Reactions to Laura Marks

First off, is it just me, or did we not get to see any of her works? Did she have part in these works at all? Or did she just expose us to them? Granted, I liked the works alot, better than most experimental works I've seen all semester, and I liked her alot. She was easy in front of a crowd, knew her subjects, and presented ideas without nervousness or poor speaking. I liked her alot. But the works were not hers. Why did she present them then? Did I miss something? I know she was there because I read her letters home, but none of these works were hers.

Second, like I said before, I really liked the works she presented.

"Vacuum" was the first experimental film I've ever seen that made me laugh. Most experimental films dig deep into depressions of the human mind, buried unspoken words brought to the surface in emotion climax. I like that idea in general, but after awhile it wears on the spirit. Perhaps this is why I enjoyed these pieces. Like Laura said, they are a sad people, but they hide it well. This is evidenced in their videos. In "Vacuum" we were able to explore cultural differences and copmare them in an interesting and fun way, unlike most depressing films.

"Les Egeres, The Lost Ones" was a little more sad in a way, but it also showed how they hang on as a culture. Even though they looked lonely,as if they were the few taking on the world's strife, the people standing on the rooftops of the cathedral seemed as if they were saying they might endure hardship, but they stand on their beliefs, their god, and in so doing they can face anything. They seemed incredibly heroic to me. Even though their lives stood very close to the plummeting edge, they stood firm, often walking even and only holding on for support every once in a while. The camera angles seemed to encourage the idea of instability in regard to the people, especially the girl that was lying on the doorframe; yet, the camera shifts so that we see the men standing tall on the cathedral, as if they are strong and mighty and unafraid fo the height. It is a deliberate hero shot with the camera low to the ground, making the people seem bigger than they are, and making them seem as stable as the cathedral. They draw their strength from their religion and weak as they are, they carry on, despite hardship. I loved the duality of frailness to strength. In a sense thee film said to us that fraility is what makes us heroic, because we are made to stand against it. This was my favorite film, probably because I too am religious.

Another video I really liked was the patterned work by Alshaibi. I felt absorbed in the work, as if I couldn't pull away from it. It had a certain amount of control over me, as if it were trying to hypnotize me. We've seen several patterned films in this class, but this one actually drew me in. I think it was the regularity of the circular patterns and the music. The music made it more interesting to me. Our culture emphasizes music greatly, and I'm sure that's part of it. I didn't get the spiritual sense from it, but I can see how it relates to the spiritual nature of their culture. For me, religion has nothing to do with patterns and music, so I didn't get the connection until I was told.

Finally, I especialy liked thee animation we saw. It was rather depressing, but the point was brought across well. I don't kknow much about Arabic culture, but after getting the background story from Laura I was able to make more sense of the animation. You could see how the man was constantly trying to be happy but it was always eluding him, and how he kept trying anyhow. I was interested by the water face, how he saw his face happy in the water, and then bottled it. Why does the water make him happy? My idea was that he was considerinig suicide when he saw the gathered water, and the thought of escaping the sadness through death was appealing for him and made him smile. Yet he knew killing himself was not he answer so he tried to conserve the happy feeling and leave the suicide. I have no idea if that waas the intention, but that is how it struck me.