DECHAINEES
via Raymond Vouillamoz
Shut up porn star. You’re not my mom.
Grandma called me Genevieve.
Hello Alzheimer.
My fairies. We’d given up.
They pretend not to see me.
They want to smother me.
Stop the sound.
Now sound, stop the image.
Beep. Now sound and image.
We’re looking for a ghost.
Happy birthday. Here, a gift.
A little baby. Oh, you shouldn’t have.
Your parents wanted you enough to risk
that you’d be like me.
Barry Alpert / Silver Spring MD US / 3-10-11 (7:41 AM)
Initially intuitive notation written down in the dark during my only viewing so far of this Swiss film, screened at the French Embassy here in Wash DC as part of their Francophone Festival, but also deliberately on International Women’s Day. All the voices you hear, except for that of the male film archivist in stanza 3 demonstrating the process of digitalization to the lead actress Lucy, belong to the three generations of women who comprise her family. I didn’t go to this film intent on writing, but upon leaving, I felt I should try to make something presentable out of my experience, even though I was amidst a text via a three day event on the composer Lou Harrison. Why my notation evolved into the same “weird Shakespearean sonnet” form initially taken by my preceding contribution (via filmmaker Charles Burnett) to The Snapshot Project remains unknown to me.
Let me provide links to the trailer for the film and a ten minute clip:
http://vimeo.com/13460091
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3JWLMIrAgI
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