HYPNOGOGIA I
Hypnogogia is the transitional state between sleep and wakefulness. Science has shown wakeful brain activity during sleep, and experience has shown the converse. So, in a sense, this term describes our entire lives.
I awoke, overlooking a cot in the center of a room. Dozens of tiny snakes darted from beneath, into the open, then quickly back to safety. They moved in rapid coordination, fast enough to blur. I had no idea why they were there, or what they wanted. Sensitive to light, they tried to get away.
In a corner of the room was a second cot. Someone I once knew lie there, limbs outstretched, bleeding from multiple entry points. I jumped to attention. I could not let them get me.
A shadow passed the open window and the snakes escaped, but I was fast enough to get one. It was a shoelace, difficult to hold, even with a firm grip. It drove a tip into my forearm vein, thrusting violently downward, and required a lot of strength to extract. Holding each end, just beneath the tips, was the only way to control it. It was sleek and powerful, engineered. Mechanical.
Authorities needed to know, and I needed to be checked out.
Long months of quarantine lie ahead…
IKLAND
by Jennifer Merin (about.com)
Directed by David Hilbert and Cevin D. Soling - This truly fascinating documentary takes you on an adventure into the remote reaches of northeastern Uganda on the filmmaker’s ethnographic research mission to discover the true nature of the Ik, a tribe that was described by anthropologist Colin Turnbull as depraved and completely uncivilized. As a young boy, Cevin Soling became intrigued by Turnbull’s writings on the Ik, and this documentary is the fulfillment of his own curiosity. Soling provides a coherent and engaging voice over narrative to extraordinary footage of the Uganda’s exquisite landscape, rural villages and their inhabitants, and wildlife. The cinematography by David Pluth, who’d been to the region previously in the service of National Geographic, is magnificent, and Pluth appears occasionally on camera, always with witty candid comments about the process of making the film. The Ik have not been visited by outsiders for the past 40 years and, as it turns out, they are a people much maligned by Colin Turnbull. It feels good to set the record straight. This is a documentary spurred by the filmmaker’s genuine curiosity. It is a true and remarkable adventure without a hidden agenda.
http://documentaries.about.com/od/events/a/Documentaries-Opening-In-June-2012.htm
Red-Orangy Thing
The small, spikey-looking thing roughly in the center is the Statue of Liberty. The red-orangy thing to it’s immediate left is the sun.
Times like these remind me that I live on a spinning ball, in the middle of a giant vacuum.
An Ideal for Living
Found this little gem today in a bin at Earwax Records in Williamsburg. It’s a re-issue of the original 7” EP, self-released by the band in 1978. It even had the famous 4-fold insert you might remember if you’ve seen the film “Control”. What a find!
<http://www.nycgo.com/venues/earwax>
Ikland Screening in NYC
I am very happy to announce that my feature documentary IKLAND will be opening for a limited theatrical run at New York City’s QUAD Cinema beginning on June 15th, in approximately 3 weeks’ time. <www.iklandmovie.com>
Commentary
Cevin Soling and I recorded the directors’ commentary track for the forthcoming Ikland DVD, not long ago. Cevin has done this at least once before, but I never have. It didn’t stop us both from talking for 88 minutes straight, however…
The News Room
I went in for a sandwich, but stepped into a Spike Lee film instead.
“The News Room” is an independently owned small business in Brooklyn. It’s the type of place you could ignore for months before finally checking out.
Today was my day.
The running characters were: a feisty proprietor/cashier and a cook (both young men of middle-eastern appearance), an older African-American homeless man with missing teeth, a mustache-wearing middle-aged man with a foreign accent, and a demure young woman in her mid-20s.
I step to the back of the store, joining the line in front of the grill. The MUSTACHED MAN approaches.
MUSTACHED MAN: Do you know how to get to Staten Island from here?
ME: Sure. You take the Verrazano Bridge.
MUSTACHED MAN (to the Young Woman): See? This is exactly what I was just talking about. There’s only one way to get to Staten Island from here - you take the Verrazano Bridge…just as there’s only one way to heaven - you take Jesus!
The YOUNG WOMAN retreats, inconspicuously.
PROPRIETOR: Listen. I don’t know where you think you are, but here in the United States we have this thing called “harassment”. You can’t just say anything you want to a woman, or she’ll call the police and you’ll go to jail.
MUSTACHED MAN: This is a free country. I do what I want.
The Young Woman exits. An older African-American HOMELESS MAN enters. He’s missing a few teeth.
HOMELESS MAN (to Proprietor): Hey man, why do you hate me so much?
PROPRIETOR: I don’t hate you. Why do you think I hate you?
HOMELESS MAN: Because I need a sandwich, and every time I walk in, you don’t want to make me one.
The Proprietor nods to the COOK, who begins making a sandwich for the Homeless Man.
HOMELESS MAN (cont.): I slept in the park last night. I’m hungry. Why do you hate me so much?
PROPRIETOR: Because you slept with my sister?
HOMELESS MAN: No. That’s not it. You’ve hated me since I was born.
PROPRIETOR: Well, then because you were an ugly baby. You had no teeth.
HOMELESS MAN (smiles): But, I don’t have any teeth now.
PROPRIETOR (smiles): Exactly.
The Mustached Man approaches.
MUSTACHED MAN: Do you know how to get to Staten Island from here?
HOMELESS MAN: I don’t care. Today’s not Sunday, and we’re not in church. I don’t want to hear it!
MUSTACHED MAN: You can’t shut me up - this is a free country! How did it make you feel when someone shut up Martin Luther King?
HOMELESS MAN: Listen, you can say whatever you want to say when I’m dead, but you’d better not say anything about Dr. King while I’m here or I’ll show YOU the way to heaven!
PROPRIETOR (to Mustached Man): Time to go, now.
The Mustached Man turns toward the door.
MUSTACHED MAN: OK, but I’ll come back when I want. This is a free country!
HOMELESS MAN: So long!
COOK (to Me): Here’s your sandwich.
ME: Thanks.
PROPRIETOR (to Me): Is this your first time here? We’re not always like this - I don’t want you to think you just walked into a crazy store or something.
ME: Oh, no. This happens to me every day. It’s normal.
The Proprietor nods, sympathetically.
PROPRIETOR: Yeah. I guess it is. Well, have a good one!
ME: Thanks. You too…
Asad
Nicole Cattell and I attended a screening of the Shorts: Character Flaws program at the TriBeCa Film Festival yesterday. The sixth film in the program, Asad, was a dramatic coming of age film set in Somalia, staring a cast of refugees. The superb directing and high production values, along with the compelling story and characters, and authentic performances, conspired to make this one of the best short films I’ve ever seen.
We approached the producer in an attempt to gauge what sort of budget it took to shoot such a film (whose production was in South Africa), and then had a word with the director. I was trying to find out whether he had any plans for his amazing accomplishment, but we wound up talking about our respective experiences in East Africa: his direct experiences filmmaking in Kenya, and my indirect experiences filmmaking in Uganda. He was knowledgeable and articulate, calm and enthusiastic at the same time. After a few minutes, he introduced himself to me as Bryan Buckley. It was only later that Nicole and I learned he was one of the most successful ad directors of all time, who had made over 40 Super Bowl commercials.
We spoke for nearly 15 minutes, all of which was videotaped by three separate cameras which surrounded us for the entire conversation. The man is a tireless worker, and a true artist and gentleman, and is who I want to be when I grow up.
Catch his film, Asad, if you’re able…
