I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few nights at the library (Saturday February 29 and Friday February 28). The Public Library has ever so more proactively engaged in promoting the artistic and cultural events in this city. This new programme has culminated in two, back-to-back, artistic events: a coffeehouse and independent film screening (the “independent film” in question being the superbly produced “My Winnipeg”).
The Friday evening coffeehouse was a great way to kick off the cultured festivities. Not to mention a great way to spend a Friday evening, as well. The evening began with everyone arriving. For a substantial period of time, the attendees familiarized themselves with the environment of the event. By this I mean they conversed with fellow attendees and mapped the arrangement of food on the snack table.
A private acting school teacher, who acted in some of Guy Maddin’s (the renowned Winnipeg screenwriter and director) films, arrived. He introduced a black and white short film, produced in tribute to Guy Maddin. The film, like many modern black and white shorts from Winnipeg, was highly symbolic and metaphoric. The basic plot (or, perhaps more accurately, imagery) of the film was that of Guy Maddin rubbing a chicken across another’s chest, just for surrealism of it.
The acting teacher fielded some questions at the event. I offered a few questions, all with the essential kernel “Do Maddin’s film posse a ‘hidden truth’ or “hidden theme” beneath the surface’s incoherence?” I offered the example of “Heart of Darkness” as an instance of a literary work where the surface of the work was incoherent or at best highly ambiguous, yet there was a deeper (moral) truth or theme behind this surface incoherence.1
The answer led to (what I would consider) a digression of “What is truth? Is it what we feel right now or what somebody remembers feeling in regards to this evening fifty years from now.” I was more concerned with whether Maddin’s films had a deeper theme, narrative, or meaning than the nature of truth. Next evening the heart of the matter was addressed (as I will describe latter).
After that, the librarian who organized much of the event took to reading a piece of poetry. The piece was “Electrification of the Rural” and was a great poem. Mainly because it so elegantly compared the beauty of a woman to the beauty of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s pure progressive programme of bringing the United States out of Depression with compassionate public infrastructure projects. There was never a more adept or truer comparison of beauty than in “Electrification of the Rural” and any progressive woman would surely have been flattered by such an allusion.
After that a local band played. I was amazed by the level of skill the band duo possessed. To be able to pluck guitar strings in a rhythmic and orderly fashion or to hit the piano keys at just the proper moment to produce a proper sound, a sound that fits properly into a piece of music, must take proper timing and an intuitive grasp of the way the end product would sound. This whole set of talents amazes me (It may not, had I even a rudimentary understanding of musical theory or notation. But I do not.). To add to the grandeur, the band wrote almost all the music they played.
Right after that night I took to making sure my own version of what happened there became the truth. I immediately penned down the key details of the event in my personal journal (which is always written by hand rather than typed). During my discussions that night with the acting teacher and directly after that night I experienced sheer mental clarity. I had seldom before or after witnessed clarity of thoughts like I did right after that night. The experience after that evening was almost euphoric and the translation of thoughts into words as I described that evening was very direct. At least it seemed direct to my consciousness.
The next evening I jogged to the library after work. The crowd was quite different from the preceding night. “Winnipeg Saga”, a series of symbolic short films made by the Winnipeggers, and “My Winnipeg”, another black and white silent film laced with symbolic metaphors about Winnipeg, was screened. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and it instilled in me a sense of pride, as I was raised in a particularly working class section of the city. The film succeeded in giving the working class city an ethos, however intangible, symbolic, or metaphorical it may be. That is what I admired about the film.
When I saw another Guy Maddin film, “Brand Upon the Brain”, I was not as sophisticated as I now consider myself. I was turned off that film because of its heavy use of surrealism and the rapid flashing of images, which was a bit too much for my senses to handle. I felt quite discombobulated after watching “Brand Upon the Brain”. While “My Winnipeg” was still surreal and laced with symbolism, I could appreciate it much more due to the easier progression of scenery.
The acting teacher touched more directly on the issue of narrative in Maddin’s films. I did not (at least the first time I viewed it) consider “Brand Upon the Brain” to have a narrative. I generalized from that film to conclude that most of Maddin film’s lacked narrative. The acting teacher countered that Maddin’s films do possess narratives. Maddin’s style, he continued, was more of a collage of images representing important aspects of his life experiences. I would further the description by saying that his collage style of films lack a sequential or orderly structure that many films possess.
All in all, I think that these cultural events are a great idea. They offer a great opportunity for highly cultured and cerebral social gatherings for those whose interests are not completely satisfied with usual festivities. Then again, that may just be self-interest speaking.
ENDNOTE
1. Although, to be fair, I have yet to completely read “The Heart of Darkness”. I obtained the novella’s meaning from another book, “I Don’t Believe in Atheists” (2008) by Chris Hedges. Chris Hedge’s sees the narrative or theme of the work as how moralists can use causes, like the spread of reason, to justify cruelty and mask their own subconscious and self-interested motives. He uses it to allude to his own analysis of “new” atheist literature (namely that of Harris and Hitchens). In spite of my professed atheism, I thoroughly enjoyed Hedge’s book.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
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