April 10, 2006
Cities and images.
I think Evan Mather's new film, The Image Of The City, is his best work since Icarus Of Pittsburgh. I don't know why, I just do, and when I say that, I'm lying because I really do know why and just like felt like pleading ignorance for a moment for no real reason. What I love about the film is that it's such a superb instance of adaptation - in this case, of Kevin Lynch's urban design manual of the same name. It takes a certain skill to translate a diagrammatical piece of writing to film and maintain both the intent and meaning of the original work while making creative digressions; but when Mather pokes fun at academic credentials in his opening narration, or expands upon Lynch's five visual qualities of urban architecture to include the opinion of ants on the doctrine of transubstantiation, he never reduces the film to the level of lampoon. Rather, he appropriates the original work and puts his authorial stamp on it as a filmmaker, while honoring its original literary intent and purpose. Lynch's theory comes across as strongly as Mather's stylistic traits and After Effects-endowed idiosyncracies.
Speaking of images of a city...
I've always maintained that my friends and I make films in Dallas-Ft. Worth for reasons of circumstance, and not choice. I love making films here, but that's because I'm making a film, not due to where I'm making it. There is no filmmaking community here; there are merely filmmakers (many of them wonderful and talented, many of them my friends) functioning in a civic void (something tells me that Laura Miller would never jump off a bridge for one of our movies). I'm not afraid of burning bridges when I say this, because there really are none to burn. Individual support is thankfully in no short supply; but I can count the local institutions that have consistently gone out of their way to help us on two fingers (Bart Weiss' Video Association, and MPS Studios), and we've long been bemused at the fact that our films have received more press in national publications more than in the local newspapers. And when the area rags do mention us, they shoot themselves - and us, and whatever vestige of a community the metroplex might have - in the foot, as the Fort Worth Weekly did the other day when they printed this article. James has written a level-headed response to it; since I don't live in Fort Worth, and have no civic pride in the metroplex, I don't feel the need to go easy on it. Initial good intentions aside, this is sloppy journalism at best, and deliberate misrepresentation at worst; the reporting erroneously substantiates the very problems it purportedly laments. The author's error regarding Deadroom (an insult to inaccurate injury) isn't even the most egregious element; it is his snide comments about the Facist Watch film series, which is run by friends of ours who do know who their congressmen and women are, that I find entirely unforgiveable. Someone needs to stop a moment and weigh the value of fact-checking against snarky commentary. It's a disservice, both to my peers and to the city itself.
I'm happy and proud to be known as a Texas filmmaker; get any more regionally specific than that, though, and I start to get uncomfortable.
Posted by David Lowery at April 10, 2006 7:56 PM
Comments
By George I think you got it. Thanks for the kind words. We'll see how things transpire, but I'm hoping to use The Image of the City as a chapter within Scenic Highway - something I've been working on for years.
Posted by: Evan Mather at April 10, 2006 10:31 PM
Maybe I was being to diplomatic in my response. Thanks for mentioning this. I'm going to update the posting with Ramsey's response and your's as well.
Posted by: jmj at April 10, 2006 10:53 PM
Thanks for mentioning this, I look forward to checking it out later--The Image of the City is an awesome book! I plan on being back with more comments ...
Posted by: Zach at April 11, 2006 7:27 AM