| Play from beginning |
| 00:00:00 | Interview with Craig Baldwin, filmmaker. |
| 00:00:05 | So whether or not you know about art povera |
| 00:00:07 | my idea of cinema povera |
| 00:00:09 | that is to say,
impoverished cinema |
| 00:00:12 | made out of our situation,
which is marginalized |
| 00:00:15 | Rather than apply for the grants
or get studio funding, |
| 00:00:18 | just work form where we are,
poor people, |
| 00:00:21 | but taking advantage of the fat of the land,
so to speak, |
| 00:00:24 | taking advantage of the resources
that we already have, |
| 00:00:28 | in other words...
.... trash, |
| 00:00:31 | a culture of instant obsolescence, |
| 00:00:34 | I call it
"surfing the wave of obsolescence". |
| 00:00:37 | All these films here,
that you may or may not see, |
| 00:00:40 | are all being thrown away |
| 00:00:42 | just because of a format change,
same thing happened |
| 00:00:46 | same thing happened to vinyl |
| 00:00:50 | to magnetic tape, |
| 00:00:52 | and magnetic tape to CDs |
| 00:00:55 | and it'll go on and on,
it'll be totally digital next year |
| 00:00:59 | and we have of course the scratch DJ |
| 00:01:04 | Hip-Hop,
as an art form, |
| 00:01:06 | because of the availability of vinyl. |
| 00:01:09 | poor people again, in New York |
| 00:01:14 | Harlem, or whatever, |
| 00:01:16 | would be able to go
and find these old albums |
| 00:01:19 | which had no value at all |
| 00:01:21 | because they had been made obsolete |
| 00:01:24 | by the next generation, |
| 00:01:27 | the next media platform, |
| 00:01:30 | so they could get two copies of it |
| 00:01:32 | So this is just one anecdote
that illustrates my point |
| 00:01:36 | a mediocre record perhaps |
| 00:01:38 | but something that has some hooks
that they can recognise |
| 00:01:42 | and there would be a lot of them because |
| 00:01:44 | they're thrown out en masse |
| 00:01:47 | and they'd be able to get
two copies of the same record |
| 00:01:51 | and they could basically scratch between them |
| 00:01:53 | and produce kind of a scratch music. |
| 00:01:56 | What I'm trying to do is a scratch film,
which is the same thing, |
| 00:01:59 | the film is old,
it's available, |
| 00:02:02 | it deserves to be redeemed |
| 00:02:04 | as I say,
if that's not too idealistic, |
| 00:02:07 | Certainly I'm not opposed
to shooting my own stuff |
| 00:02:10 | most of the stuff you see
that's shot new now, |
| 00:02:14 | it's not attractive to me,
maybe that's my problem, |
| 00:02:18 | because I'm sure it has redeeming qualities |
| 00:02:22 | but generally it looks too... |
| 00:02:24 | well you know,
well I'm just not interested in the look. |
| 00:02:26 | Personally I like something
that speaks of the history |
| 00:02:30 | of our experience,
not only of our media history, |
| 00:02:33 | which is folded into it,
but also... |
| 00:02:36 | there's something a little bit
necrophiliac about it, |
| 00:02:38 | there's something about loss. |
| 00:02:41 | So I like the older look |
| 00:02:45 | and I had access to it,
I could make the film |
| 00:02:48 | without studio or foundation backing, |
| 00:02:53 | and it allowed me |
| 00:02:55 | the pleasure of...
some kind of perverse revenge |
| 00:03:01 | on these old films, see, |
| 00:03:03 | so for all those reasons |
| 00:03:07 | towards what I call collage,
or collage-essay, filmmaking. |
| 00:03:16 | I know that there's gatekeepers out there |
| 00:03:18 | at every level. |
| 00:03:20 | certainly in production, funding,
exhibition |
| 00:03:24 | but don't you see, my whole model
was always outside of all that |
| 00:03:28 | in fact my whole project is called
"The Other Cinema". |
| 00:03:30 | I don't live in their world |
| 00:03:33 | so they can get fucked
as far as I'm concerned. |
| 00:03:35 | So I just do what I can
in my own way |
| 00:03:38 | and I can't get brought down |
| 00:03:41 | by all the other power relations |
| 00:03:46 | because it would just weigh too heavily on me. |
| 00:03:51 | So this may come up later in the discussion, |
| 00:03:53 | but as far as the intellectual property laws,
I know a little bit about them, |
| 00:03:57 | but my whole point has always
been about transgression |
| 00:04:00 | I made a film called Sonic Outlaws. |
| 00:04:04 | So I'm on the side of |
| 00:04:08 | the moving outside of the norm. |
| 00:04:13 | You know I was talking about appropriation |
| 00:04:16 | in Sonic Outlaws,
and culture jamming |
| 00:04:20 | So in a way it was a report,
don't you see, on the material |
| 00:04:27 | and as it turns out
I do advocate it by the way, |
| 00:04:29 | But certainly I, as a journalist,
a documentarian, |
| 00:04:33 | as you are, |
| 00:04:34 | that would be my product, my artistic license,
to talk about that |
| 00:04:41 | There's five different ways around it |
| 00:04:44 | One is just remaining outside, |
| 00:04:47 | terminally outside, |
| 00:04:49 | and beneath the radar
- that's one strategy. |
| 00:04:52 | that's not going to work for people
who are running for president |
| 00:04:56 | but again that's not my goal. |
| 00:04:59 | There is a huge margin, by the way,
a huge peripherary |
| 00:05:01 | it's not to be discounted |
| 00:05:04 | remain beneath the radar
and distribute material through |
| 00:05:11 | what I call electronic folk culture |
| 00:05:13 | it'll get out there,
it always does, |
| 00:05:15 | especially now with the new media,
which may be coming up here... |
| 00:05:20 | Also the idea of... |
| 00:05:24 | I had no money!
This is a legal issue - |
| 00:05:27 | why sue me? |
| 00:05:30 | I didn't represent a competitor |
| 00:05:33 | a lot of that stuff is at the end |
| 00:05:36 | Twentieth Century Fox
versus Warner Brothers |
| 00:05:39 | and that wasn't the case |
| 00:05:42 | the playing field wasn't level. |
| 00:05:44 | They would have nothing to get from me, |
| 00:05:46 | why honour me with
the distinction of being sued? |
| 00:05:49 | That's what happened in Negativeland and U2
by the way, |
| 00:05:52 | everyone knows Negativeland now |
| 00:05:54 | even though there just a goofy little band, |
| 00:05:57 | but because they squared off with U2 |
| 00:06:01 | they're the good guy. |
| 00:06:05 | Yeah, you just win by having
the courage of your conviction |
| 00:06:10 | And then again if you take a stance like that,
an ethical stance, |
| 00:06:13 | it may be that you're not sued, |
| 00:06:16 | because it'll just make the
larger corporation look bad. |
| 00:06:19 | I'm at, I guess you could say,
the extreme edge |
| 00:06:23 | of the media democracy and
media literacy movement, |
| 00:06:26 | which does not tell people didactically |
| 00:06:29 | what's wrong with that commercial,
or that advertisement, |
| 00:06:32 | or that press conference, |
| 00:06:35 | but really through the language of cinema itself |
| 00:06:41 | through the rhetoric and the image, |
| 00:06:43 | creates a dysfunctional kind of grammar |
| 00:06:49 | that allows people to have the insight
and to see the lie |
| 00:06:52 | In my movie Sonic outlaws,
Negativeland, one member says |
| 00:06:59 | "Intentions are exposed" |
| 00:07:02 | and that's really what I'm trying to do |
| 00:07:04 | in other words, push the contradictions
within any advertisement |
| 00:07:09 | so you can see almost the people
who are writing the script |
| 00:07:15 | and kinda see |
| 00:07:20 | how they intended to manipulate people |
| 00:07:24 | Rather than me explain it to them |
| 00:07:26 | if it can be from within the piece itself, see |
| 00:07:30 | so you know, the secret of the decoding
is kind of within the message itself. |
