Very timely that I get to see the Falling Man film just now. It was everything I was saying about confronting what makes us uncomfortable through our eyes. To look. And search for understanding within ourselves.Tom Jenou went on just that journey trying to indentify "the jumper" against the tide of what was "acceptable" in search of uncomfortable and unknowable answers.
Part of me also felt throughout that the film was sensitively dressed voyeurism, but voyeurism just the same, which made me angry at the sensitive dressing. It made me realise why I have been more comfortable making edits and sticking them online rather than pursuing a comercially "saleable" film.
The hostility of some of the grieving families toward journalists brought up feelings I felt when talking to Mr. Hamza's friends. What right has anyone to intrude on anothers life for "a story"? Unless it is for humanity to look. And to learn.
2 comments:
It horrifies me how victims of tragedy are violated by news crews "doing their job". It has become de rigueur for family members to be expected to face a camera in the midst of gutwrenching grief. It sickens me.
When I saw the bodies falling from the Towers, I felt a twinge of guilt that I was violating a sacred, personal space. At the same time I paradoxically felt it was my duty to witness it...as though I would dishonor it by turning away.
This is a confusing, contradictory aspect of modern life. We haven't sorted this type of thing out, culturally. We haven't even come up with a legitimate rite of passage for our young adults, much less corraled our baser instincts.
the film was just about on the right side of this. The voyeur inside is waiting for them to show a falling body. The witness wonders what it is about the image which is compelling.
Watch the film if you get a chance.
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