There is a new space for Brechtian cinema in the age of the internet, where newly developing conventions for digital filmmaking have presented themselves, and an evolving dadaist absurdist culture reflects our current political and social climate. I am particularly interested in the way that memes and the overall absurdist humor of internet culture serve as a medium for a new form of postmodern art; one that exists in a context of social unrest, general distrust towards the government and news media, over-saturation of information via the internet, the existential anxiety of climate change, and the fear of a looming fascist regime.
I believe that in order to create a Brechtian cinema unique to the digital age, young filmmakers must fully embrace video over film. There are lessons in realism and new conventions for younger audiences who have grown accustomed to the style of Youtube videos, Snapchat, TikTok etc. For example, on YouTube, the jump-cut that Godard pioneered has evolved into a technique that reinforces verisimilitude, rather than shatters it. My goal is to use these lessons to make a cinema that evolves alongside its audience. I empathize with Godard’s anti-capitalist cinema, particularly with his early goal of expressing the lifestyle and opinions of his generation’s youth counterculture in the face of a factory-like movie industry. One of my primary goals as a student is to use what I’ve learned from filmmakers such as him, Nagisa Oshima, and other independent Brechtian filmmakers, to make political commentary about the issues plaguing my generation. A particular political theme that I would like to explore in my work is “What defines the American identity?”. Growing up in the relatively progressive bubble of Los Angeles, California, I was raised with particular expectations for what the United States of America is, believes in, and looks like. However, coming of age in Donald Trump’s America has brought me to the realization that a large percentage of the population disagrees with what I have always considered to be core American values. In my work, I’d like to explore the complexities of American identity and culture, the relationship between progressive and conservative ideals, and the way minority identities are defined and affected by these ideas. Overall, my work will revolve around adopting conventions of digital age media and incorporating an absurdist sensibility obtained from internet and meme culture into a new form of cinema that tackles Gen Z issues. The combination of absurdism and Brechtian techniques, will allow me to communicate frustration towards an illogical political and social climate, and to explore a new, extreme form of postmodernism, in which an overload of information has brought our society into a state verging on dystopia.
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