The Secret Name of Cinema is Transformation
Transform, transform
anything everything —
stairways into planets
buttercups into navals
icebergs into elephants —
everywhere
everything
the old scene renewed by seeing
the unseen seen anew
transformed
(James Broughton – Seeing the Light)
A few days ago, the Boston Globe’s website released a series of stunning photographs from the recent demonstrations in Iran. Riot police in outfits from a dystopian sci-fi novel, scowling citizens weilding clubs and stones, protesters embracing battered police, black smoke over the city. The journalists have been kicked out, but that hasn’t stopped a massive stream of information and photos from protesters armed with digital cameras and twitter accounts.
One of these photos in particular has stuck with me as a remarkable commentary on the age in which we live:
College dorm room. Computer monitor smashed by police. Battery charger for a digital camera. Reform candidate sticker on the desk. Stack of CD-Rs. And look up above the monitor on the wall: two posters from the Festival de Cannes. After Mike’s post on Makhmalbaf, I can’t help but imagine whoever lives in this dorm room sitting down to watch Kilometre Zero, Colossal Youth, Pan’s Labyrinth, L’enfant or A History of Violence – all films that screened during the poster years. “Transform, transform anything everything.”
(See the photo in more detail at the Boston Globe link above.)