Documentary, politics, USA
Adam Curtis is an English documentary maker who
brings together massive arrays of archive footage twisted and sculpted to create an analysis of political ideologies and their consequences which have usually resulted in the opposite of what they intended to achieve. From "Pandora's box" in 1992 looking at rationality and its corruption in politics to the brilliant "Century of the self" which aims a cross hair on the theories of Freud that held great influence in post war America policies, Curtis does not hold his punches and tries to reveal the way our government continually fails to serve its people. Century of the self also highlights the use of individualism by governments to quell social unrest and create a self obsessed consumer economy. The Trap(2007) his last major series until this years exhibition piece "It felt like a kiss" took on the idea of what we call modern freedom and attempts to show how this form of freedom is a lie in which we have virtually no real freedom whatsoever.Curtis's style uses stock film from the last 60+ years to weave his arguments and analyses in an awe inspiring manor combined with some excellent choices of music such as Brian Eno, Faust etc to create fascinating and entertaining films.
It Felt Like a Kiss is a piece of film edited from an exhibition at the Manchester International Festival, the first time Curtis has attempted such an artistic feat it combined sounds from Damon Albarn and an interactive emersive experience from Punchdrunk theatre company.
The movie that formed part of the experience has been cut into an hour long video available on Curtis's website, with no narrative as previous works "IFLAK" instead uses songs and image to put across subtler themes as Curtis describes himself "are deeply embedded in the ideas of individualism...but it's not the be-all-and-end-all...the notion that you only achieve your true self if your dreams, your desires, are satisfied...it's a political idea". Only an hour long compared to the 4 hour parts of most of his earlier work "IFLAK" is probably a good starting point for those unfamiliar with Curtis's work.
Perhaps not the easiest of watches in some places, but very much worth doing so, enjoy.
jamscoopa
Century of The Self-2002
Century of The Self-Part 1
Century of The Self-Part 2
Century of The Self-Part 3
Century of The Self-Part 4
The Power of Nightmares-2004
The Power of Nightmares-Part 1
The Power of Nightmares-Part 2
The Power of Nightmares-Part 3
The Trap-2007
The Trap-Part 1
The Trap-Part 2
The Trap-Part 3
It Felt Like a Kiss-2009
It Felt Like a Kiss
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