For Inspiration

In the past two days, I've found elements of inspiration in the films I checked out from the library for just that purpose. (Synopses at the bottom, if you're interested.) Particularly:

Su Friedrich:
The Odds of Recovery
Rules of the Road (still frame above)

Alan Berliner:
Wide Awake

I'm looking for my next project, specifically the one I'll use as my project for my Fundraising class. I have a little bit of accidentally-silent interview footage I'd like to use as a jumping off point, but I haven't quite decided where I'm going with that. Probably something reflexive like the above titles, but a short.

Other ideas include:

• picking back up on my queer shorts series
• "life and capital" in North Philly (not sure how I intended that - just had it scrawled in a notebook...I think I meant something along the lines of how being an outsider makes it difficult to trade on certain types of social capital)
• new beginnings/a fresh start...finding subjects who are experiencing a new beginning somewhere
• a narrative playing off a letter I received from a downstairs neighbor at my old apartment
• trans pregnancy conversations, from many and varied perspectives...because, oh, they're out there and don't they come up...

That's all for now...synopses of the films I mentioned:

The Odds of Recovery (2002)

After a twenty-year period of multiple illnesses and injuries, filmmaker Su Friedrich turns the camera on herself as a way to analyze her chances for a happier, healthier life. In the process, she captures the frustration, tedium and petty annoyances of a revolving-door relationship with the medical establishment, while portraying the complicated web of emotions that accompany any medical problem. With humor and honesty, The Odds of Recovery uses the filmmaker's medical history as a means to address a perennial human problem: the desire to avoid conflict and deny the need for radical change.


Rules of the Road (1993)

Rules of the Road tells the story of a love affair and its demise through one of the objects shared by the couple: an old beige station wagon with fake wood paneling.

A typical American family car for an atypical American family, it provides the women at first with all the familiar comforts. But when their relationship ends, the car becomes the property of one and the bane of the other's existence. Even long after their separation, this tangible reminder of their life together—and thousands of its imitators—continues to prowl the streets of the city, haunting the woman who no longer holds the keys either to the car or the other woman's heart.

Through spoken text, popular music and images from the streets of New York, Rules of the Road takes a somewhat whimsical, somewhat caustic look at how our dreams of freedom, pleasure, security, and family are so often symbolized by the automobile.


Wide Awake (2006)

Filmmaker Alan Berliner chronicles his lifelong battle with insomnia in this intimate documentary. The cameras roll as he tries to quiet his overly active mind so he can get a decent night's sleep, capturing the details of what it's like to suffer from a chronic sleep disorder. As he struggles to find balance, his friends and family -- who endure the worst of Berliner's bouts with insomnia -- question whether he really wants to find a cure.