Rotterdam Film Festival Wrap-up

I wound down the Rotterdam International Film Festival with James Benning's filming of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake, Utah.

The first shot is of the Jetty in 1970, spanning intermittent years up until last year. The years I recall are 70, 71, 74, 84, 88, 2002-2007. The years touch upon everyplace I've lived. One year, I think '88, he even filmed one day after my birthday! What glorious weather it was.

It was a great canvas upon which to cast my thought, which as so often, was whirling.

It was almost a challenging act in meditation. In a packed theater there are so many potential distractions. The mind can wander, especially in such a "blank," film, without narrative pull. I found myself creating a narrative of my own, which wasn't too much of a challenge, since I lived in Utah. I imagined how old I was in 1970 (I was a baby), and then in consecutive years of the Jetty filming.... How old were my siblings. What were we doing, where were we living in relation to the Jetty. It became a personal internal narrative, a game that I played with myself while observing the water, the rocks, Antelope Island, the clouds. There was so much to see. At a certain point, he had a shot of some boulders so caked in salt, they looked like animal sculpture. It's true. In other shots, the boulders were covered in snow. Toward the end were shots of the rocks caked in moss. It made me want to go float in the salt water and brine next to the Jetty like I did when I was twelve. It made me think it's time to live in Utah again.

When I fly in and out of Salt Lake, I can see the Jetty from the plane. It's such a graceful, curling line, jutting out of the Salt Lake. Nature there undisturbed by nearly anything else constructed by human beings. It's just the lake and a spattering of mountains. Such calm. Antelope Island is visible in the distance in many of Benning's shots. It's an island I've wanted to visit. People say there are Buffalo living there.

More on the festival soon. I saw a lot, and have been busy. It's over, so now I have more time again for blog meanderings.