2145517’s Film blog

After my group and I presented our film in class in week 9, we received critical feedback that pushed us to reevaluate our film in its entirety. We were informed that the film was very allegorical. We revisited week 8’s content on the desert and were inspired to represent trauma in the context of the desert being an agent of violence. However, while not deliberately regarding the topic of migrant control and suffering, we did independent research regarding war, the desert and its aftermath trauma. In contemporary warfare, the desert increasingly serves as a strategic tool for violence. From the blocked humanitarian aid to Yemen within Saudi Arabian borders, to the bombardment of civilians in Gaza, deserts are militarised and made into a lethal warzone by abusing power and weaponry. Furthermore, as the cameraman, I revisited the works of Benning and Keiller. Both directors inclined me towards curating a shot list of evidence of human life in the desert; I captured abandoned shoes, water bottles, car wheels, wheel marks, and food wrappers. By applying Benning’s style, I filmed one minute of each human remains to let the audience feel immersed in what had possibly happened. With the help of my group, my filming process considered the post-production ‘Look and listen’. However, upon revisiting Keiller, I looked into his other work and analysed Robinson in Space (1997). A sequel to London (1994) from week 3, Keiller narrates his experience visiting the fictional character Robinson. He was alarmed by Robinson’s state, describing his enthusiasm to have been “reminiscent of that of Nietzsche”, the philosopher who believed life is meaningless. Based on this perspective, we decided to create a character ourselves, of a man expressing his trauma in desert warfare through a poetic prose. In doing so, instead of illustrating violence, we represent trauma in this context in a ‘hidden’ form; the man is calm, but his fears seep through.