Self-Portrait
A portrait of humanity as captured by its surveillance cameras.
Interview with Editor/Director/Producer Joële Walinga
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thank you! I made this work because its subject and material just overwhelmed me with excitement and fascination. It feels as though I started making it before I even realized I was making it. It began about four years ago as simply an obsessive interest in the material and manifested, finally, as an experimental documentary "portrait" of what this material shows, and what it might represent.
This film is made entirely of unlocked surveillance footage accessible on the internet, and I was fascinated by what this footage might reveal about us as a species – we as a type of animal who puts thousands of little cameras in all sorts of places, documenting... what, exactly? – but I was also just as fascinated by it on a visceral and formal level, in terms of the quality of light or motion or camera angle, or the way the glitching of the low quality video had a disorienting effect. With this film, I don't set out to present viewers a thesis, but rather to offer them an experience, something interpreted by the body or by that part of the brain that holds memories – little a-linear things or juts of energy or indescribable sensations or emotions. Like the memory of scent, or how wind feels on the face. Weaving it together in this way, the indifferent footage becomes a necessarily human, emotional experience.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
This film has been described by reviewers as a sort of Rorschach test, and in retrospect, having seen the somewhat polarized response, I would have to agree. People either absolutely love the film, or they seem to resent it. If you are a member of the audience, with this in mind, I would hesitate to tell you why you should watch the film, or that you should watch it at all. Film is a subjective form. If it appeals to you in its subject, if you are interested in or open to exploratory cinema, if you can surrender yourself to experience and to your own feelings and thoughts while you watch something, then I think you will love this film. If you want this film to tell you something concrete, to present a firm idea for the whole audience to share in unison, you might leave unhappy. This film was made with a deep respect and admiration for the individuality of viewers. I have never in my work wanted to tell viewers what to think and feel about what they're witnessing: I want to create a space in which they can feel openly and interpret for themselves.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Self-Portrait shows viewers glimpses from all over our world in succession – rhythmic, pulsing – some have compared the effect to that of breathing. And in viewing these real moments from our planet, and the societies which occupy it, what is actually revealed is ourselves.
This is an abstract work that touches viewers on a visceral level, that allows them access into its world not through reason or analysis, but through those parts of us that we don't quite understand, the part of us that remembers the sensation of wind on our skin or that is moved by the sound of rain to a memory of childhood, a memory which exists in sensation alone, not in narrative accounting. My intention with this film was to use the objective, disconnected, indifferent footage documenting humanity on this earth as a canvas to allow us to really feel our own humanity and subjectivity. In this way I think that the personal and universal, for this work, are intrinsically tied.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
This is a film that people seem to either really love, or strongly dislike. During our premiere, the head of SXSW Film Janet Pierson made sure that the introductions to each of our five screenings mentioned that it was one of her favourites in the festival this year. She even described it as "pure cinema mode" while recommending it in REALSCREEN.
On the other hand, some viewers have been upset that they didn't see very much happen in the footage, or that my thesis wasn't clear to them, expecting to leave perhaps with my take on humanity, rather than their own.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
To be honest, I was very surprised! In both respects, I was surprised to receive such rave reviews and support, as well as such unhappy responses. I come from visual arts, and things are just not the same there – I think it's an audience thing. People go to a gallery expecting to see art, where people might go to a film festival expecting to be entertained (or "infotained"), and the two can coexist but they will not always, at least, not for everyone for every project – we're all different and perceive things differently. But I get the sense that this is more widely accepted in visual arts where, in film, there seems to be some idea that things are objectively "good" or "bad", "successful" or "unsuccessful", as if it was not an art form with individuals as viewers just like all the other forms. There is no single "audience", there are people, with their own stories and experiences which inform everything they perceive. I'd personally like to see less "this was good" or "this was bad", and more "I liked this" or "I did not like this" in all film critique.
In adapting to this new landscape of vocal love and vocal dislike after the world premiere, I am reminding myself that my job is to communicate what I care about, what I connect with, and to always be true to that. My job is not to please people, even if I make a film and they go see it. They may be pleased or they may not be pleased. It's a neutral fact.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Well, I'm always happy to talk about my projects and process, to share my work with new audiences and to connect with future collaborators and peers!
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
I'm still searching for the right fit for sales agents and distributors.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I would propose a few questions that I think are especially exciting to have floating around in your mind while watching the film.
1. What do our cameras say about us?
2. What is the experience of being human? (This is one to let your sensations take control of, more of a feeling-question than an answering one)
3. If an alien species or future anthropologists looked through our surveillance output, what might they determine about us?
4. Do I connect with or recognize these images? Do I feel connected to or disconnected from the earth as represented here?
5. What could be the purpose of these cameras in these places? What are they looking at?
Would you like to add anything else?
Yes! One thing that is important to note about this project, on a formal level, is that all of the sound has been built up from scratch. The video footage captured from the internet was all silent, so the audio in this film has been imagined by my sound designer Ines Adriana and me, as a sort of fictional element. We thought and played around with what a moment might sound like or how we could use the sound to create the FEELING that the moment gave us. It's one of the reasons I think the film is such a visceral experience: we used sound to make the hairs on your arms stand up, to make a shot of a house feel cold and uninviting, or to make you feel warm and safe while the rain falls outside. The sound works as our subjective interpretations presented to you, for your body to interpret.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Very excitingly, I am developing my next documentary feature! I cannot share too much now, but it exists within the subject of prison abolition and I am thrilled to be partnered with a fantastic team and moving forward so swiftly and smoothly.
Interview: April 2022
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Self-Portrait
Length:
1:07
Director/Producer
JOËLE WALINGA is a visual artist and filmmaker. Her work has been shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, and SXSW Film Festival among others, and is available at the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre and online at Doc Alliance Films. She is an alumna of the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival’s talent development programme Berlinale Talents.
Looking for:
sales agents, distributors
More info:
https://www.selfportraitfilm.com/
Screened at SXSW 2022