There are theories about why the very idea of documentary is impossible, why objectivity is impossible, why Photoshop has made documentary untenable, why everything pretending to be factual or fictional is but a discourse and all discourses are equally privileged, why all discourses are fictions, and all reality is social construction. - Henry Breitrose - Department of Communication, Stanford University.
And one more thing:
Poor man wanna be rich,
rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
till he rules everything.
Bruce Springsteen – “Badlands”
Editing a doc is a lot like putting a puzzle together - a puzzle with all round pieces.
And yet, there is some real joy in the process, and "not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." (Thank you Emily).
I mean it’s not brain surgery, or rocket science, unless you are making a doc about brain surgery or rocket science (and you could be).
For so long, this process held no joy for me. It was a confrontation of my own mediocrity at the intersections of Piss and Moan. And I’ll tell you why (but maybe only Lisa will understand) – sitting on the FFF selection committee gives (encourages) the feeling of superiority over others – at least in the sense of other doc makers. It is easy, and good for the ego to say I just watched 200 really crappy docs -- a real suck-fest a-go-go.
But it is soul stomping, and ego murder to have to say I just watched 50 AMAZING docs – life transforming, important, compelling, and fucking flawless docs. Docs so outside of my natural ability and resources that they FORCE me to question why I would even bother.
I bother.
And one more thing:
Poor man wanna be rich,
rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
till he rules everything.
Bruce Springsteen – “Badlands”
Editing a doc is a lot like putting a puzzle together - a puzzle with all round pieces.
And yet, there is some real joy in the process, and "not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." (Thank you Emily).
I mean it’s not brain surgery, or rocket science, unless you are making a doc about brain surgery or rocket science (and you could be).
For so long, this process held no joy for me. It was a confrontation of my own mediocrity at the intersections of Piss and Moan. And I’ll tell you why (but maybe only Lisa will understand) – sitting on the FFF selection committee gives (encourages) the feeling of superiority over others – at least in the sense of other doc makers. It is easy, and good for the ego to say I just watched 200 really crappy docs -- a real suck-fest a-go-go.
But it is soul stomping, and ego murder to have to say I just watched 50 AMAZING docs – life transforming, important, compelling, and fucking flawless docs. Docs so outside of my natural ability and resources that they FORCE me to question why I would even bother.
I bother.
No comments:
Post a Comment