Tag: film-making

by jad

Abby Martin’s Seattle Premiere (and Joyous News)

I just heard joyous news that’s not mine to share, but I will say that it’s making me weep to a degree I did not expect. x Abby Martin is a tour de force both on and off the screen. She spoke with such passion last night at the unofficial Seattle premiere of her latest @empirefiles film, EARTH’S GREATEST ENEMY, co-sponsored by @seattledsa and @ydsa_uw, and if you managed to grab a ticket for tonight’s sold-out show at SIFF Uptown, you’ll see exactly what I mean. See you there. x We spoke a little about “hope” on our way to … Continue reading “Abby Martin’s Seattle Premiere (and Joyous News)” →

by jad

New Year’s Eve, a Budget Lens, and Earth’s Greatest Enemy

A couple of quiet moments on New Year’s Eve. As I was composing the second shot, a loud and obnoxious voice boomed behind me saying “oooh, what are you doing with that camera???” which kinda broke the spell of the moment. It turns out he was trying to get me in a shot of his own. x I love my new ultra-budget Made in China lens. x I think the door swinging shut makes this first photo. x It’s next month! Seattle @demsocialists are thrilled to welcome @fababs to our city for two screenings of her newest @empirefiles film, “Earth’s … Continue reading “New Year’s Eve, a Budget Lens, and Earth’s Greatest Enemy” →

by jad

Election Night and the Metaphysics of the Movement

The next 24 hours are going to be electric for a lot of people across the country; many will be celebrating a hard-won victory, having talked the talk and walked the walk under a crimson banner for a long time. I’d also guess that a good number will finally find the courage to google “democratic socialism” and join the movement. The next 24 months might bring many more highs and just as many lows. Some might look back at this evening with bitter disappointment, as lofty expectations are inevitably dashed against the rocks of compromise. Many will withdraw altogether, but … Continue reading “Election Night and the Metaphysics of the Movement” →

by jad

Basic Filmmaking

This is the very first project I made in a “Basic Filmmaking” summer intensive I did at NYU back in 2006. It’s shot on Kodak 16mm film using an old Arriflex and was hand spliced and screened silently for a class led by Katherine Lindberg, who seems to be still teaching there. I don’t remember what the project prompt was, but I loved how she intuitively got what I was about. She would later tell me (approvingly) that I “like to poke sticks.” She didn’t let me quit on myself when Israel’s shelling of Beirut started to mess with my … Continue reading “Basic Filmmaking” →

by jad

Photography is Slow Montage

“Our art is for someone – even if it starts as for just ourselves.” Wise words from @thecryptidofyourheart. There’s something to be said about the symbiotic relationship between urbanism and photography; the two seem inseparable to me, so much so that “street photography” feels like a tautology – it should just be photography, with “studio photography” being the bastard child. That’s why photography and public transport are such a good fit. But I don’t know if I even think photographically, if I’m honest. I know more about Robert Bresson than Henri Cartier-Bresson, and though I’m not much of a cinéaste … Continue reading “Photography is Slow Montage” →

by jad

Asteroid City

“But you can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep So go live your dreams and live them real deep. There is some countin’ money and there’s some countin’ sheep. Oh, you can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep – If you don’t fall asleep.” (Jarvis Cocker) I watched ‘Asteroid City’ on the ten-hour flight to Frankfurt coming here, and I don’t think I was fully awake to fully grasp it, but I think it’s a movie about grief and purpose and the stories we let ourselves to find purpose in grief, or grief in purpose, etc. “Asteroid City … Continue reading “Asteroid City” →

by jad

Resurrecting The Matrix

I’ve seen some grumbling headlines about Matrix 4 and I really couldn’t care less what the fundamental subject/hyperobject of the film itself has to say, but here’s what I feel like sharing today: this is a film for a very particular kind of person. Maybe you were planning to meet up with school friends at the cinema, but no one had a cellphone so they ended up heading there early and seeing something silly like You’ve Got Mail, or whatever it was, so you watched The Matrix by yourself and had your tiny brain blown. Maybe, some years later, in … Continue reading “Resurrecting The Matrix” →

by jad

Shot A + Shot B

“The only way to understand storiessuch as that of the Annunciationis to repeat them, that is, to utter againa Word which producesinto the listener the same effect… I am hailing tonight, with the same gift,the same present of renewed presence. Tonight, I am your Gabriel!” (Bruno Latour) x Do you remember how, in Fight Club, one of the backstories we’re given for “Tyler Durden” is that of a movie theatre projectionist? How he would splice subliminal frames of lewd imagery into family films to mess with normies’ sense of reality, and how the film itself had frames of Tyler’s face … Continue reading “Shot A + Shot B” →

by jad

Do You Want To Come Join?

When words frustrate, I sometimes turn to collage. I took this video on July 17, on my way back home after livestreaming a socially-distanced concert at work. I wasn’t the only bystander there, though I may have been the the only one filming — I’m not entirely sure. “Rather than recording, do you want to come join?” No, I did not expect to be addressed so directly by “ongoing events.”

by jad

Marking Time: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 16

Part 1: Non-Standard Calendar Time has been an interesting medium and muse for this weekly ritual. When I started this, I knew that I’d be making a partner of the unfolding days; I did not have a script nor plan for the whole arc of my gratitude in the first twenty weeks of #TwentyTwenty. I had general bearings, but no clear map—anything more definite would have been a contradiction in terms. So as we begin to crest the horizon and near the last leg of this journey, I’ve become increasingly aware of the regions of time that I’ve lingered in … Continue reading “Marking Time: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 16” →