A Dark Blue Sky

One afternoon in the summer of 2007 I was sitting on the front stoop of my suburban getaway, minding my own business and enjoying a moment of solitude. I was rubbing my hands together, slowly, one over the other when I became aware of what I was doing. The sound of my skin on my skin and the feeling of my hands on themselves produced a moment of simple pleasure - almost joy. I was really going to miss this simple moment of being when I was dead.

Of course this got me thinking of other things I would miss when I was dead. Four or five came to mind really quickly and I decided to make a list. And afterward, I thought that this list would make an interesting film. Perhaps an anthology of short one-minute films -- of the things I would miss when I was dead. As I wrote up the list, I could not get past 64 -- that is how many things I’ll miss. I couldn’t determine if 64 was a lot or trivial. One person told me that she could come up with that many things in one day! Well, call me simple, I guess, insensitive perhaps. Some people’s lives are so much fuller than mine, how do they drink it all in without exploding?

Anyway, I started to shoot a few of these moments to see where, if at all, the film went. I liked the idea of a series of one-shot, one-minute films. Using my 35mm Konvas, I am editing in-camera and doing my best to respect the integrity of the shot, sans montage. I’m not divulging the entire list here, but the first thing on the list is: watching her sleep and the last thing on the list is: a dark blue sky.

I’ve posted one of the 64 films here on the site; Loch and his playful hands.

Stay tuned.