- Two films by Vivienne Dick who moved from Ireland to New York City in the 1970s.
GUERILLERE TALKS (1978)
- A record of people constructing their lives the way they want to in the city. Watching this film reinforces the idea that in this time and place a person could do that without so much resistance as usual - is this true? How much danger was shot through everyday life? The film does show that space and time were abundant (see the astonishing still at the top). (is this era accessed through artworks more than accounts?).
- thinking aloud: If a city won't allow people to decide how they would like to live, a film can. You can do what you like in a film, because it's temporary and because it's an image, it isn't exactly real. It's easy to get confused because the image in the film resembles the city near identically. This is also revolutionary, because you can see this convincing illusion of the city (it's more than that), but can also perceive in the same space that which is not everyday and of the rules of the city, but is made possible by the film. These two layers of ideas are transparent and overlaid on one another, become inseparable when experienced, and this combination of the two can produce radical and repeatable new ideas of everyday life. Film is transparent and overlaid on the city, but also contains part of the city (the light), a part which has already disappeared when the camera stops, disappearing further and further after.
- Thinking again of PORTRAIT OF GA and THE FABELMANS. This revolutionary quality comes in films taken directly, improvised (without (traditional) actors/performers? cf. Rivette's films?), but then an expensive commercial production also often uses real locations; sometimes commercial films can have this quality too; maybe the idea is that the quality is more vivid and condensed in the improvised films, and the expense is not necessary. THE FABELMANS is interesting because it shows someone making a conscious decision to reject an improvised, chance method in favour of a rehearsed, representational one. Why is that choice made? Within that film's narrative the former is just too terrifying and creates too many moral quandaries. An inability to deal with the loss of control and the world as something various. Following this idea...
- Also thinking again of the staged home-movie trope in cinema. The super 8 sequence in RAGING BULL is the most striking, and the most striking moment within it, which somewhat resembles the images in GUERILLERE TALKS, is when the faux-amateur camera strays away from the wedding and films the New York buildings - the aspect of the disappearing city. It's very stirring, especially with the romantic music, but it requires so many resources to get there.
- GUERILLERE TALKS consists of a series of durations (each the length of a full super 8 reel) in which different people are given access to the sound/image space of liberation. A series of PORTRAIT(s) OF GA, or a series of landscapes of people. A series of ideas for transforming everyday life in the city.
- Wearing sideburns and playing the Evel Knievel pinball machine while ignoring the camera for the full reel. Filming very openly, drawn to different details, with hands invading the shot without warning.
- As in PORTRAIT OF GA the camera can "think through the littlest objects" and details of interiors, like shoes and telephones. Unlike in Tait's film the sound here is captured as directly as possible; often the microphone is actually visible on screen.
- People hammering nails into their heads, gesturing silently on a rooftop, or playing guitar in what looks like an old warehouse while people light sparklers. There's an amazing shot that tracks out of a TV set to someone swinging a light fixture through the space before returning to two guitarists who are slashing at their instruments.
- There's also a news report from some enviable waste ground with the reporter wishing for a normal place. Lighting a cigarette while a 45 record plays out. Being photographed by the subject, sometimes there's a chase involved. Opposite of the Warhol screen test films, here people are given the opportunity to speak, perform or hide as much as they like. More like a collaboration between filmmaker and performers than a documentary or attempt to 'capture'/represent people. Sense of respect for the people in the film, who keep opaque what they want to keep opaque.
SHE HAD HER GUN ALL READY (1978)
- As in TAILPIECE this film features titles written on the landscape.
- This goes further than GUERILLERE TALKS, not by expanding narrative or character but by taking the ideas of the first film further into public space, activating different places. The film is full of gestures and people using the city; payphones, diners, subways, and fairgrounds. The chance approach means you get to meet people unexpectedly, like the manager of the fairground stall, or the kid serving drinks.
