[Frameworks] essay film

Sat May 25 03:22:15 UTC 2019

Hi Morgan:

Suppose we imagine a catalogue of documents and a hand-written journal. The
moving image is now collectable into something like a digital scrap-book.
There are artists (Jayce Salloum comes to mind) who go through very large
amounts of footage. Such a practice, as in Salloum's case, might also be
involved in various kinds of recordable media, documentation and
collection, exhibition strategies and approaches to identification or
commentary - the art gallery begins to look like a storage room, archive,
or library display. It would oppressive to insist on the lyricism of a
strong writer in the traditional sense. For me it has been valuable to move
out of the cinematic context and to return to other formats and means of
dissemination. Whatever it is that is satisifying about this would not, in
my opinion, qualify as an essay, which on paper is a particular way of
organizing sentences, and a general approach to the kinds of sentences one
can use. But I would not consider a diary video a work suitable for
comparison with the conventional essay. There is a measured and composed
dimension of what would best qualify as an essay film (Harun Farocki and
Chris Marker come to mind, Abraham Ravett and Birgit Hein, too; and here I
have to withdraw my dismissal of the term made with the student paper
assignment in mind). In any event, the first milestone is dropping this
obsession with film festivals (if it were that simple). The next would be,
perhaps, to ask what the value of the image to be used is. At this point I
give up the digital image altogether, and return to the photographic frame,
paring down to an essence what would be a mere word in such an "essay." You
can now introduce the word "poetry" to join ranks, but these terms seem to
me to be without a lot interest, a way to label for a book index that could
just as well have gone very differently. Check out a shorts program at the
Chicago Underground Film Festival next month and ask yourself how much
these terms are doing for you.

Bernie

______________

Here are my thoughts, if I'm reading this correctly, is that the term
"essay" is a loose excuse for someone cobbling together a bunch of
moving images which might be a free flowing stream of consciousness
that they are not quite aware of. I say this because I feel like I'm
falling into this category. For the past few years I've been doing my
own "documentary" or "essay" on a particular group of people and I
feel like it's the only vague description I can feed anyone should
they question my motives for filming. My intent is much more deeper
and personal, but I'd rather reveal it when I feel the product is
finished.

But in terms of trying to make a "documentary" to cover a particular
subjects with a specific rhetoric, setting itself out to covering
something as 'real', 'truthful', 'problematic' and 'fixable' is indeed
a theme that has been done plenty of times. Because of this, I think a
lot of people in my age range in particular will fall back on the
theme of "essay" or "diary-film" in hopes to avoid scoffs, eye rolls
and ridicule. The group that I'm focusing on in particular has pushed
out Documentary after Documentary after Documentary after Documentary.
Honestly, there's that many. And everyone of them contain the same
101, introductary message "we're good people, please don't say mean
things about us".

Perhaps this is something I should keep in mind for myself. Although I
am keeping a journal of my personal accounts with this group, good
times, bad times, shits and giggles alike, I do feel like I've been
shooting with a stream of consciousness. Everything is a bunch of
scrabbled eggs.

As a lost, semi-frustrated, caffeinated 31 year old, I ask
photographers, journalists, and poets alike. What would you have me
do?

M
--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 5/22/19, Bernard Roddy <roddybp0 at gmail.com
<https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks>> wrote:

 Subject: [Frameworks] essay film
 To: frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com
<https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks>
 Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2019, 9:35 PM

 Friends and
 colleagues, the essay is not really a suitable expression,
 form, or metaphor for what can be done in the medium of the
 moving image. The whole idea belongs to an undergraduate
 class that has to make the case to someone who is in
 college. The closer the works look and feel like essays, the
 worse they are.
 To a certain extent, we can hear the request: one
 wants to assign something to someone, one wants to make
 progress with a new generation of scholars and students, one
 wants to be legitimized, authorized, admitted into the
 syllabi and a table of contents. There will then be an easy
 passage from one kind of reading to another, between the
 page and screen.
 I couldn't really distinguish between
 accompanying someone and seeing such a work. I couldn't
 really say I cared until I found myself a witness. To be a
 witness to something, and to approach what it might have
 been like if the artist had witnessed it without the means
 of recording it, that is what makes or breaks an essay
 film.

 Bernie_______________________________________________
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