Tongues Untied

I like the way the beginning consists of silent, mostly slow motion images with poetry over it, and I really liked the way the rest of the film wove in music and poetry and heartbeats throughout and also played with ideas of silence and speaking. I found the structure of the film fascinating, and I really liked the way close up shots of men’s faces both speaking and silent kept reappearing throughout, which juxtaposed with the voice-overs of poetry and commentary over other images.

Sibba's final video

After I left class, the image from your film that stayed with me was the one of the hands covered with mud, persistently rubbing and scratching at the drying mud to try to get it off. That was a strong image that really worked in putting me into the creepy dream world of your film. Even though I didn’t quite follow the plot as I was watching, I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the plot didn’t seem to matter. The editing together of interesting and striking images kept me intrigued all the way through.

Fast Trip, Long Drop

I couldn’t seem to get into this film completely. The reappearance of the same man always pushing a message of “there’s still hope” and “I wouldn’t be here if I was handing out death sentences” as well as the initially very ironic found footage set me up to expect more consistent satire, so I had a hard time switching back and forth from the clearly satiric interview into the mode of watching a serious documentary about the personal experiences of one man and of other people who appeared only once or twice. Because we read the essay by Gregg Bordowitz, I caught on to certain points he was making about the portrayal of AIDS in the media that I don’t think I would have gotten out of the film on its own. Still, I liked the informal style of the interviews, and found what they were saying extremely interesting.

Semiotics of the Kitchen

The very slow, deliberate pacing of this film, the simple setting, and the single unchanging angle of the video camera create a tone of honesty while also showing the monotony of a woman’s life in the kitchen. The motions she uses are also really interesting, and of course humorous. For instance, the quick, abrupt movements with which she tosses imaginary substances aside were very convincing—I almost thought I saw something actually flying out of the spoon. I was entertained by this film—I thought it was short and to the point. The way she ran through the utensils alphabetically built up well to the sudden dramatic Y toward the end, which I liked because it seemed like a question rather than a letter.

Camilla's final video

Camilla, I thought your piece was very original. The way it showed the physical tension and pain experienced by women going through the trauma of an abortion really made an impression on me. I thought you did an excellent job of showing the relationship of the women to their bodies during this experience, and the way they were both trying to stroke or comfort themselves and each other and also pressing and scratching at their own skin in anxiety. I would really like to see this documentary expanded—I think you could work the techniques you used in this short piece into the more complex structure you had imagined in your treatment.

Meshes of the Afternoon

One thing I admire in this film is the use of sound. The sound of the key falling that is disjointed from the image of the key falling and continues as she walks into the house and then turns into something else entirely is really interesting. I like the way the dark, jarring music only comes on at certain moments. It puts me immediately into the realm of nightmare each time it occurs, building suspense in a way that makes the silence of the scenes in between stand out even more. It also draws my attention to the potential violence or horror in the visuals, for instance, when the mirror woman lays the flower on the bed or when they are all sitting around at the table with the knife which turns into the key.

Ilha das Flores

Ilha das Flores uses humor really well. Its images stay with you. I think its power is in the way it takes an image or phrase and repeats it, giving it a new context each time. For instance, the progression of describing every person as “possessing a highly developed brain and an opposable thumb” and therefore being a human really makes you think about all the ways in which modern social and economic systems dehumanize certain individuals. Similarly, the repetition of the images of the tomato, the flowers, the perfume bottles, the brain, etc. shows the connections that are often hidden by the words we use. The definitions of things such as “owner,” “garbage,” and “the second,” work really well because of the way they are given over images of the consequences of these words that might not be immediately evident. For instance, defining “the second,” a precise and scientific term, leads to defining “cesium,” another precise and scientific term, but meanwhile, the image on the screen makes the connection between that term and the little child who dies from repeatedly rubbing it on his face.