If you've got 19 in your birth year, that's pretty old to me.
unc status, making film with artists, and more Alex McNab live action aesthetic
¿What you heard?
LA Commons, the community cultural arts organization I’m partnering with this year and next, has a pretty broad definition of youth. Yet, at 29, I’m still four years past their cutoff, as I was reminded when I dropped by one of their mural projects this week and a youth artist put me in my generation.
“If you’ve got 19 in your birth year, that’s pretty old to me,” said Joy-Anne, not yet 21.
“What?!”
“You’ve done retro stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Like growing up without a phone and the internet.”
For the record, we did have internet in my house. It was slow, but it was there.
What you doin’?!
The challenge (and opportunity!) of collaborating with LA Commons is that, to my knowledge, I may be the first filmmaker they’ve ever worked with, and so I’m not quite sure that they know exactly what to do with me or exactly how the filmmaking process functions and aligns with their organizational goals.
I remember, during one meeting, they said “so this is not like making a mural.”
No. It’s definitely not. I wish it was, but it isn’t.
Bridging this disciplinary disconnect though is what makes this collaboration so exciting. It introduces new ways of thinking about our work.
15 months out of school, where filmmakers and artists are considered totally different categories of creator on completely separate sides of campus, I am only now learning, through my interactions with LA Commons and the other Los Angeles Artists At Work residents, how art practice and film practice actually align.
What you seen??
YEELEN (1987) is one of the most folktale-feeling folktale films I’ve ever seen.
In folktales, the characters are a little bonkers, shit just seems to happen for no reason, but you don’t really question it, and there’s a good amount of magic and probably a moral in there somewhere if you look hard enough.
That’s Yeelen.
It also oozes Alex McNab live action aesthetic, especially this scene where this magic hyena just rocks up to give the protagonist some fortune cookie encouragement.
P.S. This scene from TGV (1998) is hilarious!
The spirits really said “Fuck them virgins! Where the white women at?!”