Thesis Project Status
The majority of the synopses of experimental documentary films dealing with the idea of collective memory cover the phenomenon on a national level, choosing to deal with the way a nation’s media, education, and oral tradition affect the memories of the citizens to the point where their view of history, taken out of its social context, would be disputed by other nations/cultures.
I have not found an experimental documentary that deals with this phenomenon on the small group or subcultural level. Through case study, I intend to expose collective memory within a small group through the use of shared oral history/narrative.Process:
Tape and curate ten years of video and audio
Collect and scan relevant images
Transcribe footage for relevant vintage sound bites
Combine vintage sound bites into a cohesive “essay”
Place current visuals on top of vintage audio according to the location referred to within the narrative
Examples of films dealing with collective memory on the national/cultural level:
Acropolis
Director: Eva Stefani. Production: Greek Film Centre
Year of Production: 2001. Format: Beta SP. Length 25'
The film is an experimental documentary that explores the significance of Greece's national symbol, the Acropolis, in the creation of national identity and collective memory. In the place of a concrete, victorious memory the film juxtaposes "another" memory, that of the senses, the memory of the body. Likening the "sacred rock" to a fetishised female body the film makes a comment on the timeless exploitation of the monument. At the same time it explores the relationship between history and pornography.
In The Blood
Director: Diane Nerwen.
Year of Production: 2000. Format: VHS. Length 31’In The Blood is an experimental documentary about American Jewish attitudes towards Germans and the role the holocaust plays in shaping Jewish identity. This layered collage combines appropriated images, original footage, sampled sounds and fragments of audio conversations to examine perceptions and representations of Germany, cultural identity, collective memory and history.
From the Program for Women in the Director’s Chair, Festival 2005:
COLLECTIVE MEMORY
"Collective Memory" is a body of work that surveys the landscape of
cultural experiences and national identity in the construction of societal memories, oral histories and, in the case of The Listener, a shared future. AKA Mrs. George Gilbert looks backwards to find out who was Angela Davis. TRT: 94’
Monologue Exterieur by Francien van Everdingen 2004 mini-dv 2:30’ Netherlands
A silent, whimsical short that colorfully draws in the attention of the viewers.
The Listener by Mahri Holt 2004 16mm 20’
In a futuristic, emotionless society that does not allow feelings and personal issues, we find the protagonist, a professional "Listener" with an ethical dilemma that is also professionally risky.
Hell by Brae Grobarek 2004 mini-dv 6’
Intelligent and layered, Hell is an animated work with strong visual ideas of laborers. Hell is a narrative, experimental and inspiring.
How to Fix the World by Jackie Goss 2003 BetaSP 28:30’
Jackie Gross returns to WIDC with How to Fix the World, a smart and odd experimental documentary that catches up with the former participants of a literacy program administered in developing Uzbekistan post 1920. It butts ideas of perception and comprehension against ideas of survival.
Perhaps the Singer is Dead by Mary Billyou 2004 mini-dv 6’
Mary Billyou pieces together beautiful images and a rich soundtrack of words and waves that thought provokingly laments the inability to find an ending.
AKA Mrs. George Gilbert by Coco Fusco 2005 DVD 31’
In this new work by cultural artist /theorist, Coco Fusco, the artist and a former FBI agent find themselves with similar interests. Following Angela Davis’s rise as an intellectual power, the FBI.’s hunt and subsequent capture of her in an attempt to squash the larger Black Power Movement, AKA dissects the cultural obsession with Davis as an iconic figure and interrogates the cultural fascination with her Afro, her clothing or her political and professional motives.
Stylistic inspiration:
Tarnation: http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/spring2004/features/be_mirror.php
30 Miles: http://www.cultfilms.net/30%20Miles/index.htm
Short Films of Matt McCormick: http://www.rodeofilmco.com
The Downtown Walk, a clip from "057":