Re: [-empyre-] vampyre/empyre

["Ana Valdes" <agora158@gmail.com>]

Yes, I understand completely the rational argument and the need to
keep things apart, myh feeling, your feelings, our feelings, their
feelings, but the problem is Art and Writing are about feelings and
representation and identification and empathy and emotions. But our
emotions and images are today hostages and they are universally
manipulated by media, the market, the advertizing companies, the ones
"triggering" feelings using our images and words to achievde different
goals.
The other day, in Liepaja, Latvia, where Jan-Erik and me showed
Crusading films, we showed a film made by an Spanish-Maroccan
collective, Colectivo Sur. La Foret, El bosque, made by Alex Munoz and
Helena Maleno. They went to an illegal (not recognized by UN or for
some NGO or for the Red Cross) refugeecamp and lended the camera to
the people, who filmed themselves. They asked one only question during
the long film, who are you are from which country you are coming and
where do you want to go and what do you think Marocco and Spain and
the European Community should do to help you?
The camp was shattered in thousand pieces, the people, normally
sleeping in improvised tents or in the trees, were trying to collect
their pans and clothes, all broken and dispersed by the Maroccan
guards.
It was one of the most powerful and genuin films I have seen in years.
It had not any pretension to be an "author film", it was not either
and only a documentary. It transmitted so many unadulterated feelings
I, the viewer, felt their pain, their grief and their frustration and
become a participant, not merely a bystander.
Another film we saw and a powerful tool was Arnas Children, made by
Julian Mer-Khamis, the son of Arna Mer, a Jewish woman who got the
Alternative Nobelprize for her work with children and youth in the
refugee camp of Jenin, http://www.arna.info/Arna/,
http://this.is/Jenin,
But the question is still: how genuin and unbiased are our work as
creators in a world where all the words and the images are being used
as tools in a neverending advertizing campaign?
Ana

On 12/14/06, Cecilia Parsberg <ceciliaparsberg@this.is> wrote:
> Hi
>
> when making my film on the West Bank last year (I went 9 times the
> lst years, long periods) , I felt so stupid many times - because I
> realized how little I understand and that I can never fully
> understand - and who am I to make a film about others!
> And I said to my Palestinian friends: I feel stupid! They replied:
> "Cecilia, you don't represent us, you understand a little, but not
> all, you are not our voice, you are making your film and your
> interpretation and represent you in this context."
> I felt very good being reminded that.
> And I need to remind myself over and over again.
>
> They said they like people who stay and try to understand everyday
> life, but have little confidence in news and media. Art gives time
> and space for the kind of work that is politics, but not serve the
> politics
>
> best
> cecilia
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> Exhibition now: http://www.crusading.se
>
> Cecilia Parsberg
> http://this.is/Parsberg
>
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