Issue No. 607
Culture
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10 - 16 October 2002 Issue No. 607 Culture |
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In progress: Man on the moon
Khairi Beshara is among the more prominent film directors who emerged in the early 1980s. In the mid-1970s he made his little-known debut Al-Aqdar Al-Damiya (Bloody Fates), starring Nadia Lutfi, along with several successful documentaries. In the 1980s he made Al-Awama Sab'in (Houseboat 70), Al-Tawq wal-Iswira (The Ring and the Bracelet) and Yom Mur Youm Hilw (Bitter Day, Sweet Day). His latest film was Isharet Murur (Traffic Light, 1994).
These days I am involved in the post-production of Lilah fil Qamar (A Night on the Moon), a film written by Manal Samir, with videography by Tareq El- Telmessani, who along with Raghda also stars in the film. With this and The Light of Other Days, I have been plunging into the digital adventure. When I was 20, you see -- a film student in the Poland of the 1960s, and in the process of falling in love with my wife to be -- I was preoccupied with this idea that time just passes, leaving nothing to hold onto. Then I had this burst of inspiration when I realised I was a filmmaker, someone who can capture time and deal with it as it changes. I plan to live till the age of 100 and all I'll do is keep working on time. The Spanish director Arturo Ripstein has said, "When filmmakers get older, they either die or go digital." I'm modest enough to realise I will never be on a par with Kurosawa or Tarkovsky, but I have the right to express myself as a filmmaker through the medium that I prefer; in my own modest way I will remain a filmmaker. Digital is the era of "personal movies". It makes indefinitely postponed or impossible dreams possible. Nobody can force me to deal with abominable scripts any more. Then again, nobody will marginalise or shelf me. Talking about his documentary on Nicholas Ray, Wim Wender said that, while conventional film simply betrayed the truth, digital would have been more honest.
That, you could say, is my future. For one thing I don't have a problem with the much lower resolution of digital compared to conventional cinema. Some films positively require that lower resolution, for aesthetic reasons. Digital came easily to me, I assimilated it. I learned editing on FinalCut Pro and developed my video camera skills. After spending all my savings on a DSRPD150 (the camera Lars von Trier used for the music scenes in A Dancer in the Dark), I filmed my daughter's wedding and then, also in the US, The Light of Other Days. Paris aside, I filmed in Washington DC and Manhattan. The main characters were played by my wife Monica, my son Robert, my immigrant sister and brother-in-law, their children and an Egyptian-American taxi driver, a chance encounter. I turned into a one-person crew: scriptwriter, director, lighting and sound technician, all in one. That was my first experience in digital. I started thinking of The Light while in Prague working on a never-to-be-completed project with Mohamed Khan and Sherihan. The title of that film comes from a poem by the Irish poet Thomas Moore about the loss of loved ones. It is still in progress, this project, with some 115 tapes, both miniDV and DV-Cam, still unedited. Whatever becomes of it, I'll always remember Sherihan's commenting about my disappearance throughout the film, with my son searching for me, that it reflects a deep desire to escape -- to relocate to places where people understand and communicate with me better, which is a positive, not a passive form of escape.
Right now I'm in the final stages of editing Lila fil Qamar, which was produced by Arascope Film, the company that represents the US-based Telecine International. I'm still learning, of course, making edifying discoveries as I go along. With this particular film, for example, I found out how ambition that doesn't take account of the circumstances can lead to problems. In my previous films, people always liked seeing lots of people. The film was very ambitious on this front, but somehow as I edit, in retrospect, I am fed up of crowds. And I'm thinking I really have to be more modest. The number of characters really is problematic. Having enjoyed my second collaboration with Raghda, over a decade after Kaboria (Crabs), I feel this problem has to be addressed. Mainstream actors who participated in Lila fil Qamar turned out to be a nuisance, for example. But I tried to be professional and refused to let them affect the standard of the film. I'm not leaving in a single weak scene while I edit, moreover. I'm making absolutely no compromise.
I feel I'm working with a new medium for a new century -- The 21st century, an electronic age. I enjoy the kind of non-linear editing that digital permits a lot, with which you gain access to a special kind of freedom. Without the need for dupes, I can make many versions of the same scene and save them until I make comparisons, or I can use the same shot several times in several places. Whenever filming or editing I feel like I'm able to control and reconstruct my world with limitless freedom. The notion of camera stylo, the camera as a pen, introduced in film theory in 1948, accomplished in auteur cinema to an extent, has finally become a reality. In the 1980s, my generation of film directors interacted so intensely and we inspired each other. Now digital will take us a step further, teaching us true democracy. Democracy is not solely about the right to say something, it's about choosing your fate. With digital I can choose my fate, with conventional cinema that's no longer possible. In mainstream cinema monopolies and external factors have the upper hand, they make the choices. Digital expands the options. Indirectly, it implies social change. I hope I manage to make more personal films and penetrate universes that interest me more. With digital, you film freely and convert it all to cinema later. That's why I no longer think of my previous video documentaries and short films as truly digital, though they may be filmed using that technology. My next project is Raqs Al-Rih (Wind Dance or Inner Light), which Yehia Azmi co-wrote with me; it stars Sherihan.
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