June 5, 2008
Have you noticed how often news’ anchors and pundits from the U.S. use the cliché “the street”? It’s become popular shorthand for “the word on the street” by this layer of the media which perhaps we can assume to be less ‘hip’ than they suppose! Especially in the overuse of “the Arab street” as if there stands one Arabian person on a street corner speaking for millions people around the world! Happily, in contrast, we have the new filmmaker, Matt Adams, and his film on Babelgum.com titled "What is Tragedy". When he goes into the street to find answers we can count on him to really talk to people. Matt decided to take his camera on the streets of his neighborhood one day and ask one question: “What is Tragedy?” He gathers answers from all ages. We see how from the innocence of children to the thoughtfulness of the elderly our ideas about tragedy mature. Children know what tragedy means but they have some kind of buffering mechanism that protects them from its depth of sadness. They laugh, they clown for the camera and they cooperate easily as they deal with the question in their own way. Next young adults answer with a social conscience or intellectualize the concept. A father invites us to look into the faces of his lovely daughters and join with him in forgetting about a tragic world for a few moments. Then we come to older adults who have experienced tragedy in too many ways. They are willing to give us direct answers; respectfully, straight to the heart of the issue, asking for no sympathy. Tragedy is a part of life, after all. The film is affectionately non intrusive, engaging and thought-provoking. It moves quickly from subject to subject with no editorializing or judgment. I hope this film starts a new trend in 'on the street' film making! Let’s get on the street and film our neighborhoods with our own questions and see what happens!
Comments
lostinthe70s (anonymous) says...
I always felt that 'word on the street' simply meant 'the buzz', but I'm happy to know about this film. I can't imagine what my neighbors would do if I started filming our street. I'd probably be shunned for life.
June 20, 2008 at 6 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
GranitaToGo (anonymous) says...
Hi lost in the 70s! I guess it does depend on if you live on a neighborhood type street where people are out walking or sitting on their porches! You have me remembering living in Connecticut and I think I would have been shunned there, too. It's nice here because people are very talkative. My accent in Greek still isn't very good so luckily they do most of the talking! And in my experience they like having their pictures taken. Let me know what you think of Babelgum and the movie!
June 25, 2008 at 11:37 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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