Tag: film-making

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” →

by jad

‘No Other Sign’: A Lenten Homily, March 4, 2020

+ “Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.” Maybe it’s because I’m your Communications Minister, or maybe it’s because this is my first time preaching – ever… But I’ve been thinking a lot about all the bits and pieces we use to make this a meaningful time spent together. The readings, the music, the cover art on your bulletins – how everything is curated just so to make sense. I’ve never been to seminary, but I imagine it to be a lot like film school, which I have been to – every year, without fail, … Continue reading “‘No Other Sign’: A Lenten Homily, March 4, 2020” →

by jad

Creative Clusters: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 8

Part 1: Artpop, Inc. I’ve been listening to a lot of Lady Gaga since she popped up on my playlist on Valentine’s Day. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to anything as infectiously positive and carefree; I’m especially aware of this because, two days prior, I attended an art-based workshop where they asked us to share a song that we turned to when we wanted to lift our spirits; I couldn’t think of any. There was a time when it was strangely meaningful to think that Lady Gaga and I are the same age. Looking back, I now feel … Continue reading “Creative Clusters: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 8” →

by jad

NYC: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 7

Part 1: The Grid “Nature is man’s inorganic body, that is to say nature in so far as it is not the human body. Man lives from nature, i.e. nature is his body, and he must maintain a continuing dialogue with it if he is not to die. To say that man’s physical and mental life is linked to nature simply means that nature is linked to itself, for man is part of nature.” (Marx) When I first arrived in NYC, I didn’t even know what a “block” was. I’d heard it used in dialogue in movies and such, but … Continue reading “NYC: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 7” →