Notes 2 on "Between The Sheets and in The Streets"

The ability to hold together intense devotion to something with a simultaneous irony or even derision towards it is characteristic of much gay culture.” Richard Dryer

Film and video is analyzed in this series of essays in a way that made me understand new ways to express my ideas on documentation and analysis of queer documentary. I was able to engage with such terms as cinema verite, “the reflective cinema verite camera is regarded not as a fly on the wall, but as an engaged participant. Such “interactive” films typically foreground the camera, its operator, and the present-tense filming situation.” This description made me think about weather Travel Queeries could be likened to a fly on the wall or me the filmmaker as an engaged participate? I learned more about the term ethnography, “to know and experience the life and community of another.” Travel Queeries could become even more of an intriguing document and window into an “other” culture by looking through the ethnographic lens. At the same time I want to make TQ a mirror reflecting back into itself and the community I, as a filmmaker, choose to document. The film wears these two hats. As I become more familiar with the footage I will be able to construct a story arch that will express both of these realms.

In Chris Holmlund’s essay “When Autobiography Meets Ethnography: The Dyke Docs of Sadie Benning and Su Friedrich,” Holmlund comments on how these two filmmakers are put into the box of making “autobiographical” work. “Most critics easily label them autobiographies, diaries, or confessions. However, almost no one discusses these works as ethnographies. No mention is made of Benning’s consistent condemnation of homophobia, racism and sexism and no recognition is given to her general concern with young people and women. It is as if “autobiography” were understood solely as the inscription of a self-absorbed subjectivity uninvolved with others.”
In the context of TQ I could see how my work could be viewed in similar terms. Hearing the story of a life from the person who has lived it and who is making the document by themselves is very powerful and can tell you a lot about the demographic they are representing. I was impressed and inspired with Benning’s work. In “If every girl had a diary” and “Jollies” I was able to see her filming skills progress and her metaphors become deeper as she got older. I noticed her complete un-self-consciousness of sharing her world and stories with the viewer. I will share more about this in my film viewing post. The dyke doc’s chapter taught me how to reference autobiography and see it as more then just subjectivity but as an actual document through the filmmaker’s eyes.