DayQuil Ramblings

I think that the Morris films that we have seen have a tendency to illude me to pay attention to what the people are saying and the content, when really I think what people don’t say and how they say it tends to be more interesting and revealing. I think that if i was supposed to soley concentrate on what the people were saying, then Morris would show them all the time. He would supplement with photographs and newspapers. Stumbling onto that topic, I think, right now more than ever, that Morris uses photographs and newspapers in Thin Blue Line to show that it did happen that it is in fact a truth that this person is saying. In a film where it is hard to know the truth, hard to find clarity, I think the references to hard materials, like they do in a documentary, really grounds the piece. I keep changing my mind about the drawings from the trial, but hopefully I’ll talk about those in the presentation on Wednesday.

On another note, I think Morris has really highlighted the advantages of listening in his films. I’d like to know exactly how he prompts people to talk and open up. It’s easy for most people to jump into and dominate a conversation and not really say anything. Then they end up missing the other end of the discussion. To some extent it is not longer conversation. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I think it’s Clementine that says, “Just because you talk constantly doesn’t mean you are communicating”. I don’t how much sense or how well I am getting at my point, but really I think there is something to be said about silence. There is something almost ominous but also sometimes almost just as revealing as talk. Sometimes there is something hidden underneath, like a developing picture sitting in the chemicals, slowly appearing. What may seem to some people a blank, white space has something to offer to others.

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