Resisters

Digital or visual media


Daniels, J. 2021. Resisters. London
CreatorsDaniels, J.
Description

Research Questions:

What aesthetic approaches may I adopt in my cinematic practice against the background of the looming climate catastrophe and economic crisis of global capitalism?
How may I bring the past into the present in an essay film without recourse to extensive exposition and archive footage?
How might I move spectators to act in response to what they see and hear on screen?

Resisters is a feature essay film, located in Berlin and addressed to Rosa Luxemburg, the Marxist Revolutionary who was assassinated in Berlin in 1919. The key analytic approaches are located within the framework of film studies, trauma and memory studies, autobiography and theories of place, space and spectatorship. Positioning myself as a witness, my voice directly addresses the ghosts of resisters in the present tense, bearing in mind that as Mary Anne Doane says: “There are always at least two temporalities at work in film. Accompanying the spectatorial experience of the present tense of the filmic flow is the recognition that the images were produced at a particular time, that they are inevitably stained with their own historicity(Doane, 2002).”

The use of hybrid cinematic strategies of critical realism and poetic re-imagining, brings the force of memory and history into the present to encourage reflection and resistance and enables the circumvention of extensive use of archive footage and exposition. The notion of experimental begins and ends with uncertainty rather than verisimilitude. Experimental essay films aim to open the window of uncertainty a little wider to offer an expanded discussion of the subject of the exploration. My aim was to create a politically oppositional essay film where the human subjects are actively engaged in fighting for political change. The essay film may be achieved through critical realism since in this context realism may not be pinned down to the solely mimetic. I would argue that the aesthetics of the essay film may therefore lead towards political resistance.

My use of the second person singular, ‘you’ to address Luxemburg at the start of the film memorialises her as a historic political leader; in my use of ‘you’ to address past ‘resisters’ I am represented in my role as an imagined eyewitness. This may serve to remind spectators of their own role as witnesses to others’ lives. In my voiced addresses to the ghosts of resisters to a fascist past – there becomes a ghostly haunting where “the ghost presents itself as a sign to the thinker that there is a chance in the fight for the oppressed past” (Gordon, 1997). Nevertheless, the resisters are not fictional characters, and they, as well as Luxemburg are represented as ordinary human beings who were capable of heroic acts. Their stories are put in conversation with contemporary resistance against the right-wing nationalist party AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) through the activities of the Berlin branch of the group Omas Gegen Rechts (Grandmothers Against the Right).

Resisters incorporates footage from my two previous epistolic short films addressed to Rosa Luxemburg, also located in Berlin, Breathing Still (2018) and Breathing Still 2020 (2020); films that are constructed primarily through stills. In Resisters this footage is reworked, intercut with images of memorials; interviews; stills; political meetings and political demonstrations. I guide the spectator through the fragmented narrative. However, my role is a multi-faceted one: authorial; subject; interlocutor and imagined witness.

References:
Doane M. (2002) The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Contingency, The Archive. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Gordon, A. (1997) Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Date31 Oct 2021
Files
Media type
Video
License
File Access Level
Anyone
Keywordsessay film; history; political resistance; Omas Gegen Rechts
Place of publicationLondon
Web address (URL)https://www.jilldanielsfilms.com/films/
Copyright holder© Jill Daniels
Publication process dates
Deposited07 Dec 2022
Permalink -

https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/8v599

Download files


Files
RESISTERS.mp4
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File access level: Anyone

  • 129
    total views
  • 11
    total downloads
  • 2
    views this month
  • 1
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

If Not Now
Daniels, J. 2024. If Not Now. Australia
Archive Tales: Negotiating the Radical Personal Film Archive
Daniels, J. 2024. Archive Tales: Negotiating the Radical Personal Film Archive . Archives of Radical Cinema: Radical Film Network Conference 2024. Madrid, España 19 - 22 Jun 2024
Cinematic Aesthetics of Resistance: Reframing the Non-fiction Oppositional Film
Daniels, J. 2023. Cinematic Aesthetics of Resistance: Reframing the Non-fiction Oppositional Film. in: Rogers, C., Munro, K., Burke, L. and Gough-Brady, C. (ed.) Constructions of the Real: Intersections of Documentary-Based Film Practice and Theory Bristol Intellect Press. pp. 144-154
Resisters
Daniels, J. 2023. Resisters. Screenworks. 13 (1). https://doi.org/10.37186/swrks/13.1/10
Dwoskin and Me: Halting the Flow of Time
Daniels, J. 2022. Dwoskin and Me: Halting the Flow of Time. Jewish Film & New Media: An International Journal. 10 (1), pp. 141-159. https://doi.org/10.1353/jfn.2022.a914339
The way of the bricoleuse: experiments in documentary filmmaking
Daniels, J. 2022. The way of the bricoleuse: experiments in documentary filmmaking. Studies in Documentary Film. 16 (2), pp. 127-139. https://doi.org/10.1080/17503280.2022.2048232
Scripting the Experimental Documentary Film: Developing the “Script” for Not Reconciled
Daniels, J. 2021. Scripting the Experimental Documentary Film: Developing the “Script” for Not Reconciled. in: Taylor, S. and Batty, C. (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Script Development Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 103-119
Breathing Still 2020
Daniels, J. 2020. Breathing Still 2020.
Against the Grain: Women Film Practitioners and Theorists Talk Creative Practice and Theory
Daniels, J., Velody, R. and Atakav, E. 2020. Against the Grain: Women Film Practitioners and Theorists Talk Creative Practice and Theory. in: Piotrowska, A. (ed.) Creative Practice Research in the Age of Neoliberal Hopelessness Edinburgh University Press.
Subject, memory and place: Jill Daniels in conversation with Matthias Kispert
Daniels, J. 2020. Subject, memory and place: Jill Daniels in conversation with Matthias Kispert. Hyphen Journal. 2.
Memory, Place and Autobiography: Experiments in Documentary Filmmaking
Daniels, J. 2019. Memory, Place and Autobiography: Experiments in Documentary Filmmaking. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
The Subjective Voice and Hybrid Documentary Filmmaking Strategies: A Case Study
Daniels, J. 2019. The Subjective Voice and Hybrid Documentary Filmmaking Strategies: A Case Study. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media. 17, pp. 97-110. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.17.06
The Border Crossing: Experiments in the Cinematic Representation of Memory
Daniels, J. 2013. The Border Crossing: Experiments in the Cinematic Representation of Memory. in: Truth, Dare or Promise: Art and Documentary Revisited Cambridge Scholars. pp. 20-34
Trauma and silence: strategies of mediation in the aftermath of civil war
Daniels, J. 2014. Trauma and silence: strategies of mediation in the aftermath of civil war. Rethinking History. 18 (3), pp. 391-399. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2014.898416
My Private Life II
Daniels, J. 2017. My Private Life II. Screenworks. 7.
Journey to the South
Daniels, J. 2017. Journey to the South.
Blurred Boundaries: Remediation of Found Footage in Experimental Autobiographical Documentary Filmmaking
Daniels, J. 2017. Blurred Boundaries: Remediation of Found Footage in Experimental Autobiographical Documentary Filmmaking. Journal of Media Practice. 18 (1), pp. 73-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/14682753.2017.1306338
My Private Life II
Daniels, J. 2015. My Private Life II. The University of East London. https://doi.org/10.15123/DATA.146
The Border Crossing
Daniels, J. 2014. The Border Crossing. The University of East London. https://doi.org/10.15123/DATA.17
not reconciled
Daniels, J. 2014. not reconciled. The University of East London. https://doi.org/10.15123/DATA.18
My Private Life
Daniels, J. 2014. My Private Life. University of East London. https://doi.org/10.15123/DATA.00000241
The Border Crossing: the Cinematic Representation of Memory in the Autobiographical Documentary
Daniels, J. 2012. The Border Crossing: the Cinematic Representation of Memory in the Autobiographical Documentary. in: Esin, Cigdem, Hawkins, Matthew, Salami, Iwa, Tamboukou, Maria, Townley, Lynn and Wells, Marianne (ed.) Crossing Conceptual Boundaries IV London University of East London, School of Law and Social Sciences. pp. 8-16