Filmmaker's Statement

I was trained in an observational cinema filmmaking tradition that conceptualizes daily life as the starting point for constructing documentary films. This lineage of filmmaking traces its roots to the direct cinema and cinema verite movements of the 1960s and 1970s, with turns toward autobiographical filmmaking in the 1980s and 1990s. The usual goal of this style of filmmaking is to create for spectators the illusion of “being there,” either psychically or physically, with the cameraperson and subjects. The filmmaker stands in as a reliable representative for the viewing audience. But in an era when daily life is increasingly defined by individuals’ interactions with documents and screens, the utility of this approach seems to fall into question. What would an observational documentary about watching television or reading on the Internet reveal about “being there”? And how is it possible to represent subjects as they “actually” are when the presence of the camera seems to demand a performance from those in front of it? Partly in response to these questions, I have become most interested in subjects that are imagined rather than directly observable. In an era of globalization and ubiquitous media, imagined connections sustain threads of logic, interpretations of shared historical events, ideals about one’s identity, and notions of right and wrong across time and space. My work seeks to represent the intersections between daily life practices and these imagined connections, and to draw out their political ramifications. In my most recent project, About Face!, I explore the subculture of reenacting as a reenactor, in order to see the processes involved in “making” history in a post 9/11 context.