pop-test: gay or straight? check your fingers.

here we are in ann arbor MI, we just got back from east lansing interviewing the professor who studied finger length as a marker for pre-natal testosterone. his research has been re-appropriated into pop-culture: "give me your hand or the hand of your two year old. i'll compare the length of your pointing finger and your ring finger, and i'll be able to tell you if you're gay or straight." or so you might think. unfortunately a little thing called statistics is in the way of the mighty pop-brain. this mis-interpretation is akin, statistically, to saying if you are over five foot seven you are a man and if you are under five foot seven you are a woman. all the study really found was that on average women whose pointing finger length to ring finger length ratio is smaller than average are more likely to be lesbian. on average means some of the time, but not all of the time or even most of the time. there is a better test to see if a woman is a lesbian that's at least 90% accurate. assume she is straight. and there's an even better test that's 99.9% accurate. if she feels safe enough to answer, ask her.

war & peace in documentary filmmaking

josephine has had a revelation about conflict, exploitation, and humanity in documentary filmmaking. we're here to follow a person's life. this may sound obvious to you abstract thinkers out there, but you can't just walk in and say to whoever's in front of the camera: "act naturally." people say, "it may sound mercenary, but you've got to go in and get your shot. you're making a movie. you trample things. people may make fun of you, but what can you do?" they may think they're just laying plain the realities of documentary film-making, but while driving south on interstate 65 from chicago in some epiphantic fit of envisioning, josephine exclaimed that you don't have to listen to those people.

no no she says, it's about the relationship you make with the person on film. if you care about the fate of the person and your own work as fitting in their life as a positive influence, the person will feel cared about. he'll know you have good intentions, that if he finds a way to be in front of the camera, it's for a postive reason, and that your work is a positive force in the world. he'll be happy to be in front of the camera. only then can a film-maker capture unguarded, real feelings that move audiences. and at that point the film is secondary to the friendship anyway. it's the actions of communication off camera between film-maker and actor that enrich the scenes that go on in front of a documentary camera.

of course good documentaries may already exhibit this. but there is a vast number of documentaries that exhibit inhumanity and tension between the film-maker and the filmed. here it's obvious to any audience that no one in front of or behind the camera is ever able to achieve any height or depth of human expression.

pre-thanksgiving evening lullaby

kevin really plays the piano. jospehine and i woke up to Gershwin this morning coming from kevin and his piano upstairs. josephine and kevin talk about composers and favorite pieces to play a fair bit, and here josephine is playing for kevin.
they've been talking about old piano teachers and influential people in our lives and loves. now it's time for more music. kevin's sister a political scientist and two friends and collagues are here for thanksgiving and interested in the documentary. earlier, it made for interesting discussion on sexual desires and their ebbs and flows in various people.

chicago now

many things have happened and i don't know if my memory can hold it all. luckily we have more than 100 hours of footage to supplement it. we've just arrived in chicago with Kevin our 2nd subject. some of the crew is still in los angeles with our 1st subject Taryn.

so busy i haven't kept up with my posts; so much has happened; so much there to tell. good thing we have lots of footage of it. but now i'm going to fill in important parts from the past and continue with the present. i've actually been saying i'd do that for a while now. i'm going back and filling in some posts still written in the present tense as if just happening. it's just that there are only 24 hours in a day and only one me, and yes i'm a living breathing human being. that means sometimes i eat; sometimes i sleep; sometimes i do one of 1,000 other tasks; sometimes i take a long dinner & just hang out and talk.

film-makers' stories filter into scenes

everything from the birthday is strewn all over the room. taryn and rage went home before we all went to sleep. the ukranian girls, home to their husbands. the screenwriters, home to their work-boards and plot-outlines. the actress and director left together. the people we met by the pool, gone together. all night long Brittany invited people to the avalon hotel after-party. unfortuneately they got the wrong room number written down and only a select group found their way to the penthouse; still, there were more than enough to fill the room, the dance floor, and the bed for some discussion and enjoyment.

the camera filtered throughout the limo, up, down, and between the dancers all night. today it's become even clearer that there is a strong meta-level in the documentary. scene after scene includes the directors themselves stirring up trouble to go in front of the camera. at least on that level us film-makers are in our own film, and more than likely on other levels too. jane and nils moved the camera around and made some beautiful tape of the scenes, colors, and movements.

wigs, dressing, & champagne; avalon hotel

the hour fast approaches. we're in our hotel room putting up some lights and decorations. i'm about to go collect some tonic water, cranberry juice, ginger ale, & coca-cola with the vodka, gin, & rum to back them up. wine and champagne to kick off the celebration. brittany's burning a party mix of music. jane is sorting through the wigs, boas, and knee high metallic boots or flip-flops. Taryn & Rage are on their way. Dave & Maggie too. Steph & Scott will meet us, our crew of 5, at Cha Cha Cha's in about 2 hours. There are too many voices and too much buzz to hear any one conversation. Taryn and Rage just came in. Rage is dressed as a scottsman and taryn is trying on a purple wig we have.

[...]

i just got back and now i hear maggie just popped a cork.

birthday party invitation, camera involved

On the fuzzy foggy feathery saturday night upon us in just two days here in the crossroads city of Los Angeles California, one Brittany Blockman is celebrating the beginning of her next quarter century on earth. She's an open-minded experimental woman. All her guests are open-mind and experimental too. She speaks fast and moves faster. All her guests are likely to do the same. In case you're one of them here's an outline of the night. call for specifics; i'll post more later, too.

5 November 2005
7:00pm Dinner at Cha Cha Cha's
9:30pm Clubs and Dancing
Midnight Hotel Avalon Penthouse

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