Welcome to Contemporary Film Theory: The Image Now
The Image Now will explore a variety of theoretical perspectives on today’s rapidly transforming world of visual culture. This year’s seminar, divided into three parts, will focus on contemporary film theory that engages with questions of ethics, postcolonialism, the politics of translation, embodied spectatorship and the function of the image in today’s landscape of global politics:
I. The Image: War and Surveillance
II. Histories of the Image
III. The Image in Translation
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January 29th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Sharanpal Ruprai
Contemporary Film Theory: The Image Now
GS/FILM 5230
Dr. Hayashi
Blog Entry # 1
January 29, 2008
Blog Entry # 1: “Peep “TV” Show” – Tsuchiya Yutaka
Reflections and Questions:
“Peep “TV” Show” is a film I will not forget because of the content of the film. I have not seen the images of 9/11 since that day in 2001. I was a teaching in 2001 and had to “make sense” of the attacks for my grade seven students, who were upset and possibly too young to understand the impact of the events. In the weeks to follow, I asked the children to stop watching CNN and to start “doing their homework.” I had to phone parents and ask that they talk to their children about the events because the discussions in class were limited and I felt that students needed guidance in “digesting” the events. I was so concerned with my students that I forgot about my own reaction. In the staff room we, as teachers, were too tired to even hold a discussion group at lunch. The most reflection I have done was upon my mother’s trip to England, which was three weeks after the attacks, I told her to “look Canadian” and not to wear her Indian outfits on the plane. I wrote a poem about it and it was published a year later. (Security Measures (September 20, 2001) in Exposed 2002)
Watching “Peep “TV” Show” gave me a second opportunity to reflect. I remember watching the planes hit the first tower and I had to leave the room, I remember thinking, “people are running down the stairs” when I came back into the room, the second plane hit and I remember thinking, “people are in the buildings, they are screaming” I could almost hear them. I had to leave the room again. I could not leave the room during the film and I was thinking “it’s ok the people are already dead, I don’t have to leave the room.” When I am watching the image of the planes hitting the towers, I know I am watching someone die. I know that people are running for their lives, I know I am watching “real” life. Even if I am watching it five years later, it is like watching footage of WWII. When we replay these images, to what extent, do they desensitize to humanity?
Since then I have been on a type of “high alert.” When I am in public spaces, I look for the exits, I note where the stairwells are, I inform myself about fire procures and I always took the first aid course. It never occurred to me to look for cameras, now after watching, I do. After seeing the film, I found my first surveillance camera in the bank. I waved, (like the queen that I am) and I pulled my partner into the frame so we both could be “under surveillance” together. As I walked out of the bank, it occurred to me that if I was to vanish, that surveillance tape was the only thing documenting my day or was it the only camera? The camera has now taken on a new definition for me. What that definition is, I am not sure at the moment. Maybe through this course it will become clear to me.
I thought about the scene in the film, when the two main characters are watching people in their homes. At first, I thought that was a bit creepy (I still feel this way – maybe a little less so) knowing that this film was staged (I am assuming it was – if not please let me know) I have to ask why include are these the images that effect me? What is it about being watched that excites, thrills and creeps us out? What is it about our lives we want to know? When the camera is on, do we change our behavior? Do we attempt to “act” for the camera? I did in the bank. What does it mean to see someone without them knowing, what insights do we gain about the person?