an answer to Héctor Oyarzún’s video essay reaction to a critic’s debate in which I took part at Woche der Kritik.
why do some people speak on a pedestal and other people listen to it?
why isn’t there more silence after a film?
why do you think a person working on a film set has more to say about a film than your closest friend?
why don’t you write to me in person if you have a question?
(why do you use a chat format proposed to you by a festival?)
why do I talk about things I don’t understand?
do you understand?
why do you have to wait for weeks until you are allowed to use images from a film for your video?
why do you speak in English? why do I write in English?
why do you make a video for a blog for too little money?
why do I speak about a film I don’t like for too little money?
why don’t we speak about money?
why do you look at films and not at the sky?
why can’t you touch the film you are seeing?
why is there a viewer in cinema? (is there a cinema?)
why does the viewer become a fan?
why do we interpret films?
why do I sit in my sleeping room and speak against a wall behind a screen?
why do I write this?
why do I watch a film I do not care about? (twice)
why do you think this film questions hierarchies?
why don’t I play with my cat? or read a book?
why don’t I remain silent?
is there a film without a viewer?
is there a text without a reader?
is there a debate without expressed opinions?
but there are films without extras
what is a spectator’s place within cinema? (you ask)
first row, second seat?
demanding a new cut?
kissing in some dark corner?
getting out of the cold?
being a slave to dominant taste?
being attentive for an hour or three and finally be able to shut up?
(think, feel, dream)
are they critics? (is being a critic the emancipation of the spectator?)
are they fans? (is being a fan being the vulgarisation of the spectator?)
are you a fan or a critic and who gave you the right to speak out like that?
am I a fan or a critic and who gave me the right to speak out like that?