In this week’s lecture, scenes from Scott Ruo’s ‘Four Images’, Brian Hill’s ‘Drinking for England’ and Chantal Akerman’s ‘D’Est’ were screened. Choose one of these, and consider, in a single paragraph, what might have intrigued, interested, displeased or repelled you.
Chantal Akerman’s ‘D’Est’
There were no words and no music, but it was so, so beautiful. I went into Film-TV 2 expecting to make a documentary that was straight up interviews, with little artistic direction. But I’m discovering that documentaries don’t have to be dry and interview-based; they can be minimalistic and poetic, like Akerman’s D’Est. The scene had an observatory quality about it that captured precisely the sombreness of life in Eastern Europe post-USSR. The low angle used was also really interesting. More importantly, the scene showed me that less could be more – allow the images to speak for themselves; avoid overstimulation. I’m amazed Akerman managed to make such a fascinating doco without much description/interviews – definitely something I hope to experiment with this semester.