstruct the flow of his speech. Other than the coughing, he does not seem to acknowledge the developing smokescreen. He continues to smoke, ash the cigar, and roll it in his lips. This is important because it shows his indifference to the effects that it is having on him and the newscast. My interpretation of this is that it relates to the apathy that can be seen at most newsdesks. As he reads critical news (smokes) which should affect him (as the smoke causes coughing) he ignores it until it consumes him (or should.)

Although last weeks screening included some interesting films, I can't say I saw the point in many of them. Kren's "Baume im Herbst" was pretty and powerful in its own way, but 5 minutes of trees is not exactly an awe-inspiring concept. Additionally, I did appreciate how "Berlin Horse" played with color in new ways contrasting different scenes of the horse running, but again, it seemed like a video was way too extended and drawn out. Also, I'm not sure of the title, but I could not see why we needed to hear a foreign news report with a man who smoked too many cigars. The only one with a particular plot was Marker's La Jetee. I really liked the story behind it, though I think our sound issues made it seem a little more tedious than it should have. Overall, I wasn't exactly bored, but we've had better screenings.