Here are two filmmakers who inspire me every single time I take the time to revisit their art films.
First Dziga Vertov. His name translates to something akin to "spinning top" in Russian. It was a name he chose for himself. As if he was a character in his own life. Born in 1896 as David Kaufman, he was obsessed with translating what he experienced into a visual medium.
"I am the machine that reveals the world to you as only I alone am able to see it," he said.
Above is a 4 1/2 minute segment of a film called Enthusiasm. The song "Everything is Free" is sung by a Swedish group named The Tiny. I'm crazy about this pairing but not sure Vertov would be. In his silent film Vertov called, "an experiment in the language of pure cinema" and "Radio Eye", MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA was made in 1929 in Russia.
Yes, it certainly is a documentary showing life in the recently created Soviet Union showing both the amazing opulence and the heartbreaking poverty. Vertov was a communist. He documents the Bourgoise and the Proletariat. The film is one hour and eight minutes long and hard, if not impossible, to watch in one sitting. But what you can watch of it is mesmerizing!
It has no embedded storyline, as Chris Edwards points out in his blog about monumental, and often forgotten, silent movies, its only story is the one you read into the sequences of images. You bring yourself to it. You see what you see. It's pure visual genius.
I see Vertov as the hero of his film - he literally IS THE MAN with the movie camera. He documented himself deep inside his history and smack dab in the middle of his culture. And, almost a century later, he's STILL there! He will be there for all time asking every viewer to come, "can you see what I saw?" "Can you see me NOW - there in time THEN?"
He had seen the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 masterminded by Lenin. He allows us to use those same eyes (through the lens of his camera) to see what he sees and then he places us behind him or in front of him to witness Vertov right inside the film as he photographs it. He shows the camera he uses in action. Its crank. Its wooden case. Its glass eye of a lens.
No matter how much he carries us along with him though, ultimately, HE was the person he shot his films for. Vertov was his own audience. This is crystal clear to me in all of his work.
It's inspiring, yet, at the same time it challenges me to ask myself if I have enough courage to rise to that calling in myself?
Little Rebel Doll, Oakley Park Red Shirt Shrine, Edgefield, SC 2009
A shelf at the Goodwill, Aiken, SC 2011
Oil Tank, Pasadena, TX, 2010
As I unravel my interior symbology and translate it into the sequential visual images illustrating how the world appears to me: I am the one who is seeking to understand it the most. And eventually, unless my work/play/art is authentic - it will be worthless to anyone who might ever discover it sometime in the future anyway.
Which brings me to Maya Deren.
She too was born with another name in 1917. And also in Eastern Europe. She moved, with her parents, to New York in 1922. In 1943, at the age of 21, she purchased a 16mm Bolex camera and began making movies.
She chose the name Maya to fit who she perceived herself to be as a filmmaker.
"I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick," she said.
AT LAND was her third film, which runs 15 minutes. Deren described herself as a poet who discovered that film "said" all she wanted to convey inside through words alone.
I like Vimeo best to embed video, but youtube had the silent version of this film which I treasure. Above is the first part of the film and below is the last half.
After about 30 seconds, you will see why watching this without sound is phenomenal. It enables you to connect your "radio ear". All of a sudden, you realize that you do hear something.
You hear the soundtrack in your head. It's a remarkable experience.
Maya too was her own audience. Even though she had political and social ideas she wanted to talk about - when I watch her films now, I see only through Maya's lens.
Only through Maya's eyes.
These two filmmakers had to go to great lengths and great expense to make their inner visionary pieces.
We live in a time in history when for less than a pair of designer shoes, we can use our cameras as our paintbrushes and our computers as our canvases.
Look at this clip to set your mind a spinning like a top!
Now Ask Yourself, "What Do I Want To See In The Movies I Make?"
Here's one of my personal movies from several years ago. Now go create your own.
I love it!!!! Iloved the silent films, I love the whole notion of being your own audience, I think that's fantastic.
I told myself I wasn't going to write a book, but you really hit the nail on the head. We must use our art with our own eye for ourselves, otherwise what is the point. It is in fact what makes art so interesting, and where people find their connections. I think it takes a brave soul to bare all, and put it out there, willing to take whatever critiques that they may befall.
Anyway, thank you for introducing them to me. Both are amazing, but I must say my fave was the last video. I love what I think it said about you. And me too ;)
PS- coming to town anytime soon? hoping you haven't come and gone already.
Posted by: Nickiwooguru | 10/05/2011 at 03:51 PM