Green Door Photo

Final Paper

2006-05-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Photographic Memories

“We tend to view our childhood generically, as if it were a home movie- birthdays, summer vacations, snowstorms, video versions of domestic pastoral. The art of memoir… entails re- editing the movie, putting the pastoral up against history.
-The Familial Gaze

As with so many things, the very process of the making this project brought me to an entirely new point of view on my own subject matter. My friend explained to me the other day that she only really grasps all that she is trying to say in an essay as she writes the very last words. It is at this point which we usually end up going back and re- editing what we have written with our new found knowledge, and a great deal more perspective. This re-editing happened for me in the project itself and also in my ideas of which my project is based upon. Perhaps I was interested in pursuing the subject because I really had no idea what I felt about it. Every step I took seemed to force me to step back and re-evaluate the decisions I had already made, which in turn heightened the significance of those falters.
The Film History and Memory by Rea Tajiri, greatly inspired me to research and inspect my own angst about the documentation of myself and my family. Though my intentions were not politically driven like Rea, the need for a true remembrance of your history is very relevant to any person. I was very interested by the use of old movies as the primary source of footage for the film. This of course was not only to prove a point about the artificiality of those representations of her heritage, but also because there was no real footage to be used. It was an event that was purposefully not documented. This absence of documentation haunts Tajiri and she revisits the concentrations camps that stole these memories, in order to try to bring some sense of her history to her and her mother.
At one point in her film, she describes a frustration with her mother for not being angry enough at the loss of her memories and the racist treatment that was later completely denied. This was a powerful element as I had too felt frustration with my mother for forgetting things I feel she should have remembered for the sake of her daughters and for herself.
Rea uses voice over a great deal in her film and It sets the tone that she is telling you her story and therefore she can be sure you get from it what she feels is most important. I included voiced over as a key element in my film because I was telling my personal story. In my case I do want the viewer to evaluate their own ideas on the issues of memory and their personal history but it was important to use my voice to guide the story along.
In History and memory there is a repetition of footage of her mother washing her hands and face. This was a recreation from a memory and was used deliberately to show the viewer Rea’s need make a connection back to something concrete, something she knows happened. The action becomes significant and the viewer begins to recognize it, as it is repeated multiple times. I used repetition in my film to explain who I am now and how these theories and frustrations have affected me as artist. The footage of the darkroom is used both in the beginning and at the end, making a clear distinction from the footage that makes up the central part of the film.
The very process of the making, re-shooting and then editing of this video has proven almost more significant than the end result. It is a memory in of itself that I have created as a response to my mixed feelings about my childhood memories. The tone throughout the film changes to reflect the change that occurred in my own process. It is at times serious and sentimental, at times comedic and at times a little frustrating but only in this manner can it fully illustrate my deliberations over my own photographic memories.

Paradise Now

2006-04-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

This film was incredible, the little nuances of the filming and dialogue were wonderful, it made me realize that watching with subtitles, I was probably loosing some of the relevance and details in the speech, but I still found this to a very strong point of the movie. The depth in which you get to know the main characters becomes heart wrenching and all the more powerful when it becomes clear what they have chosen to endure for their resistance. I think the subtlety of the filming was so effective; everything was careful and the slow pace of everything at the beginning portrayed such a true to life situation. The fact that there is almost no actual violence in the film both surprised and delighted me. I thought that any filmmaker choosing to make a movie about suicide bombers would surely want to include a lot of violence to display the horrors of war. The choice not to focus of this aspect of the story made the people and their plight all the more interesting; because it was the plight of wanting to live that we focused on as viewers.

There was a lot of very subtle repetition, the water filter, the woman’s blue car, the act of taking a picture, and having to re-do this action. These slight repetitions kept our attention focused on the everyday existence of the men in the film instead of the much bigger more looming circumstances. It also led us to remember past scenes from the movie without it being obvious why. They worked well to carry the story without seams.

I loved the costuming for the later part of the movie. The suits they wore were very simple black suits and everywhere they went everyone assumed they were either going to a wedding or a funeral. This expectation from everyone that they were going to something either very joyful or very sullen also added another layer because they change their own minds through out the story, whether it is a joyful or sullen thing they are choosing to do. Their mission, like both a wedding and a funeral, is an obligation for them.

Bombshell/ Joe Farbrook

2006-03-17T11:12:00.000-08:00

Bombshell:

This film by Usama Alshaibi is made up entirely of footage he got from off the streets or other places, that was shot for the purpose of glorifying and documenting Saddam H.'s regime. There is footage of dancing girls, torturing people, bombing cities and towns and also of Saddam's own personal life with his friends and family. Through almost the whole piece there is a splot screen wth usually either very complimentary scenes playing at once or very juxtaposing scenes. The sound and image quality were both very low becuase of where the footage was taken from, but this ends up adding to the look and feel of the piece. There is often voice overs from american news reels and this is particularly disturbing because of how distant they seem to be to what is happeing in the visual part. It is particularly effective when it shows saddam at home or at the birthday party and then the horrific torturing on the other side. Seeing these two sides of his life next to each other is very disturbing.

Joe Farbrook:

The 3-d world that was created for his interactive game was done very well, with amazing graphics and visuals. the sounds are aslo very well done, i like how simple the sounds are becuase they are all very diliberate where as usually there is a lot of sound over sound over sound. This project has a great simplicity to it that cant easily be done with real shooting of film. the world is created so everything is controlled but it is great becuase it is the person veiwing it who gets to decide how they are going to navigate throught this created world. Each part of the game takes the person somewhere else and also changes greatly in the scale that the person viewing feels. The diner feels like walking through a real life scene and then being inside the cell phone creates a very different scale and again for the world trade towers. The feeling created is one of solitude and sadness, is is very dark and feels asthough it is a journey through someone else's mind.

Reem Bader

2006-03-17T10:58:00.000-08:00

Living with a constant hardship, she shows herself living her life with chairs beneath her feet everywhere she goes. there are some words written on the screen that read "and life goes on..." this comes up mulitiple times in the film. She shows the "handicap" effecting each and every part of her life by starting when she gets up in the morning and going about her day, with her chairs on her feet. She chooses to speed the footage up a little bit and to makes cuts within each scene. i think she chooses to do this in order to keep the veiwers interest but it may take away from the feeling she is trying to get at of how tiresome and painstaking her everyday process is. She uses the dissolve quite a bit to show the passing of time during one scene, such as when she is walking by the busy road. The scene on the crowded street is very important becuase it shows her involvment with the people around her and society. She is basically ingored for the most part, no one is particulalry caring about her situation, ocassionally someone will stare but for the most part people are jaded to the existence of something being out of the ordinary Mostly her handicap just separates her from the rest of society. She is forced to look down constantly and to be preoccupied by her own problem. I think the tone of the film is that of carrying on even though there are struggles and hardships. The film maker isn't cheery about this situation but it is one she is willing to get through.

Dan Board/louis Valdervino

2006-03-17T10:47:00.000-08:00

The Film by Dan board and Louis Valdervino is very reminesent of Film Noir and old silent films. It is shot in a very haunting way, the opening scene a woman is sliding slowly towards the veiwer. The film seems to be shot with an older form of film, because it has the look of having time missing between stills, which also adds to the haunting qualities of the film. There are clips from older movies put into the film with music and sounds placd over them. I think this is an important tool in separating out the feeling of the old films from the actual context of the story with the dialogue and such. They use reverse a lot as a way to make the scenes even more sureal, they also use a lot of repitition to create the dreamlike feeling of the peice. There is a constant voice over of a women speaking in French, and there is a loose translation at the bottom of the screen. The translation doesn't seem that iportant to me becuase i think that the voice over seems more mood than story.

I've been reading...

2006-03-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

I’ve Been Reading Sylvia Duboure:

I had a little trouble getting into this film. I like the idea a lot and I like that she was comparing the life of Duboure and her own. The use of light and color were very nice and the music was enjoyable, but I think that everything could have been tied together a little bit better. I wanted to know more about the filmmaker’s life in comparison. I feel like there were hints at similarities but nothing was really coming through extremely well. There were a lot of repetitive devices, which worked really well for the concept. There were also a lot of symbols: the roses, the mirror, the bathrobes, etc.

The symbols were useful and worked for her ideas but they also came through as a little bit heavy-handed. The over all use of devices was well worked out but it seemed to me to be a little bit clumsy at times. I only notice this because they seem to show more than what they are trying to put across, when instead they should enhance the footage that is already there.

2006-03-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

Lisana Redbear:

Lisana’s piece was very powerful, it had a lot of great editing choices. I loved how simple the film was, including only a straight image of her in font of the camera. It was what was done to the images of her in front of the camera that created the changes in tone and feel of the piece. Throughout the film you see a skull completely surrounded by a black background. This ghostlike image carries through the whole piece, getting less and less prominent until you can see her real face. When you finally see her face you feel as though you have journeyed through the pain and thoughts of her mind and the lives of her ancestors.

The music also adds so much to the feeling of the piece. The rhythms are exaggerated by her movement and by the filters and effects used on the footage. The message is simple and direct and I feel like it says with no words what so many have said with many words. The power is in the images and sounds. It read to me like an unveiling of her feelings about the issues of her lost ancestry. As the film progresses we are slowly shown more and more of who she is once she can express the feeling and anger she carries over who she is.

Project Proposal

2006-02-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

Photographic Memories

I first became interested in photography out of pure neccessity. My parents weren't fond of taking pictures, and when i was old enough i started to feel like if i didn't document my life, who would. Since then i have become obsessed, as many people do, with "capturing" my life as it happens. I recall looking at photos of childhood and basing my memories around the photos, as if they were the very evidence of my exestence. Would i have a life it was not eternalized through pictures? Of course, but it would not be the same.

i would like to, with my project, inspect further my own and others' obessesion with documenting our existence. I think this tendency is obviously part culturally based and also reflective of our current time in history. the importance we hold in photographs and what they represent is very interesting to me and i think that there is a lot that can be said about it.

Arna's children

2006-02-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

Arna’s Children:

This was an excellent film. It showed a side of the current situation that I think no one even realizes happens at all in Palestine. The theatre and the children who attend the program there are such a positive atmosphere and I was so happy to see that those children had at least something that could be a positive outlet for their anger and frustrations. Arna is simply an amazing person to have put so much energy in to such a worth while project. She doesn’t encourage the children to hide away their anger, but instead allows them to express it in a peaceful and helpful way.

The way it was filmed was truly heart wrenching; to get to know these characters as small children and then to see them again throughout their lives and eventually to see some of them give their lives was so sad and so powerful. They found hope in something most people may have found to be insignificant and it did greatly effect them as adults, but their situation had not gotten better, it had gotten worse. Getting to know them as children put the viewer closer to understanding what it must feel like as the families of these boys; as their wives or mothers or children.

The film felt like a tribute to Arna and the wonderful things she worked so hard for, but it also showed how fragile those things were and that like everything else in their lives, their childhood sanctuary will be destroyed as well.

The editing back and forth from the footage of them acting out the plays to them as adults kept that connection very alive in the viewers mind. It was well filmed and composed of by Jule, Arna’s son. He was a presence in the children’s lives and came back to find a very sad story of most of the boys he had known and taught when they were children.
He even found himself completely submerged in their adult lives as he was caught in the middle of gunfire with them. This was a very complete story, and I think if it hadn’t contained footage over such a long period of time, it would not have been so complete or so powerful.

journal

2006-02-20T15:19:00.000-08:00

Video Journal

History and Memory:

This film was very moving and beautiful. I realized after that she used hardly any footage that she herself had filmed. The film was primarily made up of home videos and footage from old Hollywood movies or news footage. I love the use of the Hollywood films used to oppose the true reality of the situation. She also used a lot of repetition, more than I think I would have though as the film maker was needed, but that was so powerful and communicated so much. It was so relevant that so much came from so little actual memory. The rest was researched and found and discovered through investigation. I felt very connected to this film in particular, not because I am Japanese American obviously, but because I can completely relate to how she felt all this frustration with her mother and grandmother for not remembering their stories. She wanted to know and they had forced themselves to forget, which is what they needed, but she wanted to know the truth to feel closure for herself.

She used the Hollywood films to show the replacing of the true memories with memories and stories that were much easier to swallow. They could be our new look into what happened and why and the struggles and the heroes of the time. The Hollywood films are treated like real footage of what happened. This really drives home the point that we as society really do believe what we are shown in faulty recreations of events. These recreations are usually made in the point of view of those who did the wrong, and spun to make it seem as though they mat have slipped up but they also saved the day.

Her consistent voice over was very effective, you felt as though you really were getting to know her and her family and their misplaced story. The antidote of her sister was also very effective. The fact that is so obsessed with taking pictures and that she feels like that is the best way to come to him.

Journal #3

2006-02-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

Themes:

A film by Luis Valdevino and Dan Board

This film was interesting and very intelligent; I think that because of the title, I was constantly trying to make ties between everything, even where there wasn’t one. This mad the watching of it challenging for me and I think it would definitely be something I feel like I need to see again.
As far as what I did take from it, I thought that the comment to Westerners’ obsession with expansion and innovation was very well illustrated. The first thing that came forth to me was the attention to tourism and this idea of ready-made experiences of new cultures and places. We have built our own version of the places we love around the world, in the shape of theme parks like Disneyland and destination hotels in places like Las Vegas. We seem to be okay and even excited at the thought of having a dumbed down modern version of the “real thing.” It’s easier, not as far to travel and everything we thought we would love about the place is neatly placed where we can easily access it.
This is something I also associate as an American idea, so I thought that the point of bringing to attention the fact that this is a phenomena that exists all around the world, was very relevant. There was a great deal of montaging used to seamlessly bring the viewer back and forth from the real and the fake places, making the point even more valid. In many cases you have to be told what you are looking at and given the context. The film makers did this by setting up the shot on the building, scene, etc. and then letting the viewer take it in wondering for a second before using voice over or zooming out to reveal the true story. This was effective because it made me slightly confused at first then humored and then just sad.
The main viewpoint of the filmmakers was that we as a world haven’t really created anything new; we have only slightly expanded or made more convenient what already existed. In the case of architecture and cities, we have rebuilt the ones that already exist in smaller neat packages, and all right next to each other, for convenience of course.
The voiceovers in the film were very effective; they used the voiceovers to carry from one situation into the next. I think this gave the feeling that this was really a person or group of people who traveled around the worlds for the purpose of finding these related themes. The fact that there was three or four different people doing the voiceovers, I think also worked really well, it made it clear that this wasn’t just the point of view or opinion from one isolated party. I especially liked that there was the woman from Brazil, because as far as we could tell the other artists were all from America, it was good to get the feeling that this is also expressed from people who are not necessarily American.
Within America, I thought the emphasis on the boom and bust cycles was really interesting. There was so much juxtaposition of images throughout the film deliberately placed one after the other. The editing was very well done in this case. I seems like this film is a good example of why it’s good to just shoot all the time even if it seems random at the time, because it may end up being something that is very useful in the end result. The footage of the western part of America was great for that, a lot of it seemed somewhat random on it’s own but in the context it made a lot of sense. This film in particular made it so evident that so much shooting goes into a relatively short end result. In this case they went all over the world shooting, and all over the US, and only used a very short amount of footage in the end. For this film it shows that the amount of shooting can come across and be completely necessary.

Video Journal #2

2006-01-31T10:50:00.000-08:00

Video Journal #2

I found myself describing and talking about Check Points film and Jenin Jenin all last week. After class I realized how important it was that we had seen two films made from very different points of view and also talking about very different aspects of the current situation. The juxtaposition of these two films right after one another seemed to paint a more complete picture.

Check Points:
The way in which check points was filmed, made me as a viewer feel like I was spending the day with Israeli soldiers; it was tedious and long just like the experience. This also made me feel like I was seeing it as almost a buddy to the soldiers and sort of very separated from the Palestinian people. This caused for me an awkward tension, I wanted to know their individual stories and it seemed like there was so much more than was being represented. This film almost made a lot more sense once I saw Jenin Jenin. I felt that while it proved the point of how hard and tiresome it is for these people to have to wait and wait and wait for no reason and to be treated like animals, and to not be let in and out of their own towns, it also bothered me that this was all it showed. For this part of their lives to be a reality there had to also be a lot of other things happening, most of which I imagined to be worse than waiting.

What’s strange is that this is probably what they wanted to come across to people who see the film. The hope is that Americans will say “even though waiting and being treated badly is terrible, at least that’s all their doing.” For an audience that wants a simple uncomplicated way of seeing the situation in Israel/Palestine, this film gives them just that. At no point in the film do we see anything but the checkpoints; not the cities they are living in or where they go or what they think about what’s happening.

I thought that this film was interesting in that the film maker wasn’t asking any questions directly or prompting anything to happen, he was just taping what was already happening, but it cannot be seen as objective because he is choosing when to film and what, and also editing after the filming takes place to fulfill a certain message.

Jenin Jenin

This film was made by a Palestinian from the opposite point of view and from the view of inside Palestinian towns, houses, and with interviews with Palestinians. Just as with checkpoints, his view of the “other side” of things is limited. He shows soldiers from afar because he would not be able to tape them up close. This film maker went about his process very differently, his personal view point is biased and his style does not aim to lie about that. I appreciate the honesty in this. He uses a lot of montaging with his editing, which keeps the viewer’s attention and evokes a lot of emotion. He also uses a lot of music over slow shots of one person after they have spoken and said something very powerful. This technique allows the viewer to really imagine what the person interviewed is talking about while still keeping our attention on the film.

The use of many personal interviews with Palestinian people, old, young, men, and women makes the stories even more powerful and in every person we identify a different part of the experience. I think that the choices the film maker made of what to show and how much of it gives the viewer a better understanding of what it must be like to live their lives. The young girl talks with a lot of anger and resentment, and then the older man talks with not as much anger but more solace that this is the way things have turned out. He also uses footage of events such as shootings, burials, and destruction of houses while the person is describing that same event from their point of view. This allows the viewer to experience what they are saying while at the same time seeing what it really looked like. Many interviews are filmed in people’s houses and with close-ups on their faces and on their families, giving us a chance to better see these people and relate to them.

I think that this film is beautifully edited and it is intriguing to watch and powerful without being too heavy-handed. The subtle metaphoric tools help to tell the story without giving everything away with dialogue.

Video Journal #1

2006-01-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

Emily Carter
Journal #1
Video: Sama Alshaibi

We saw four pieces by Usama Alshaibi in class today. It is apparent that he has a specific style and devices that he uses frequently in his work, even though the range in the concepts and types of video was completely different each time. I had a particularly strong reaction to the trailer and to Muhammad and Jane.

Usama constantly takes you with him where ever he goes, whether it is by he himself holding the camera as he walks, is driven or any other experience. The tone of the film is overwhelming paranoia and as the viewer you are brought in to feel this as well. Even if you are hesitant, you have no choice of whether or not to feel paranoid yourself.

There is often a very close up camera angle, directly into Muhammad’s or Jane’s face. This can cause intense emotion at times or also the feeling of interrogation. There is constant tension held up by the creepy music, coming in and out of scenes, and with the greenish tone on the black and white. Muhammad’s paranoia seems to follow him wherever he goes, the camera at times circles around him quickly and spans up and down causing the viewer to feel his nervous, and dizzy.

The flight of birds off of the building is used multiple times in the film. Their flight s usually layered over something else that is either happening in reality or in his mind. The birds are used as a transition from one mood to another or to show a shift in Muhammad’s view of things. We first see the birds right after he meets Jane and is smitten with her. We see them again right after the FBI agents come to see him and he is now seeing her very differently and is possibly suspicious of her. This makes the paranoia present even in love, which had seemed to be the only safe place in the crazy world that is depicted for the main characters.

Muhammad’s dreams are all represented by using a black haze on the top and bottom of the screen. This clearly separates what is happening in his mind from what is happening in reality. In his dreams the tone is darker and more the color is more contrasted. The music is also louder and the beat is harder feeling like a rushed and panicked heart beat. His dreams foreshadow much of the later plot in simple ways such as showing Jane running through the tunnel; we know this takes place at a later time because her outfit is different. We get insight into Muhammad’s mind through the dreams and thoughts which would be otherwise almost impossible for us to see. Through this device we see his fears and his fantasies.

When they first met Jane was running from something. Jane was wearing a white flowing dress and appeared young and innocent. Muhammad wore all dark colors, and was the older more in control figure. He calmed her down and comforted her and he initiated their meeting and wanted to see her again. In this scene and in many others there are many close ups on hands and their role in the interaction. In this case her hands are in a tight fist across her body and she seems to protect herself this way. As they talk her hands let go and his hand touches hers in a flirty way.

When they meet at the rally, they have seemed to switch roles. Jane now seems to be more confident and sure of herself. She wears the darker colors and finds him and he wears the lighter colors and seems to be submissive and more docile. The scene in the café was my favorite scene because of the use of the angle and the constant close ups on her hands nervously tapping her coffee mug. Jane is closer to the camera than Muhammad and when she gets embarrassed she turns away from him and towards the camera so the viewers see her character and her reactions better than Muhammad can. this diner scene read so differently from the first diner scene because you are inside and allowed to relax, it seems like this is one of the few places in the film where you don’t feel a great deal of tension.

Most of the emotions of the characters were conveyed very simply with little dialogue and subtle eye movements and gestures. The characters faces told most of the story which was much more powerful than having dialogue do the same thing. The film was consistent with the devices used and flowed well because of that.

final work

2005-12-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

i am using some poems and writtings that i have done recently as text in my final peices. these are the poems themselves not yet made into pieces.

Alligator’s Tail

held beneath my arms like a kitten,
my mom placed me at the end of the row
on the back of an inflatable alligator
me the only one without a smile

Sarah crawled on,
then Jake,
then three more I didn’t know

sliding me back in a chilling way
scaly and swaying somewhat,
until the slip became too much
and gravity too heavy…

then through hazy blue water
they passed by
feet dangling
laughter muffled and distant

never being taught to swim
didn’t seem to matter at this moment

long smooth fish swam past
coaxing me to follow
seeming to stare into me
their bodies moved with ease
through this unfamiliar place

I decided to stay a while longer
sand speckled, catching my eyes
rose up and settled again with the waves,
breaths of water

my hands and feet entangled like the seaweed
and webbed over time
my hair grew long and full
following me when I circled
I slept soundly there…
there
it was pleasantly silent
I grew older and learned from my strange domain

but curiosity curved my stare
when hundreds of graceful shadows
flickered above the water
glided through the air

Wings…
brightly colored and powerful
passed above me

and I wondered
what air must feel like
to be immersed in it, the way they are.

Grammy’s Bread

I love Grammy’s bread
her hair in pink curlers, the smell of soapy dishes in the sink.
Her table set at night for the next morning’s breakfast
brown smooth bowls with faded insides.

Her body round and warm, her arms welcoming, and her hands strong
The softest and most beautiful palms I’ve known.
Our fists kneading floured mounds of dough
and the famous apple pie, she said I made.

The small red tricycle on her slanted green porch,
the one that hasn’t been ridden in 30 years.
The weathered clothes line over the vegetable garden
and the mountains outside the kitchen window.

50’s hats with pink flowers and pearls
high heels too big, and silk scarves too beautiful to touch.
Chilly feather pillows ticked beneath hand made quilts
hallways with black and white faces, smiles still steady.

I loved my Grammy’s bread
her hair in pink curlers, the smell of soapy dishes in the sink.
Her table set at night for the next morning’s breakfast.

Marvin

2005-11-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

Marvin was great, it was very cool to see the work that marvin and sama collaborate on, and the talk about grafiti was also very interesting. it is so connected to all that we have talked about in class about gallery work versus public art. Just like in traditional art there is good and bad grafiti and each comands respect in its own way. The real separation of grafiti is that it is illegal, which is a huge part of its tradition, but i greatly affects the way people think about it as art or not,
the video was great, i loved the background music and sounds and how well it was choreographed to the imagery.

closet self

2005-10-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

i did a series of pictures as a test of taking photos of myself, which is something i have never really done but always wanted to

2005-10-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

marita liulia research

2005-10-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

see some of my work at my website

2005-10-06T10:38:00.000-07:00