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. 

In the scenes from Brian Hill’s ‘Drinking for England’ it was hard to fathom what was going on as we were shown a series of scenes with no prior knowledge of how the documentary came to this point. Just why was the guy singing in front of the roller door? Perhaps to show the delirium of drunken song, or maybe just to add some humour to the piece. It was pretty interesting choice Hill made to virtually place a music video in the middle of the documentary, having the ability to question the viewer to associate its purpose within the overall piece. In the scenes we begin with an interview of the man, but the interview slowly starts to turn into song and before we know it this man is on a barren street singing in front of a roller door, the song having strangely familiar qualities to Semisonic Closing Time. It’s hard to understand how the documentary has come to this and the purpose of this moment; however its spontaneity adds appeal and you are more interested than ever before. The song cuts to montage sequences of people drinking beer and the man standing in a stereotypical bar with bar lights and a foggy interior. From this we can gather the different form of documentary this piece has chosen to take, and though the song doesn’t have the best rhythmic qualities and may displease some with the stylised acting, its presence illustrates the ability to surprise the viewer and that the piece has an understanding of its audience.