SCPK GRS TOD

Background

In this thesis, I move away from usual lens based tools in exchange for a pen, to delve further, in words, about (my, our) images. I look towards my lens based encounter with a person and place that I literally sat on top of: a sex shop under my apartment, and a man working there named Marty. Through these collaborators, subjects, settings and catalysts for a collective practice I am able explore the realm, the implications, the struggles and the dynamics of documentary and ethnographic filmmaking between maker and made of-er.

The text will provide an examination of my practice in relation to this project, the structures, methods and manners I am using in developing my current work Work(ing Together) in Process. It will outline how I arrived at this stage, drawing from and reflecting upon my past experiences and practice working with image making tools as a tool for the commercial. I will examine how I as an individual and independent maker with a western background and film-school toolset deals with making film that goes against the traditional form and has collectivity as a goal. Moving away from my ‘industrial’ training as a cinematographer, the text will explore the role of the lens amongst differing people when making film and subverting it. This transition is aided by a case study on films, philosophies and art works that embrace processes in opposition to ethnographic or traditional cinematic means. Those with collaboration, participation and sustainability at it’s core.

Chapter 1

A creative and explorative text that weaves notes, moments, thoughts and statements regarding the conception of my current work. It will outline the encounter with Marty, my once stranger turned neighbour turned friend turned collaborator and co-director.

It will frame the processes of our work as an active reflection on what has happened and is happening. How did we start? How did we understand and trust each other enough to bring a camera between us and pointed at us? How did an initial fascination I had of a 'character' turn into a project far from that, one that explores a reconciliation of difference through long term relationship building and letting loose of expectations and control in making. How often do we meet, talk, shoot, edit, or disconnect from the making process? What are our differing reflections on this? How has the flux of this relationship been paralleled through a creative process? A creative collage of a chapter attempts to shine a light on these questions.

Chapter 2

What did I do before this that lead me to bring the camera in this space? How did my practice diverge from the so-called professional?

Looking at my previous documentary works Zen and the Art of Street Cinema & Keep It in the Streets and also my excursions in specifically profit driven image making projects. How does a maker try to find a way to work within the documentary realm to go beyond it?

I was previously mining the streets for stories, using talking head impromptu interviews. A reflection on whether this is also a form of extractivism. Highlighting then my arrival in Rotterdam, and my strange but privileged place as a non-identifying but nonetheless dutch person, which influences how i interact here. How did that lead to using my immediate surroundings as a small, accessible, cheap and mostly rich soil to make films- one different from documentary? I will look at Dear Moritz how I began prioritizing the unexpected. A process of making a film out of what wasn't planned to be a film and opening conversations with many differing voices to understand the images I have made.

Chapter 3

A case study on the seminal works that influence my current practice, with regard to history, technology and reception.

How have images been 'colonized' by professionality, rationality and profit driven motives? What are these works that inspire my methods, work that resist the troubling western ethnographic gaze in cinema and expanded cinema and fine art? I will specifically look at the work of Jean Rouch and his work in the field of developing ethnographic fiction.

Conclusion

An honest reflection, a collaborative one. In looking back at this chaotic process making with Marty, the question is begged: what do we do now? Is the work finished? Is it ever? Is the work the work or is the work the friendship? What was the basis? Has he actually learned anything here? Does he want to? Does it matter? I'm not sure I was ever looking for a solution, but is there one? I believe there are mostly just trade offs.

A speculative proposal. Where do we go from here? Do we see more collaborative work free from restraint due to the technological democratization of image making? Or is that phenomena more perceived than actual? Is there a framework to be found within this to pull more stories from less capital, falseness, contruction? Are our surroundings and encounters and interactions enough for all films?