tonight i saw babel. another incredible piece of film-making from alejandro gonzalez inarritu [amores perros, 11'09''01 (Mexican segment), 21 grams]
these voices leave me voiceless.
(if you haven't seen it, you may not want to read this initial reflection until you do.)
it's just a screen in the qft. it's just some images. some sound.
but sitting in that darkened theatre as the screen flickered was an experience of liminality.
inarritu creates this liminal space while examining other sorts of thresholds. frontiers - literal and conceptual - which threaten to cause separation; which contain the possibility of being eroded. an erosion which may bring encounter.
there are linguistic frontiers. the ways we communicate - in our audible words, with our bodies, in our dialects. will we risk crossing thresholds of difference in how we communicate to make communion possible?
there are political frontiers - the values we hold, our political identities, the recognition that our values emerge from particular conditions, they are specific to a place and time. will we risk allowing our values to change when confronted with new evidence and experience?
there are national frontiers - controlled zones, places where permission is required to cross a threshold. will we allow our humanity to influence the way we interact in these tightly regulated places?
how do we transcend or survive these frontiers?
with money?
gun laws?
love?
revolution?
stricter border control?
hatred?
in hiding?
the multiple narratives inarritu creates exist in dialogue with one another in intricate and poignant ways. from morocco to the u.s to mexico and to japan, and all of the babble of their languages, the narratives collude and collide.
here we see
we are utterly alone.
we are utterly connected.
here we ask
are we simply tourists in the world?
or are we allowing the world to wound us?
here we hear
the intranslatableness of things_
the common language of our humanity_
what do we have in common?
that we can be consumed by fear at any moment. that by being swallowed by fear we begin to transgress our usual boundaries. that our transgressions impact others and cause them to feel afraid. that they can be consumed by fear at any moment. that by being swallowed by their fear they begin to transgress their usual boundaries. that their transgressions impact us and cause us to feel afraid. that we can be consumed by fear at any moment. that by being swallowed by fear we begin to transgress our usual boundaries. that our transgressions impact others and cause them to feel afraid. and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on
ironically, it is often our fear that connects us.
