Dots of Memories

Logline:
An empty house, a forgotten place filled with pictures, several televisions and projections showing footage of an ordinary childhood. Forgotten memories documented, but for what?

Synopsis:
A short essay film about found and lost film footage. The era of VHS, the first consumer film medium that enabled normal households to document life endlessly. Home video footage of the filmmaker (Vincent) is projected on him, his parents, on the walls and ceilings of an old abandoned house. Using the well documented footage of his childhood, Vincent reflects in a poetic philosophical way on the meaning and effects of being recorded and to record himself. Why do we produce these images? Especially when some of them get lost, when films exists that aren't even developed. This film shows images not even seen by the person who made them. In South America exists the believe that being photographed is giving away a part of your soul. In how many pieces is your soul scattered?

Persönliche motivation:
My grandmother died last summer. Cleaning up her apartment my parents found a role of 8mm film. No one of my relatives knew what was on there, nor did they have a projector to watch it. As a lover of mysteries and film I claimed the film and watched it, the first person in probably 30 years. With expectation build up I was kind of disappointed. It were images of the retirement ceremony of my grandfather, no intimacy, no stark emotions. At least, that's what I could make of this 9 minutes of silent movie. I recognized only a hand full of people. This made me ask several questions. For whom are films like this made? When are they expired, by which I mean, after which period of time people don't understand what this film is about? And, How much of home video exists? Or How many home videos get lost? Cycling true Berlin I pictured behind every window a person or family living, having tons of photos and little films on there computers, old dv, VHS and maybe 8mm film as well, put in boxes, somewhere on a top shelf of a closet or in the attic. What happens with their stuff when they die? Of course, objects can contain a certain memory as well, but the difference with home video is that they were never meant to contain these. Furthermore, an object can be re-used, by which its meaning transforms and new memories can attach to it (and the old ones will be forgotten). This is not the case with home video. Images show an intimate look into the lives of concrete persons.
I came to some preliminary conclusions. If home video gets lost or isn't understood over time, than it's cannot be to document the past. Maybe it's to show contemporaries who weren't there. After some conversations with home video makers I discovered you cannot clearly specify what the purpose is (concerning the meaning, we learned from Foucault,that it is in the eye of the beholder). Still it leaves open the question of the video generation: in what way are we different persons true these multiple ways of representation of ourselves? I have memories in which I see myself in third person. Sometimes I say flashback instead of memory. The border between memory and film disappears.
I started photographing when I was 14 years old, always with a disposable camera. When I was 18 I bought my first reflex camera. I had probably all kinds of reasons why I liked photography, but in retrospect I sense that one of the main reasons was the fear to forget. And I guess that has something to do with my grandfather who had Alzheimer. A disease from which they say that it most likely skips a generation.
This thematic has long been of interest to me. I'd already forgotten, but the short 8mm film I shot a few years back, Overal Altijd (Everywhere Always), is about the blurring border between childhood memories and dreams. And I guess memory especially interests me. What truth do they contain? What purpose do they have? What meaning?
As such this film fits the program, in which I hope I will be able to stimulate other people to reflect on their lives and make them more conscious about the world we live in.

To run on festivals and to reach as many people as possible. Giving the theme and style, our audience will probably be young people, students, art lovers and filmmakers

Of course, the theme has no direct importance in society. On the other hand, we live in a world where we are more and more confronted with images and film and don't much time to reflect on what this does with our consciousness. How does it influence who we are and what we do. This film will definitely stimulate the audience to reflect on their own lives and there understanding of photos and film.
Furthermore you will be supporting a film that's visually going to be jawdropping.

With your support we will be able to rent part of the equipment. What do we need? Light, a powerfull beamer, Lenses, Dolly, Jibarm and Transport.