Is the role of the filmmaker simply to make a film? Is it to show the society in which we all live, with a dispassionate distance and a thoroughly objective stance on one's subject material?
Or, is it to try to change the society in which we live rather to merely document it, and to engage in making real people's lives better in any possible way?
Trying to capture what it is like to be outdoors on a cold Canadian day in a downtown core of a city, the filmmaker finds what in all actuality appears to be a dead man lying on the sidewalk. Rather than summon help, he obsesses over the camera shots he should take. (One every two seconds, as it turns out). He is impressed by the manner in which passing bystanders seem to respect the integrity of his shots, as they mimic his blissful ignoring of the distress having been suffered by the man on the sidewalk. The man is shoe-less.
In its brief six minute run time, this film gave me enough to sit and think later on. By being so disturbingly uniform in its distant objectivity, it would appear Feldman was indirectly almost screaming at artists to wake up and get involved in the world they are supposedly trying to portray.
Very unique. Very well done.
Or, is it to try to change the society in which we live rather to merely document it, and to engage in making real people's lives better in any possible way?
Trying to capture what it is like to be outdoors on a cold Canadian day in a downtown core of a city, the filmmaker finds what in all actuality appears to be a dead man lying on the sidewalk. Rather than summon help, he obsesses over the camera shots he should take. (One every two seconds, as it turns out). He is impressed by the manner in which passing bystanders seem to respect the integrity of his shots, as they mimic his blissful ignoring of the distress having been suffered by the man on the sidewalk. The man is shoe-less.
In its brief six minute run time, this film gave me enough to sit and think later on. By being so disturbingly uniform in its distant objectivity, it would appear Feldman was indirectly almost screaming at artists to wake up and get involved in the world they are supposedly trying to portray.
Very unique. Very well done.