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May 14, 2011

A Sure Sign

I'll tell you this: there is no better marker for the passage of time than to have made a film starring children. You spend a brief period in extremely close and intense collaboration with someone, creating with them a lasting testament to their selves at a time which in the moment seems anything but fleeting. That being accomplished, the partnership ends and months go by and when you see that person again they're a whole head taller. Another month or two or a year goes by and your paths circle back around and that little girl or boy's voice has changed and the definition of his face has shifted with it and when he speaks he does so with an assuredness that is new and strong. You can see an adult for the first time, and what is most disconcerting about this is that over all this time you've felt no change in yourself until this evidence is presented and you realize: I must be mistaken. This is not like that gradual, imperceptible change which parents are witness to. This is not a matter of wondering oh where did the time go, but rather the clear and irrefutable answer to that same question.

Film is a preservationist's art form. In the life of a picture a few years can pass without pause, and in parading around these frozen moments one can feel frozen as well. Guarded against time until time turns your own ruse back on you and like Dorian Gray exposed your whole self must answer for all that's transpired.

All that being said, I'd do it again in a second.

Posted by David Lowery at May 14, 2011 12:51 AM