I watched a movie last night: “Man Bites Dog.” It was a mockumentary about a serial killer. Here is some commentary on it:

This is a film about an observational documentary crew following a serial killer, and what happens throughout the film is that the relationship between the filmmakers and the serial killer changes. The film crew start to become implicated in the events, which leads them at the end of the film to be involved in a violent episode and to be part of a murder. The film takes you on a journey that makes you think very explicitly about documentary ethics, about the role of the filmmaker, it also makes a comment on the cult of the serial killer, and a whole host of other things. It’s much more explicit, it’s a very different type of mock documentary, much more hard-hitting.

I think one of the things that documentary does is often set up a relationship between the viewer and the text, which is a relationship that is at a distance. We are kept at a safe distance, we have a view on the world but it’s a distant view. What happens in the “Man Bites Dog” film is that, in part, you’re encouraged to identify with the serial killer. Ben actually comes across as a very charming, sophisticated, cultured man and it’s very easy to start liking him. Likewise, with the film crew, rather than identifying with them and looking in on the events from a distance, you start to be drawn in to the events and get closer and closer to them. There are certain moments in the film, and it’s very violent, where you suddenly think, ‘why am I watching this? What does this say about me?’ And it really does question that whole idea about what our role [as an audience] is in documentary and especially in certain forms of factual programming, like reality TV, which sometimes gets very close to events, to personal moments, and we wonder whether we should be there, whether we should be listening, whether we should be watching.

As you can imagine, it was quite disturbing.

tags: movies, webloggish

Mummy told me this morning I tested positive for mononucleosis, although they don’t know yet if I have active mono or if I have just had it in the past. I never recall getting anything like mono before, but I’m sure it’s possible I had it when I was very young and got sick more often. I think I will find out this afternoon before we go to England. Mostly I hope I do not get a ruptured spleen. Otherwise mono seems fairly manageable especially over winter break.

The day before yesterday I went camping with Maurie, Toby and two of Toby’s friends, which was maybe not the best idea if I do have active mono, but I have no regrets. I have not gone camping for years. At least 10. I wasn’t really prepared for the cold but I was sharing a tent with Maurie and Toby so that kept me warm. I hope I did not give any of the mono. It is nice to know that I can still pee outside, a useful skill indeed.

I saw “The Pursuit of Happyness” with Mummy, Maurie and her mother last night. The movie was as uplifting as it was predictable. Will Smith’s son was very cute.

tags: friends, home, movies

I was successful in relaxing yesterday. I spent a few hours at the mall. I got two new pairs of earrings and one new set of colorful dot-type studs. It was buy two get one f(th)ree. After a baffling and unsuccessful experience trying on pants at the Levi’s store and H&M (size 3 juniors at Levi’s, size 6 or 8 at H&M depending on how stretchy the pants were and the Gap jeans I was wearing yesterday were 4 — I hate the female pant sizing system), I finally found a nice pair of black jeans at Delia’s, of all places. The last time I got jeans from Delia’s was probably over four years ago. They were a staple of my wardrobe during the first half of high school until my Made in the USA-Gap modern boot cut-eBay stage which lasted until a few months ago.

I can barely conceive of all the work I have done in the past few days. I don’t really remember doing most of it. It all blended together. I have gotten over my panic about my AmCiv exam on Monday. Mostly I was worried because I didn’t know how I would prepare for it. I’ve got a plan now, that will probably only be partially executed, but that is better than nothing and more importantly has a very calming effect.

I saw “Babel” last night with McComas at the Avon. It has been a long time since we have seen a movie there together, and an even longer time since we have seen a movie there together and I have not fallen asleep. I forgot how long ago we saw “Jesus Camp” but I only lasted for about 30 minutes. I didn’t know anything about the movie ahead of time. It was very intense and quite depressing. I don’t know if it is a recent trend in movies to be multilingual — not predominantly in English or any other language, not exactly what I would call a foreign film but not an American film either — but I like it. (Off the top of my head: “The Sound of Sleep,” “L’Auberge Espagnole,” “The Edukators”.) When a movie is just in one language you forget that cultures and languages are constantly clashing and interacting in the world right now. Everything is more self-contained.

I slept for a long time last night, from 10pm to 8am. I am still tired. I think I will take a nap.

tags: class, movies, purchase

Animal Collective – Grass

In the past few days mostly I have been studying. Saturday night I went to see Patrick and others perform at a Brown New Music concert which was mostly enjoyable. It was very crowded but it meant that we could sit on the floor. I get very fidgety during lectures and concerts and movies so it was a relief. After I saw “A Scanner Darkly” with Peter which was very good. I really like the rotoscope effect. It reminded me of the Kid’s Story from “Animatrix”. I like how sometimes abstracted cartoonish animation often seems more true to life than photorealistic video.

Yesterday I went to work and at lunch at the Ratty very late and took a nap, and then studied for my RS137 final with Ayesha for many hours at the Zete and then the Ratty again. Then I visited Jessie who is watching Beanie for a few days now. I have spent a lot of time there. I got a little work done and then fell asleep so I came back to Grad Center and then proceeded to sleep for NINE HOURS. Yes.

Beanie is looking more and more like Zack as he gets older.

Suddenly at the end of the semester it seems more important to document everything and write down what I do and take photos so I don’t forget what life is like here over winter break when it is all so far away.

tags: friends, happy, movies, music, pensieve, photography

I saw “Borat” last night with McComas, Patrick and Doug Benedicto. It was amazing. I only wish I had gone in there with no expectations — that I hadn’t seen any of the previews. Then the whole movie would have been one glorious hilarious surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed it and if you like to laugh, especially at bigoted Americans, you should go see it.

Before that I spent the afternoon with Donald, his brother Giancarlo and my former roommates Jessie and Alli. They tried to dress me up like a punk little red riding hood and then do a photoshoot, but it was sort of getting dark by the time we got outside, and also, I looked very silly. I had a lot of fun.

One problem in shooting after the sun has gone down is that the photos tend to be overexposed when they shot at the correct f-stop and exposure according to the camera’s light meter. I started underexposing intentionally and got the above picture, which is a little dark but I think accurately represents what the light looked like then. At least, on my monitor. What do you think?

There are 3 different metering settings on the 350D and I don’t quite understand the difference between them. Next time I’ll experiment.

tags: brown, friends, movies, photography

I saw this movie last night at the Avon with Henry and McComas. I enjoyed it very much. I’m a big fan of Gael Garcia Bernal, and of pan-European movies that are in multiple languages including English (like L’Auberge Espagnole). It

The movie is about a man who has very vivid, bizarre dreams, which he has trouble distinguishing from reality. Sometimes he sleepwalks and acts out his dreams in real life and sometimes it all just seems to be in his head. I think the movie did a very good job of illustrating the that you are sleepwalking through life and having recurring dreams about characters and situations in your current life. My dreams during high school were much more cloudy than Stephane’s, and none of them were as fantastic. But I did dream almost every night about the people in my high school.

When I went to swim meets every weekend to take photographs, I had multiple dreams at pools with the swim team. One time the team was short a girl for a relay and decided to enter me even though I had no bathing suit and I don’t know how to swim properly. Another time I fell from the edge of the pool where I crouch to take photos into the pool and then stayed there because the water felt so warm and comforting. Other times I was pushed into the pool for a swimming lesson. I was waking up before 6am every day in a fog, and by the time I finished my homework and dinner I was ready to pass out in my bed around 9pm. Everything blended together, especially towards the end of the semester when I was exhausted. I spent most of my waking moments at school and I spent my nights dreaming about it. It was a strange feeling, like I was totally immersed in my high school experience and my fairly strict day-to-day routine as a student.

I didn’t have any dreams about GWU, probably because I spent most of my time there in my room alone and did not have much of a routine or community at all. I have some dreams at Brown about class or my suitemates. In general my life varies much more from day to day now than in high school, and I think this is part of the reason that I don’t have the same kind of “dreamworld” that I did then, when I had banal dreams that so closely resembled real life that sometimes I was not sure if I had dreamed a scene or if it had really happened.

tags: dreams, happy, movies