MEMORY AS A METHOD FOR FILMMAKING

Emilio Angel Reyes Bassail

This research develops a method for filmmaking that uses autobiographical memory as a guiding principle for the production of images. The proposed method comes as the result of a double gesture in which I wanted to a) acquire a subjective understanding of memory that came from artistic practice; and b) materialize the process of memory through film. I used the filmmaking apparatus as a technique to give visibility to the process of remembering and forgetting: I worked with strategies such as the elaboration of a “memory diary”; the drawing of spoken portraits and locations based on memories; casting techniques which involved a dialectical approach towards memory; scouting trips to find places from my memory; hypnosis sessions as a technique to recover lost memories; reenactments of memories; a method to direct actors that relied on memory as a guiding mechanism; and the editing of the footage through a process of memory associations. While doing this research, I inadvertently found that the techniques I used led to a process in which memories were rewritten through experimentation. Thus, the method produced a conceptualization of "memory" that frames it as a creative process. In the process of working on this project, I developed a very subjective approach to the craft of filmmaking that was informed by my particular relationship with memory. Thus, the proposed method of using personal memory as a core mechanism for the production of audio-visual products can be utilized as a tool for film education, promoting the creation of personal film languages based on an individual's memory, and as device to reflect on the subjective process behind an individual's artistic practice.

Amongst all of these concepts, which memory shall we talk about?

In the following chapters I´ll give a chronological description of my process and of how the process of experimentation led to questions and reflections that, in the end, helped me to form a concept of memory that comes from artistic practice. Lastly, while doing these experiments, I found potential uses of my research for art education. At the end of the present study, I will list a series of questions for potentially taking this research further, in the future.

continue to: Remembering the days when we remembered

COULD WE USE FILMMAKING TO REVEAL A MENTAL PROCESS?

Tip

Tip