Six in one

Six responses, one post :)
Sorry if this takes up a lot of room!

Theme Song (Vito Acconci) - Perhaps the intended audience for this film is people like me; I thought Acconci's camera angles--the ways he positioned himself in front of the screen--were quite striking and produced the desired effect (discomfiture on the viewer's part), BUT I kept getting distracted by the fact that I liked the songs in the background. At times I caught myself wishing that the guy on the floor would just get up and leave, so that I could concentrate more on the music. Obviously Acconci meant this video to be a critique of those very rock/pop songs--and with that in mind I find his approach really creative and definitely subversive. Guess I'm a little too conditioned to enjoy the kind of music he wants to deconstruct, to be able to experience the full effect Acconci seems to be going for.

Meshes of the Afternoon - I saw Maya Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon" first last semester, during my film class at Smith. The first viewing didn't interest me as much as the second, because when I saw the piece again I was able to concentrate on the artistic symbolism behind the images instead of just how bizarre I found them. Then again, both times I found that I unconsciously tried to create a narrative from Deren's seemingly disconnected scenes, and that even when I concentrated more on the images themselves, I would instinctively invent a context for them. But what I like best about what I've seen of Maya Deren's filmmaking is how much I do have to work--to analyze and sometimes change my own way of viewing her art--to appreciate the works themselves.

Semiotics of the Kitchen - Martha Rosler's piece, I can say with emphasis, I *did* appreciate--I found it rather amusing, and somehow both subtle and in-your-face. Clearly, though, the video means to subvert the feminine "housewife" ideal, and does so by examining literally, piece by piece, the "workspace" of a suburban woman. Martha Rosler is great at remaining stoic, even while swinging knives through the air, and the parody of day-to-day expectations and uniform motions of the female is, to me, palpable.

Joan Does Dynasty - "Joan Does Dynasty" was, to my mind, a bit dated--but its point was well-taken. I realize that the fact that I've never actually seen an episode of "Dynasty" has no bearing on the film's effectivness; clearly, there are plenty of shows similar to it nowadays. A disruption of mindless, day-to-day TV-gawking is always welcome--especially now, when the American public does so much of it. I almost wished the critique of the show had gone further and had been even more constant, because the parts of the show that Joan let slip by undrowned made it tempting for a potential viewer to ignore her completely. Still, contemporary shows like American Idol and Project Runway don't seem to have a "Joan" at all, so this video was valuable in that her voice (the skeptic, the voice of dissent) was heard at least in one context.

Fast Trip Long Drop - Gregg Bordowitz's film was a fascinating exploration of the perspective and the circumstances of gay men living with AIDS in the United States. The way Bordowitz personalized his struggle--for instance, his focus on his religion, Judiasm--made the piece powerful in a way that he might not have been able to achieve had he approached the project from a more general standpoint. The attempted parody (if that was the function of the fake newscasts) made the issues seem more raw and, ironically, more real perhaps than would a bona fide news special about the same subject.

and finally... Mona Hatoum's piece, which was my personal favorite out of the six. I loved the synchronization of still photography with recorded readings of the mother and daughter's correspondence. The pictures took on a life of their own, aided by the daughter's voice--and the mother's voice, communicated through the daughter. The video struck a perfect balance between interesting images and interesting sound, so that one never really outweighed the other. I think that both the audio and the video in this piece could have stood alone, though each would have taken on an entirely different meaning and had an entirely different effect if separated from the other.

~ Cassie Jensen