Laura Marks' Guest Lecture

"People get involved in experimental film because they feel compelled to." This was one of the first things Laura Marks discussed during her lecture. I found this statement to be very true throughout viewing many of the films she showed us. The film-makers each had something to say that was important to them in different ways. The film, "Les Egares" by Mounir Fatmi showed us some western influences that were brought to attention concerning the Islamic culture. Some of the sounds and images that stood out were the beautiful buildings and landscapes as well as the piercing sound of the bell and the strength of the wind. I liked how they continued to show the structure on top of the building from all angles, sometimes a human was present, sometimes not. The few men and women that were shown on top of the buildings seemed to be the only life forms for miles. What were they looking at and what for? At first, the people appeared to be free but when we were shown different images and the voice and text appeared, the people appeared to be seen in the light of a prisoner. In class, Marks explained that the film-maker is showing us typical Western TV images of Islams praying and he is saying, "this is not us." Also, the bells we hear during this segment of the film represent the pressure of fundamentalism. This film in relation to the next one we saw can be interpreted as offensive to the Islamic religion because it is unlike traditional forms of Islamic prayer. The next film we saw, "Allahu Akbat" by Usama Alshaibi, has the word "Resistances" or resistance in the title page. It can be described as a "Mandela film," it is very exciting from the beginning. "It's optical presence is like a dance performance," commented Marks. She also explained how the film was also an optical experiment because it had Western lineage influence. It was also a "trance film," the music was exciting, like rave music but better. The music was later described as belly-dancing music. Because of this type of music, the spirituality was taken away. It begins with slow traditional Arabic music, then leads to a fast-paced beat. In the Islamic culture, the geometric patterns have content but with the wrong type of music, the content is gone. The content of worship of Islam is taken away and altered and this could be offensive to the religion. This relates to the previous films because the people are not praying inside of the masque where they should be, they are standing on top of it. When the text begins, we get the impression that it is dis-satisfying to other people. I very much enjoyed both films but especially liked "Allahu Akbat." Comparing this film to Cory Archangel's "Data Diaries" is worlds different. While I found the "Data Diaries" disrupting, offensive, and loud, "Allahu Akbat" kept my attention and pleased my ears. I loved the music and how it went right along with what I was looking at. I think the black and white images worked well as they flashed to the beat. I wasn't running for the door.
"In This House" by Akram Zaatari, was a little confusing for me because of the way it was made. It was enticing and I felt very involved in the process, but too much was going on at once. My eyes were jumping all over the screen to keep up, but I guess that could be a good thing. Every sentence and image was important for this story about archiving but as someone said in class, there was an imbalance of information. There were eerie tones given to the voices and because of their refusal to be photographed, it was like a film of people talking while we view their ankles. The police showed up, the Christian family was scared, many people were gathered around, and there was talk of a bomb. I thought it was interesting how all of the excitement leads up to a climax of a piece of paper. An important piece of paper, but still a piece of paper.
One of the last works we saw, "Sadman," by Lina Ghaibeh was important to me because it was Lebanese TV animation, unlike any of the previous films. At first I thought it was very different from American animation, but then it started to remind me of Richard Linklater's work, "Waking Life(2001)." The type of animation was different, but it gave me the sense of a dream-like state or hallucination. The way the man kept coming back to the same activity in the bathroom, but every time he would dream something different. It was like each time he tried to preserve a happy face or state of mind, but it was impossible.