Hitting Real Life

So I guess this is what I get for not thinking about school, and leaving to Berlin to have fun and walk around and dance and drink beer and meet people etcetcetc... Sciences Po fairy is kicking me hard and after losing my flight back to Paris (hence a full day of potential school work) I now sit in front of my computer and realize I have two class presentations for Tuesday and Wednesday (one in French, yes!), two more next week, one paper outline for Tuesday, and four more papaers two write in two weeks... It's just too awesome to be true, sarcasm incorporated. Now I just have to find my way into all of this and survive. Oh yeah, plus I just bought tickets to FM Belfast and Broken Social Scene this week, maybe a little irresponsible but hey I wanna live life as well.

I'm a little overwhelmed but I will tell stories, write emails, upload pictures and all of that while procrastinating on my work. Now it's 2am and I'm calling it a day.

Night.

Domestic Duplicity

So it's once again another one if those rainy mornings, the dude in front of the house wave again, to Bridgette sitting on our bar stool by the kitchen window. I wonder why we're so lucky an it's usually during a Saturday or Sunday that we get these grey (Or is it gray? We had a discussion about it yesterday... For the curious, Wikipedia says it's both)... that we get these gray morning which are just perfect for a baguette with jam, tea and lounging in the couch. This is the story of our weekend lives.

I've been wanting for a while to make a post on domestic shots, parallel worlds past and present, and I had such a good time excavating old albums for Fairview pics and putting them next to our St Denis loft ones.

BERLIN

Just got tickets to Berlin, leaving next Wednesday with Bridge and Tatiana an we're couch surfing at some Berlin dudes' place. STOKEEEEED!

Patricio Guzman's Documentaries

I'm taking a class about the military dictatorship in Chile and my professor is amazing. She keeps on bringing this stellar guest speaker who are just the coolest, most inspiring people. I had to moderate a debate yesterday with filmmaker Patricio Guzman. Guzman started filming as a student a documentary with 5 friends about Chile's political situation before the Pinochet coup (Salvador Allende was the first democratically elected socialist president, an it was after a period of extreme tensions and polarization between the left and the right that the Pinochet/CIA coup happened).

Anyways this is not a history class, I wanted to say how incredible it was to hear from him about things like: how they manage to smuggle the films out of the country after the coup happened, how he escaped his arrest in the National Stadium, how he edited his first film using that material (La Batalla de Chile, a trilogy) while in exile in Madrid, how it was to return to Chile after the coup, interview victims and torturers, etc.

I was glad we had also a lot of time to speak about film making, particularly about documentary film making and the role it has in creating memory and shaping how we see history. This he writes in his website: "A country without documentary films is like a family without a photo album".

I asked him lots of questions, specially because it had been thinking about this street photography thing (I just wrote a little comment about it on an earlier post, and then had a big FB discussion with Iri and Chris!) and I guess in some ways documentary film is very similar to street photography: trying to let the subjects speak for themselves, this aim to "expose"... (This is just my opinion on it, of course).

When I was thinking about street photography I was telling Iri and Chris that this really annoyed me because in a way, I felt like street photography seemed to claim that it was this objective medium for showing the "real" an the "raw" an did not acknowledge the inherent presence of a person with an agenda behind the lens, choosing what an how to present these "truths". I felt like this style, unlike more in-your-face-this-is-what-i-think ways of doing photography, was appropriating the subjects in the same way, in order to convey a photographer's vision, however it still tried to hide under the pretense of a certain objectivity.

Walker Evans, epitome of the street photo man (writes in a book the photographer is a "reporter", a "spy")

Floyd and Lucille Burroughs, Hale County, Alabamal, 1936, gelatin silver print.

VS.

I took this picture we we did the street photo field trip with my class, I said
"I don't know them" at the risk of sounding too dramatic

Therefore I was having all these ideas in my mind while discussing some if these issues with Patricio, but the first thing he said was: there's nothing objective about making a documentary, that it was a completely personal mission. It was his artistic work, his ideas... He said the producer can not be neutral because that is impossible, and that there is a script that is written before the interviews are done. Some might feel a little cheated about hearing this but I felt a very refreshing honesty in his answers. Of course he contradicted himself a little bit, but I'll leave that out for the sake of my own mental sanity, and because I find myself so motivated once again go for the documentary film path.

Why do I even hate stree photo so much? What has it done to me? Haha, I'm sure if I talk to a street photographer they'll tell me their work is completely subjective and its just their own interpretation of what's around what their showing, a completely egotistical activity, then I'll be happy...

But for now I can try to feel comfortable in a middle ground between crazy conceptual abstraction and a naive attempt to expose universal "truths" and "peoples" (street photo, sorry for trashing you so much) by sticking to Patricio's notion of the documentary.

Patricio's new film is showing in Paris now, I saw it with my class on Tuesday.

Point Ephémère

Thursday night 8pm (last week, this took me a while).

"Wanna go see Twin Shadow at Point Ephémère tonight? -Sam
"I think I'm just gonna take it easy and chill in the house and wear my pajamas, next time!" -Mile
"You know you seem to have gotten a little boring, what's up with that"

(EXCUSE ME?!?!)

"You know, you're right, lets go why not!" (I'm so weak) -Mile
"Really?! I'm so happy!"- Sam

Haha that "I'm so happy!" was a good... You know Sam, you're only allowed to used these extortionist techniques once, next time let me hibernate a bit when I feel like being homey. that being said, thanks for dragging me to the coolest bar in Paris!!

Random comment, my International Development prof told us today he has a friend who teaches poetry at NYU, and his life motto is "you should only be allowed to use three exclamation marks in your life".

Though one right?! I exceed my quota every single day for sure.. But I'm gonna start the '3 exclamations marks a day' challenge if anyone wants to join me... from now on, never more than three of these little guys per post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just getting it out before the diet begins.

Halloween

Just another excuse to dress up and pretend your actions do not belong to you but to this strange persona that takes over your body for an evening. We all know you had secretly been wanting to do everything you're responsible for during this infamous night, but it's OK, there's a silent collective agreement that excuses your intentions and desires. We understand, Marilyn did wear a a big cleavage.. And it's all good, it's well know how Where's Waldo was a big womanizer who went even for the girls he had been saying were more than unattractive...

And as said before, everything's excused when you're wearing a mask, glitter or Minnie Mouse ears, no one's judging here, but I think we should be able to do all that stuff we secretly want anyways. If you're the type that likes to dance on stage, don't wait til Halloween and that Lady Gaga costume to do it.. Hey if you're a closet transvestite, I know Halloween can be a smooth transition but go for it even in the days everyone else is being boring and self-conscious!

Lets all be Tina Turners everyday of our lives and life will be more fun.



(Halloween is another opportunity when you can test the limits of your comfort. Note: Quasi unibrow)

Dress-up Inspiration