ettasexperiment-blog - Tumblr blog

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for my work, please check out this new blog.

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reaction to "As I Was Moving Ahead..." excerpt:

once you get lost in it, once your mind starts wandering, triggered by something he said, and you stay off track for a few moments or a whole minute, then you complete your thought and notice you are watching and begin to think about what you are watching and the overwhelming beauty of your thoughts guided by the images and the moment you come back and appreciate the view, appreciate what is being shared, how personal, how he captured particular movements of the baby's hand, how the film zooms in and jumps out highlighting tiny details of place and history.. the music. his voice, an old man's voice now, talking to you. it's inspiring. i can do this, you think. not this, this is his, but i can do. i can create. what i create will be something different, but it will be.

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"As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty" (2000) by Jonas Mekas

(what an incredible title.)

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"As I was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty" dir Jonas Mekas, 2000 [exerpt]

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sensory spell

it's an experience of a film. (experiential? did we decide that's a word?)

the images move so rapidly, and it's not exactly images as much as it seems to be mutated film, and the whole things feels out of control, yet contained. contained within the square film projection.

the cracks and circles (burns?) are so erratic and fast that it's quite "nervy," if i understand that to be an abbreviated form of "nervous." (was it a thing to abbrev words in the '90s?) but the sound diverts the nervousness of the image into something coherent and comfortable, flowing. almost like a dance piece. the shapes dance to the music harmoniously. so while what we're watching is erratic, what we're hearing while watching it ties it together.

part of me wishes that the sound was also erratic, or there was no music at all so that the "nervy"-ness might be more nerve-producing. but at the same time, i like how the image still conveys this very nervous message while the music sort of grounds it. it reminds me of an anxiety attack, but both from the outside and the inside. i mean: the image on its own feels like the anxiety and the shortness of breath and panic and the "i have to get out of here, have to move" feelings of anxiety; the music on the other hand almost feels like the rest of the world. whenever i've gotten really bad anxiety, it always astounded me that the rest of the world seemed to take no notice, to function as normal while my whole world was coming apart inside. the music is like the rest of the world, calm and oblivious to the frantic panic felt inside.

really cool.

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http://www.ubu.com/film/reeves_nervy.html

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"The Girl's Nervy" (1995) by Jennifer Reeves

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crappy internet at my house has limited posting abilities

BUT yesterday rewatched Kenneth Anger's "Puce Moment" with a friends. so i'll be writing about that today.

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my internet is crapping out tonight.... i'll try to post a still, but more to come on Marina Abramovic tomorrow.

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this shit

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Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful

this piece i remember from film school. we watched it in an experimental video workshop taught by Irene Lusztig. for this viewing, i'm going to try to forget what i thought of it before, but maybe i should try to remember first.

it's a memorable piece: a woman (Marina Abramovic) sits/stands in front of a camera brushing her hair and repeating the words "art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful." she says it distinctly each time, and then more and more fervently she brushes her hair until her brush strokes are quite violent and she swings her head back and forth with the force of each stroke. it's disturbing to watch, and i remember people laughing uncomfortably when it was screened in class.

as women in the culture i'm from, these united states, we're told just this: it's not enough that your work is beautiful, if you're a woman you must be beautiful as well. when Kathryn Bigelow won an Oscar for best directing in 2010 for "The Hurt Locker," i remember hearing a lot about how "hot" she was, "especially for her age." her looks mattered. what about fucking Tom Hooper who won the following year for "The King's Speech"? google him. no one said a thing about how he looked. or how about Danny Boyle the year before? his looks, definitely not applicable.

this is nothing new. Abramovic's piece is from 1975. the fervor with which she brushes her hair and the pain it apparently causes her and the absurdity that she continues on with it for so long in the video even though it's causing her pain is powerful.

as women, why do we play into this absurd notion that we must be beautiful? why do we withstand the pain? what are we gaining?

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they do exist. it's as simple as that. and they are not going anywhere, unless they are killed, and they do not fear death.

it's a propaganda film. some of it seems to be scripted, while other parts seem observational. the director calls it "militant cinema." i saw it as a rally cry to defend the land, die for it, have no fear, hold onto pride, exist.

it was beautiful and powerful. the contrast between sound and image was striking and thought-provoking. sometimes it matched, other times it contrasted, sometimes there was no sound at all. when you watch it, pay attention to when and what is heard.

the simplicity of the placards during chapter three, the history of genocide, is powerful. it doesn't complicate the message, simply tries to inform.

it seemed like some of the translation was not there... i wonder why. the people speaking seemed to go on quite longer that what was said in the subtitles. was the filmmaker, Abu Ali, only highlighting some parts of the speech for emphasis? and why those parts, for the English-speaking audience? Arabic speakers would understand all of it. what was the choice in selecting only some of what the subjects were saying to translate?

let's say it is censored, and for the purpose of keeping the message straightforward. most of what was translated was no fear of death, martyrdom, dying for the land. this would be the message for the English-speaking audience. "it doesn't matter how many of us you kill, we'll still be here and we are strong." (and the other question that comes from that: who is the video intended for? Palestinians? Israelis or separately, the Israeli government? sympathetic English-speakers? was it translated into other languages?)(another thought: was the translation even done by Abu Ali and does it matter? is the filmmaker or the film to be looked at? that's a more complicated question, for another time.)

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after the man looks directly into the camera and points historically to crimes committed by imperial powers,

the video cuts to plans flying low over hills, also to bombs being loaded onto Israeli military planes.all the while, European classical music plays,

to remind the audience who really is the imperialist power, whose interests are being protected at their cost. it's not pop music, it's not jazz or folk, but classical music, high society music.

rich people sounds. that's who sends the planes that raze refugee camps.