My Generation? - First Group Meeting

During the introduction sessions to the Experimental Film Module. The key film we were shown that stood out to my group: Mariam (Prod. Design), Lillie (Sound) and Myself and Matt hew (Editors) was a film created by students of a previous BA2 year group titled 'How can I lean on you if you're sideways?'. What really struck us in particular about this film was its authenticity that we as a group could relate to. With this idea in mind, all of us wanted to make a film that was relevant to us and our generation.

Exploration of Subcultures and If They Exist Today?

The generation I'm a part of can most accurately be described as the 'collage kids'. In the age of the internet as many doors, as it has opened, it has also closed the doors on youth culture's exclusive movements. Instead, people take inspiration from these past generations and mesh them together into some hybrid creature. I feel this lack of identity and belonging to a certain group has aided towards this dissatisfaction we feel as a collective of young people.

So for this week, I decided to research subcultures and footage mostly used by amateur filmmakers. In my group meeting, it has been discussed that each member of us records our own amateur footage over the Easter break to represent our age group so the film is personal to us as a collective of collaborators.

Sifting through the BFI archive I came across a collection of videos made under the pseudonym 'Captain Zip'. Captain Zip spent the majority of his time filming Punks in the early to mid-80s on the Kings Road in Chelsea not far away from Vivienne Westwood's original shop. I liked the way that all the footage was put together in a montage without it feeling unnatural or forced like a true reflection of these people and their rather expressive outward appearances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv4aDKleVB8

It made me think back to the idea of dissatisfaction that these cult-like hoards of interesting individuals with similar passions are now missing from the landscape, despite this generation now being seemingly more accessible with its technological advancements. Why isn't there a definitive collection of people to define my generation? As part of the film, I feel I wish to explore the lack of cultural legacy and how I find it as an individual and as a collective, frustrating.

Another film I researched by the recommendation from Matt because which questioned Identity and social attitudes was Self Made [2011] Gillian Wearing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G7kBNofQoE

---

Drive link to 'How Can I Lean On You If You're Sideways' :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qP9Fx6z_rauoJVlNW8feQ0vqb_hE2oTB/view?usp=sharing

Thinking About Possible Ideas

When I first came to thinking of ideas for the experimental film project. My first thoughts came back to one of my favourite amateur films Dirty Girls [2000] by Michael Lucid.

Lucid's documentary has to be oddly enough one of my inspirations for the majority of my personal work. For 2 years, I have had a personal project of documenting my life in video form. In order to create a film of my generation in a decade's time, over the years this idea has continuously developed and I want to incorporate some of my personal archives into this experimental film. Dirty Girls is a short 16-minute long documentary which acts as a time capsule on teenage rebellion and youth culture. Lucid initially shot the film in 1996 while still a senior at a Los Angeles High School, before finally editing the footage in 2000. While the film at the time of its release was shown at local film festivals, it only began to receive its cult status in the early 2010s.

The documentary follows a group of young girls described by their peers as social outcasts for their 'dirty' appearances. The group influenced by the Riot Grrrl and grunge movements of the early to mid-90s attempt to distribute their zine and spread their ethos of feminism and individualism.

https://vimeo.com/85014382