Evidence

[Store Hadji]

Text from qatsi.org

Evidence is an 8 minute 35mm film authored by Godfrey Reggio, during his term as director of Fabrica - a new school founded by Benetton - and a student collaborator, Angela Melitopulos. the film was shot in Rome during March 1995 and edited by Miroslav Janek, a collaborator of Fabrica, with music by composer Philip Glass.

Evidence looks into the eyes of children watching television - in this case Walt Disney’s "Dumbo". Though engaged in a daily routine, they appear drugged, retarded, like the patients of a mental hospital. Evidence is about the behavior of children watching television - an activity whose physiological aspects have been overlooked in the current controversy surrounding television.

The pervasive nature of this technology is on the rise throughout the world, yet people watch television without the least awareness of the effect that the medium itself has on individuals and societies alike. In the United States, for instance, children attend school for approximately 40 hours a week; they then watch television for about the same amount of time.

Unlike people in a movie theatre, where images are projected onto a screen, television viewers become prey to the television’s own light impulses, they go into an altered state - a transfixed condition where the eyes, the mind, the breathing of the subject is clearly under the control of an outside force. In a poetic sense and without exaggerating one might say that the television technology is eating the subjects who sit before its gaze.

The phenomenon recorded in Evidence relates not to programming or software, but to the medium itself - television the household appliance, the cathode ray tube, the radiation gun aimed at the viewer. This gun can be reasonably compared to a tractor beam that holds its subjects in total control. The physical, spiritual and social consequences of this phenomenon are subject to debate. Evidence hopes to enliven the discussion on the hazards of the medium itself.

Evidence is one of the first products to come from Fabrica, whose mission is to smell the new world coming, to perceive the future as it is revealed in the present.

In this sense, Fabrica is seeing the future as revealed in the eyes of the children: the vision is both alarming and tragic. As with so many developing technologies, the results can be more soberly viewed not from alluring promises, but from simple human observation.

Television the programming is one thing: television the medium is something else. It is the medium that Evidence is about. From the point of view of the medium, Evidence is an autopsy, an opportunity in a few minutes to feel and to see, to witness the effects of a technology that has gained acceptance the world-over without question.

[Store Hadji]

Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass and Ron Fricke are currently at work on a film titled Savage Eden/Holy Smoke. The last Reggio film to feature Fricke's cinematography was Koyaanisqatsi.

Text from savageedenthemovie.com:

Subject
-ISM
More real than true is the subject of the film: the -ism within us all. The subject is aglow in everyone's eye, the carefully-targeted result of a projectile media. ISM- the misperception that one belief, one truth, one way must rule all humanity. The allure of -ism, the siren song of certainty, converts ideas into ideology, promise into enslavement, history into destiny; driving a wedge between the individual and reality. Religious, national, revolutionary, utopian and technological -isms wear the faces of you and me as their public masks. With Savage Eden on fire, the cybernetic primate has a defining choice: embrace the flame of -ism or flee in freedom from its blinding light.

Direction
mercurius duplex / hybrid form
Savage Eden intends a departure from the signature form used in previous collaborations between Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass. To manifest their subject, they have chosen a new form; a hybrid form, a union of narrative and non-narrative cinema:
actors- non- actors
primates- cybernetic primates
body language- verbal language
sound synch- music narration
contemporary mise en scene- historical recreation
linear- non-linear
In this union of cinematic opposites, we hear the story with two different ears: one understands, the other feels. The hybrid voice of our subject is a 'whirlwind' that speaks with more power than any one human voice. In this volatile atmosphere, only the cooling effect of humor can ward off a conflagration.

[Store Hadji]

[Store Hadji]

Sounds like the Fascist Theocrats will love this one. Good for them.

[Store Hadji]

Unrelated note...anyone else hear that Google is the only search engine which hasn't already turned over all of its records and information to the Federal Government? Careful what you search for, it seems Big Brother is watching.

[Glenn Anders]

Since Welles was such a seer, I suppose that he may have predicted this phenomenon; he certainly would be interested in it.

Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian media theorist, explored these matters nearly 40 years ago, and provided a household catchphrase which was widelly quoted around the World: "The medium is the massage."

Welles no doubt commented up on it, perhaps in his narration for the adaptation of a book by another shadowy figure: "Future Shock."

Unfortunately, no one did anything much to deal with the epigram's implications.

Rather like our Administration's attitude toward Global Warming: It does not exist/we are not convinced by the third worldwide study/it may not exist/we'll have our own study/the effects have been exaggerated/it does exist but we can't do much about it/why spend a trillion on it now when we want to invade Iran?/let the people 50 years from now deal with it.

Anyone figure out how we can refreeze an icecap? Meanwhile, roll your trouser legs up.

That's pretty much how the World has approached the dangers of pervasive media. From autism, to violence, to depression, to creating a nation of zombies who only react to the stimuli of elemental comfort, fear, and sensationalism.

The presence of mind-altering devices in our environment 24/7 has been ignored, pooh-poohed, chattered about, or used to sell us corn flakes and crazy protective military adventuress for the profit of a few.

Our . . . our feet wet yet? Shut up, and watch those flickering shadows on the wall of our cave.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

The, uh, 'scientific fact' is also being circulated that trees are the world's worst offender in creating greenhouse gases. I guess we need a government-mandated massive defoliation campaign so we can cut them all down.

I like the people who react so violently when I suggest that automobiles and factories produce pollution. Their knee-jerk reaction has always been to rave about bovine flatulence.

I would suggest this experiment: stand for one hour in a closed garage with 1) a running automobile, 2) a farting cow, and 3) a live tree. I would much rather live in world of flatulent cows and trees, but it seems Nero is still fiddling while the entire ecosystem dies.

Two years ago I considered myself a conservative, but watching Fox News ruined that for me, so in an odd way I owe those lying federal government-worshipping fascists my thanks...

[Glenn Anders]

Great stuff, hadji!

Onward! Shoulder to shoulder!

But how can we get Orson Welles into our crusade to save the World from global warming?

All the best.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

I'm not sure how to get my political ranting back on topic in general...

If Savage Eden contains actors performing some sort of scripted political/social satire, then that's certainly new ground for Godfrey Reggio. His previous features have been non-narrative, without dialogue or actors - just found footage and what would best be described as documentary shots. I'm curious to see how well this "hybrid" form works.

Yes, I watched the entire Qatsi Trilogy last night. Amazing stuff. I never really "cracked the code" on Powaqqatsi until last night, even though I've seen it numerous times over the last 15 years. I don't yet quite understand Naqoyqatsi, though it is utterly gorgeous and frightening and fascinating and I absolutely love it.

[Kevin Loy]

The, uh, 'scientific fact' is also being circulated that trees are the world's worst offender in creating greenhouse gases. I guess we need a government-mandated massive defoliation campaign so we can cut them all down.

I like the people who react so violently when I suggest that automobiles and factories produce pollution. Their knee-jerk reaction has always been to rave about bovine flatulence.

I would suggest this experiment: stand for one hour in a closed garage with 1) a running automobile, 2) a farting cow, and 3) a live tree. I would much rather live in world of flatulent cows and trees, but it seems Nero is still fiddling while the entire ecosystem dies.

Two years ago I considered myself a conservative, but watching Fox News ruined that for me, so in an odd way I owe those lying federal government-worshipping fascists my thanks...

Don't fall prey to left/right political ideologies...is the world around us in black & white or color?

As far as those evil trees are concerned...I was always taught that they actually absorb much of the pollutants that we churn out on a daily basis. But then again, I also have this crazy idea that water might be a lot cleaner if people wouldn't harvest oysters, since those damn little bivalves can filter about, oh, 50 gallons of water a day.

Have you already forgotten about the "Healthy Forests" initiative from a few years back, when there were more seasonal fires than usual (some of which were purposely caused by PEOPLE in the first place), so Bush decided that it would be a better idea to cut down trees than to leave the possibility open that they might catch on fire? All of that lost revenue....

And as far as methane emissions from cows, it is worth pointing out that there aren't nearly as many cows in the world as there are cars churning out carbon monoxide (hell, there are probably more functioning automobiles in this country than there are cows in the world). And even if there were five times as many cows in this world as automobiles, they don't even release enough gas as a collective to begin to compete with automotive emissions. In fact, a single cow probably releases less gas in a year than a typically-used automobile does in a week.

On the other hand, it is worth pointing out that global warming and the "greenhouse effect" are natually occurring phenomena. However, it is also worth nothing that things such as smog greatly increase the effects of these naturally occuring phenomena beyond natural proportions. Of course, I'm sure you know all of this, but I felt errant enough to chip in with my oddly-nihilistic viewpoint anyway (more on that in the next paragraph)

Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not going to demand that somebody does something, because it isn't my right to do so. But I do think that, if humanity (or anybody in general) is hell-bent on destroying itself, it ought to at least be conscious of doing it.

[Glenn Anders]

Ken: My thought is that hadji was being satirical about trees producing global warming.

Let's not talk about misunderstandings. Let's talk about facts.

Three International studies, over 40 years, atest to the fact that Global Warming exists, has existed for some time; that humans have made it wors;l that the U.S. is responsible for much of it; that it is getting worse; and that our Administration first denied the fact, denied the studies, had another study made, admitted Global Warming exists; but said there is nothing the U.S. wants to do about it because it would interfer with our economy.

The terrible fact is that the effects are irreversible, and it is almost too late to do anything. How does one restore the ice caps after New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, and cities on tidal plains around the World are under water.

The Bush Family, if not Haliburton, Brown and Root, and Bechtel, will be gone, someone will have trillions of dollars of profit (adjusted for incredible inflation) but the human species will be on the way out.

This matter has nothing to do with Left-wing evil politics (though it does because, in this case, they are right). It has to do with the future of mankind.

"Wake up, for (bleep's) sake!' That's what Welles would say to you, and to us.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

No, that's a real scientific finding out of Germany about the trees. I think such conclusions are so much bovine flatulence, but that's the new cloak which those who wish to pretend auto exhaust is a good thing are hiding behind.

Don't worry, my views are hardly black and white. Sometimes I fear they bleed off the visible light spectrum and venture into delusion.

[Glenn Anders]

Hadji: Oxygen, which is what TREES produce, is the source of Global Warming, not carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and general polution? Is that what the German study claims to prove?

You are kidding us, Hadji. Right?

It's too early in the morning, and too important a subject for mankind, to waste time on silly jokes. Save the humor for a more trivial subject.

Meanwhile, let's stick with Welles.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

No, Glenn, I am not kidding. If I can find a news statement online I will post the link.

[Store Hadji]

This story is all over the web. You can't miss it if you search.

German scientists have discovered a new source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is second only to carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change.

The culprits are plants.

They produce about 10 to 30 per cent of the annual methane found in the atmosphere, according to researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.

The scientists measured the amount of methane released by plants in controlled experiments. They found it increases with rising temperatures and exposure to sunlight.

"Significant methane emissions from both intact plants and detached leaves were observed ... in the laboratory and in the field," Dr Frank Keppler and his team said in a report in the journal Nature.

Methane, which is produced by city rubbish dumps, coal mining, flatulent animals, rice cultivation and peat bogs, is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in terms of its ability to trap heat.

Concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere have almost tripled in the last 150 years. About 600 million tonnes worldwide are produced annually.

The scientists said their finding is important for understanding the link between global warming and a rise in greenhouse gases.

It could also have implications for the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for developed countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

Keppler and his colleagues discovered that living plants emit 10 to 100 times more methane than dead plants.

Scientists had previously thought that plants could only emit methane in the absence of oxygen.

David Lowe, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, said the findings are startling and controversial.

"Keppler and colleagues' finding helps to account for observations from space of incredibly large plumes of methane above tropical forests," he said in a commentary on the research.

But the study also poses questions, such as how such a potentially large source of methane could have been overlooked and how plants produced it.

"There will be a lively scramble among researchers for the answers to these and other questions," Lowe added.