It's been during small community screenings where
I've seen the complicated ways in which an interested group of
people are moved or provoked by an independent work that shows
them their lives, and speaks to them directly in ways that corporate
media cannot. Even though independent media thrives at the margins
and in the cracks of the mainstream, it remains remarkably diverse
and reflective of the range of our actual experience. It creates
a much-needed space where people feel encouraged to become part
of the process of understanding and creating a dialogue about the
unconventional perspectives that the makers usually offer.
This desire and need for participation and mutually shared
interest, along with the current which flows between audience
and artist is particularly liberating. My subject matter
ranges widely, but each carries an energy that has remained
constant in the body of my work: to uncover hidden sensations
and emotional experiences through a variety of kinds of storytelling;
to question common social assumptions and explore uncommon
insights; and to discover unusual and provocative connections
among people, situations and ideas.
Since a film takes one year to several to complete, my
ideas about form and concept are under continual personal
scrutiny and change. I am drawn to the beauty of authentic
and mysterious imagery, restrained performance, and richly
textured aural environments.
Over the years my work changes considerably because I am
a mother. It goes a lot slower, and thus, more strategically.
I no longer have vast amounts of time to devote to my creative
obsessions, so any gesture I makes becomes as definitive
and bold as I am capable of. The sense of time passing (and
with children around it is so intensified) makes me want
to work harder than ever with the energy I have available.
Or else the moment, each one seeming to burn brilliant, will
be lost forever.
I came of age artistically during the late 70s and 80s
when the excitement and exchange of energies was unparalleled
in this relatively new field called the media arts. I was
heavily influenced by a generation before me who pioneered
new ways to approach film, video, installation and its ongoing
dialogue with all the other arts. The air was filled with
an overwhelming passion for cinema, in all its seemingly
limitless forms - rediscovering American classical movies,
finding new films from abroad, rethinking documentary and
learning the language of experimental film and video.
My work comes out of this era which opened up our imaginations
to the range of possibilities that moving image media could
offer. I would locate my work as coming out of a specific
milieu: that of the non profit American media arts movement
which gave artists access to technology and tools and a budding
infrastructure of alternative exhibition and distribution.
Also, other artists and producers, writers, curators, educators,
etc. in the independent media field challenged us to explore
the politics of culture and media, include issues of identity
in our work, and make activist work in the public interest.
Categories were flexible and intersecting, and I learned
to be as comfortable presenting work in an art world context
(museums and galleries) as on broadcast television or in
a variety of theatrical venues and community settings. Since
this context for exhibition was open and fluid, it influenced
my exploration of hybrid styles - mixing elements of documentary,
narrative and experimental forms to see what would happen,
yet still engage and move viewers.
That moment may have passed, but the possibilities that
were thrown up in the air still are there being figured out
and developed by a lot of us. I can't forget all that I've
learned from this crazy passion. While the issues change,
the technology is refined and funding is always fragile,
I still feel the need to continue working from that powerful
impulse and framework - where our media practice can still
defy commercialization and present the possibility for individual
and collective transformation.
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