[Frameworks] Films that question truth

[Ann Deborah Levy]

Hi Morgan,

My film “WATERSCAPE: illusions” is about myth and reality and creates an illusion (deception) that is gradually exposed.  Here is a description:

“WATERSCAPE: illusions” is a meditation on myth and reality. The setting of this self-reflexive film is the surface of a mysterious wilderness lake, its reflected surroundings, and its swans.  Off-screen voices personify the thoughts of a woman making a film and serve as the focus for an exploration of how reality is distorted as it is filtered through the human mind in art, mythology, and science.  The filmmaker reads from her shooting diary; girls recount swan myths; a scholar discusses swan symbolism; and “experts” from across history ponder whether swans sing at death. These scenarios interweave throughout but do not intersect.  As they play out against the escapades of the real swans, lines between illusion and truth blur. 

The film, itself, as document of reality, becomes suspect when its wilderness environment is exposed as a suburban setting; the voice we’ve assumed is the filmmaker’s turns out to belong to an actress; what appears to take place over a calendar year, proves from diary entry dates, to take place over several; and decisions made in the course of filming reveal themselves as subjective choices.  Filmmaking is “myth-making” as much as the fairy tales told about swans throughout.  

 (rt: 52 minutes, original format 16mm, in color and black and white, with sound)


If you are interested in seeing it, please contact me off list.

Ann


> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 5 May 2017 04:35:21 +0000 (UTC)
> From: Morgan Hoyle-Combs <mhoylecombs at yahoo.com>
> To: <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
> Subject: [Frameworks] Films that question truth
> Message-ID: <1026797499.2824132.1493958921208 at mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> 
> Hello again everyone. 
> 
> A while ago I asked about films that focused on the theme of lying. Recently I rewatched Man with a Move Camera (1929) and Megacities (1998) and both seemed to be examples of how the camera, or camera man, can alter the definition of truth in documentaries, that claim to present subject matter as truth. I know this is a vague set up and the topic of "truth" could be elaborated on for hours and hours. But. I'm just looking for films, docs and essays, that theorize the idea of truth and play with the audience's expectation. I've already been given F for Fake, David Holzman's Diary and Bleu Shut as examples from my last email. Is there any more out there? 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> -Morgan

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