I really worry that filmmaking the way it is in the West hardens you too much as a human being. I’m not talking about big time money wrangling or ego or anything like that. I just mean the soul sucking procedures and limitations of organisation that film requires. It makes you act in ways which are anti-artistic (with the caveat that nothing really is anti-artistic).
With photography you wonder around, alone, private, sensitive, feeling. But with film you’re wheeling and dealing. You’re selling and your negotiating. You’re hoodwinking. All that must have an affect at how sensitively you can see the world. But it’s important to note that it isn’t filmmaking but filmmaking in the west. I think a trip back to film in Bangladesh is the best thing I could do for my art. Perhaps a different kind of limitation exists back there, say equipment, or expertise, but surely that’s overridden by the number of interesting visual stories to tell there, and the freedom to create anything you want, anytime you want.
That’s not to say you can ever get away from organising a film, narrative film is essentially about organising the world to fit a version of reality you’ve thought up, it’s just that it may be significantly less.
It’s worth going again to try to find out.
Posted 1 year ago
