Sliding Doors July 26, 2007

Fortune Cookie at Lunch: “You are heading in the right direction”
Number of times people said to me, “That’s a good question”=7
Number of intense political conversations with DC cabbies= 2

Being back in DC brings back all kinds of emotions, memories and former ambitions. This is the place that challenged my political idealism and forced me to find new career ambitions. I was 23 then, full of energy and trying to walk in shoes that were not mine. Interning at the White House for the summer was my dream and the key to a bright future in political management, or so I thought. Ironically, that same summer, I had turned down an internship with a CBS documentary unit. I left the White House that summer with a new plan, heading to graduate school and embracing an unknown future. It hurts a little to walk around here and see the interns (and staffers) jockeying for position. I am just glad to leave the sweater set and pearls behind. It feels a little bit like that Gwyneth Paltrow movie Sliding Door (1998) where I get to see my life in a parallel universe, if I had only made a different decision. I think my fortune cookie was right.

Its amazing what you can find in the Library of Congress. I am almost more distracted by watching the amazement on the faces of the library’s patrons as they open their boxes of recalled material. Yesterday, I spent the day in the music division where I somehow caused a ruckus by asking if I could copy material. There were phone calls and desk-side conferences…..and suddenly the head of acquisitions was at my rare book table. With an almost Gestapo-like approach she started going through the files on my desk inquiring about what exactly I was looking at and what I wanted to copy. I wanted to say, “Simmer down, lady. It was just a question.” But I smiled and nicely explained what I was doing.

I am learning a lot about the particulars of researching archives for documentary films. Its exciting but what a logistical headache! I like this work, I just don’t like the bureaucratic red tape associated with obtaining and copying materials. Yikes! Its enough to scare someone away or at least force someone to write a big money grant to pay for a professional to cut through the red tape. On the other hand, it is so intriguing to learn more about Burl Ives and the man who made folk music popular (yet before this project, I never heard of him). But there are tons of material to make a great documentary, if only we could clear the copywrite permissions….

The Summer of the Archive July 16, 2007

A few weeks ago, the chair of my department asked me to come into his office, the Dean wanted my input on a project. In the last few years the dean and others in the arts community have started the Embarrass Valley Film Festival. Each festival is centered around a particular artist who grew up or went to school in the local area. Last year the festival featured Burl Ives, a musician and actor of many political contradictions. Since then, the dean had secured quite a bit of money to produce a documentary trailer for a historical, PBS-like documentary on Burl Ives, in the efforts to raise more money for a larger project. The dean then asks/inquires, “…and we need your help.” Coincidently, no one in the room (besides me) had ever been a part of a documentary production process.

Now, I am no dummy, so I know that when the Dean asks for your help, there is not a lot of choice in the matter. My first question was…”Who is Burl Ives? Why do a documentary on this cat?” Now, this was an interesting moment for me because I have never been part of a project where I was hired for my skills and not driven by passion for the topic. This was…maybe…a luxury I had not fully been conscious of before this moment.

To make things trickier, all the money needs to be encumbered (i.e. needs to be spent) by the end of July. Which means, I am headin’ to Washington DC to spend some special time at the library of congress. Its kind of exciting, after spending time at archives in New York, San Francisco, Austin, Chicago…I feel like I am wrapping up the summer at the mother of all archives. The size and scope of the LOC is a bit intimidating but I feel like I am about to walk into Willy Wonka’s candy store. Its almost worth the guilt generated from the writing I am not getting done while I am traveling.

I am also hoping to do some work on the activist documentary book while I am in DC. The city is home to the Center for Social Media and a few other organizations I am interested in interviewing. Again, more discovery, less writing…the pressure of producing really sucks.

Something Feeling Like An Indiana Jones Moment… May 12, 2007

9:30 AM: I am sitting at my new favorite coffee shop on 3rd Ave, eating my bowl of fruit and yogurt, contemplating the piles of scanning I will do today. Its only Friday and I think I have archive fatigue.

More documents…and history…and interviews…and papers. I am building up my tolerance for seeking out anything that looks like activism or politics in video history. Well, I am looking for more than activist documentary but essentially, grassroots video history in New York is intertwined with a counter-culture/hippy/avant guard artist movement. So most grassroots activist documentary is video but not all documentary video is activist. Which begs the questions, how does one assess the political and/or activist merits of a documentary? This is the matter that will plague my archiving process and essentially narrow the parameters of the book.

Yesterday, I had a face to face with the previously mentioned helper from Anthology Film Archives. He was very nice and obviously a cinephile with little patients for the likes of me (or so it seemed). The archive has lots of paper files I need to look at but no real screening material to speak of (most of their prints are in original format and difficult to watch). I was referred to Video Data Bank for those materials. After being told of their many paper treasures and armed with my laptop and portable scanner, I grabbed a cab and headed south to Anthology in the AM.

Lesson #1 for the weary anthropologist…”You Got to Roll with the Punches.”

11:00 AM: So they set up a table in the lobby for me to work on. I set up my laptop and scanner…I am ready for history to jump up into my lap and sing to me (maybe I had too much coffee this morning). After waiting for 10-15 minutes, the archivist comes down and says…there is a problem. Yadda Yadda Yadda…boxes that I need to look at are trapped and inaccessible due to roofing project on the building. We have a very nice conversation about the acrobatics of my project and he apologizes for the mix up. So, I decide to have a nice Thai lunch and trek off to next archive hot spot, the NYU library.

Lesson #2 for the resilient anthropologist…”Ask About the Details.”

1:00 PM: So I made arrangements to see all of the research materials generated during the development of Boyle’s Guerrilla Television book. Its the biggest find yet and lots of material to help me decipher whose doing activist work and whose primarily making video (maybe) art. Except, they have very strict rules in special collections about copying and scanning…all of it is a no no unless I get permission from head librarian who is gone for the day. So much for lugging my scanner around the city. I am only allowed to have one file at a time (there are hundreds of files and 16 boxes) and I can only have my laptop and one notepad at the table. Not even a pen, they provide me with a pencil. Lots of great finds…interviews, correspondences, flyers, video catalogues, news clippings. Lots of things that will help me for my upcoming trips to Austin, San Francisco and Chicago. I can spend days here camped out in a tent in the middle of the reading room (if they would let me). I only get through a 1/10 of the holdings before closing time but I found some real treasures! Things are coming together…

Adventures of Activist Documentary Girl in the City May 10, 2007

So many of my concerns about not having things to do, people to see and archives to discover was a much ado about nothing. Now, my biggest issue is deciding what I can feasibly fit into my week long adventure.

New York has brought much clarity to this book project–roughly centered on exploring the potential for documentary texts to organize and facilitate democratic culture by conceptualizing the camera as an activist tool. Essentially, it is a book with quite a broad scope as of now, focusing on the last 40 years of activist documentary. But more specifically, I am looking for documentary texts that are more than political, they open up a space for activism…and that is much harder to determine 30+ years later with little public documentation or in an archive with no supporting materials. I like this stage, collecting, exploring and learning as much as I can. Focusing this work into a manageable book project will not be so carefree or easy.

I had a chat with a wonderfully smart and helpful scholar yesterday who hooked me up with contacts, phone numbers and great ideas! I also had an interesting visit to a non-descript building that houses Paper Tiger TV and Deep Dish TV. I hit a jackpot at Paper Tiger where the office manager showed me all their training manuals for teaching community production in the last 25 years as well as a new documentary they are putting together about the collective’s history.

Today, tomorrow and Saturday are my library archive days. This portion of my trip will take me to the New York Public Library to explore the AIDS Activist Video Archive, Anthology Film Archives and the NYU Library to check out Deirdre Boyle’s interview transcripts from her book on the guerrilla television movement. Thank you Deirdre for archiving your work in a library so other can build on it! This little discovery helped focus my time here in NYC on things other than trying to track down video activist from the 1970s…I’ll save that for another trip.

Fever in the Archive Funk House April 24, 2007

So I spent some of my day planning my trip to New York. Right now, I am calling around to different film archives, trying to figure out how this collection process works. I have never really researched in primary document archives before, so this is a completely new experience for me. I am hoping to find a host of activist documentary that I am specifically looking for and hoping to come upon new treasures.

So, today I was reprimanded and helped by the collections specialist at Anthology Film Archives. Apparently, I need names…names, names, names. I cannot ask for a GENRE or search by CONTENT, I must have names!

And then I was gently reminded that the archive is not interested in politics but fine cinematic works.

So I asked if they had any work generated by film collectives in the late 1960s-70s. That is a big category, I was told…could I be more specific? Ok, the names weren’t rolling off my tongue. How about the Raindance Corporation? I think I hit a nerve because I felt the wheels turning inside the head of the collections specialist. He told me to hold on and set the phone down, he put me on hold for five minutes while he looked around the room for something (that’s what it sounded like)? Bingo, the archive had a special screening of Ira Schneider’s work with the Raindance Corporation a few months back and might be able to obtain copies (if they do not already have them).

So I am one for one …and now I need to make a list.