From: Keith Sanborn (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Oct 13 2005 - 06:01:58 PDT
Very little of substance was said about either film by you or Cari.
There were vague accusations and a forthright admission of personal
frustration but very little analysis. And nothing that would justify
calling the work "racist." Hard to do without a copy in front of you
of either work, but specifics are important. I also don't like the
short hand of jumping from an analysis or impression of a film an
attack on the filmmaker, not at least without looking at the whole
body of work. We're not talking about Leni Riefenstahl here. I am not
against analytic discussion of any film, but I am against vague
impressions becoming a serious charge of "racism." It reminds of 12
year old boys calling anyone they don't like a "homo" and displays,
in the same way, more the prejudices of the speaker than anything
about the person labeled.
Keith Sanborn
>I don't see Cari's remarks as trying to burn Leslie as a witch. But
>clearly she was angry about something she saw in the work, and felt
>unable to articulate it at the screening. So...I was interested in
>trying to find out what made her angry, because hardly anyone ever
>speaks about a specific filmmaker on this list, and tries to talk
>about their work and what they really think about it. I just like
>the idea for this list to be about real work that people are really
>making, and about making that work a live thing instead of a museum
>relic by keeping a discussion alive about it.
>
>It just seems to me that people end up attacking each other instead
>of discussing the work and the work is the really interesting thing.
>I don't know why there should be so much fear in discussing each
>other's work. I brought up Breillat, who is attacked constantly by
>everyone, as well as being honored and championed by many. And that
>seems really interesting, that you can go anywhere on the internet
>and read all of those conflicting views. It means that the work is
>really doing something. But then again, that's commercially
>distributed work.
>
>
>On Oct 12, 2005, at 3:31 PM, Keith Sanborn wrote:
>
>>I have to say that this is a new low in Frameworks, though I may
>>have missed others since I haven't been reading it a lot lately. I
>>had to change the subject line, because up to now using the
>>filmmaker's name in this thread has been a kind of accusation. I
>>refuse to continue it.
>>
>>Can a film deal with otherness without being orientalist? While
>>Another Worldy is not my favorite film of Leslie's, it should be
>>understood in the context of more than 20 years of commitment to
>>complex representations of the other, starting with the otherness
>>of gender, of childhood, of animals etc etc etc. What about
>>Adynata? What about Peggy and Fred in Hell? And what about "An
>>Unseen Cloud Moving," her film about Isabelle Eberhardt--that "rich
>>brat white woman" running around in "arab garb." Should we simply
>>avoid talking about her, or about Rimbaud, the poet turned gun
>>runner? And thereby lose the possibility for learning about
>>ourselves?
>>
>>In spite of what positivists might say, works don't "stand on their
>>own"; they emerge from a context. Leslie's work emerged from a
>>profound interest in the Middle East and a study of Arabic Language
>>and culture by both her and Tom Zummer, her collaborator, not to
>>mention the context of the rest of her work in film and video.
>>
>>Could she do a bad job with what she learned? Certainly. Could she
>>exoticize in trying to render otherness? Yes, it remains at this
>>point a vague assertion. Encounters with the other can be erotic,
>>can be mysterious, as well as complex without making the person who
>>does a "racist." Can they be racist? Yes. Were they? That remains
>>to be demonstrated, and so far all I have recorded is that Cari is
>>angry at herself for not speaking up in public about her personal
>>reading of the work, which, as it happens, involves throwing out
>>the sound track. I'm sure she would agree that seeing a film, with
>>and without a sound track is two different things. So the film
>>she's talking about--the one with no soundtrack--can hardly be
>>attributed to Leslie.
>>
>>Encounters with the other can involve complex guilty pleasures as
>>well as simple minded, knee jerk pc blinded guilt.
>>
>>I am reminded of an incident which happened a couple of decades ago
>>at the hyper-pc conference which was sponsored by the collective
>>for living cinema on precisely the subject of representations of
>>and by "the 3rd world." After showing one of her early and complex
>>works, Naked Spaces, possibly, Trinh Min-ha was questioned by a
>>male member of the audience with a heavy German accent why she made
>>the work so artsy; why couldn't she make something more accessible
>>like Leni Riefenstahl's book on the Nuba. I could see the brains of
>>intellectually "enlightened" New Yorkers starting to spark and fuse
>>and overheat. Ms. Trinh, was somewhat at a loss for words, offering
>>only that she was aware that the works were difficult, but that she
>>thought that was the proper approach. This question was followed by
>>a statement by another member of the audience, who said "Speaking
>>as a German and a Woman, I have to say that I find the works of
>>Leni Riefenstahl totally unacceptable and racist." At this point,
>>Sarah Maldoror, a black filmmaker from Guadaloupe who worked at the
>>time in Africa, whose film Sambinzanga had just been shown and who
>>did not speak English, said in French how much she adored
>>Riefenstahl's book on the Nuba. This remark was duly translated in
>>to English. At this point Michelle Wallace after giving Ms. Malador
>>a look that could at least mame, offered her the chance to recant,
>>by saying, "You mean to say you actually like the Riefenstahl book
>>on the Nuba and how she represents the Nuba?" After this remark was
>>duly translated into French, Malador, with a bit of difficulty
>>finding her words responded and her remark was translated into
>>English: "The men, the images are so beautiful. I'm powerless
>>against them."
>>
>>So, after we've burned Leslie as a witch, without addressing the
>>accusations to her directly, let's disinter Jean Rouche and stone
>>his rotting corpse for smashing forever the illusions of
>>"ethnographic" film.
>>
>>Keith Sanborn
>>
>>
>>__________________________________________________________________
>>For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>
>http://www.lifeofastar.com/
>
>
>__________________________________________________________________
>For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.