postdesire
Mar 15th, 2007 by alvin
my favorite films
watching “summer in my veins” by nishit saran was a very touching experience for me. the political implications of the content (a coming out story) and the novelty of the genre (of the homevideo kind, turned into a very powerful documentary/autobiography) had been well pointed out and discussed in the forum. but it is one thing to watch the film as it is. and then it is another thing altogether to watch it with nishit’s mother, minna saran, with us in the audience. one could hear minna crying all throughout the film while it was being shown. anyone inside kasturi mahal at that time could not miss sharing minna’s emotions. the film abstract (which i read before the film started running) tells us that nishit tragically died in a car accident four years back, a few years after he made the film. in the forum after the film showing, one could easily connect with how minna so passionately sustains the nishit saran foundation, which generously gives various kinds of support to those who, like nishit, are very enthusiastic about using the medium of art for self-expression. put those elements and information altogether, and one gets a very unique and intense cinematic experience that is very difficult to replicate.
another film that i like was victric thng’s “locust.” while we were in the palace, i used to tell victric how his film reminds me of a lovely song way back by a band called “workshy.” below is a rough recollection of the lyrics. try to remember victric’s images as u read this.
where are u now?
workshy (ocean) 1992
-1-
so i had a dream
a nightmare isn’t fair
not much to talk about
except that u were there
u haven’t changed
u are exactly the same
and u’r just fine
-chorus-
where are u now?
it might be nice to know
where are u now?
maybe u could show
ur face in a crowd
but that’s as far as it should go
where are u now?
-2-
so much for the dream
i’m glad it wasn’t true
now i can get back
to life without u
it hasn’t changed
it is exactly the same
and it’s just fine
-repeat chorus-
of course, more than that, i would like to say that “locust” itself is a really nice film. very beautiful work of art and it hits me straight in the middle. i still keep on thinking about it now. and it makes me think of many beautiful memories too. and when i think about what victric said in the forum that a good film is one that lingers in the mind of the audience for days and days, i really think that “locust” is a great success.
“locust” also reminds me of something that i work on now in my thesis: the concept of ephemeral selves. fleeting selves, transient selves. and transient experiences too. encounters that do not last a lifetime. selves and encounters whose physical dimensions are not always there, but may only be re-experienced in the “theatre” (or “cinema,” if u will) of our minds.
i also like victric’s version of “multiple readings.” in the forum, as a reply to the question of who the film was for, victric said that he did not think of somebody in particular when he made the film. he then added that much later, he thought that it could be himself to whom the film is talking, that he had been searching for himself all this time. finally, he also said that in the future, he wishes to dedicate the film to another person. we have always known about how a film can be read in many varied ways. yet it is simply interesting to think of how a filmmaker can also leave so much space for multiple meanings not only as an offer to the audience, but also as a tribute to one’s self.
and another thing, while we’re at it. the title of this entry is something that i just though of: postdesire, originally referring to this temporality right after “films of desire”. yet anyone familiar with postcolonialism, poststucturalism, postfeminisms, postmodernism and all the other post-s might take a hint of how we can possibly collectively form an interesting discourse on postdesire. any thoughts?
alvin concha, md
davao city, philippines
alvinconcha[at]yahoo[dot]com
+639174004945
