[03/21/07: See the comments section for answers from Jim Finn!]
[Today (03/20/07), I found the sheaf of worksheets I misplaced last week, and so had to refigure the math. The papers were from my "good" class, and so the numbers got skewed toward the "thoughtful" section.]
Recently, I showed my students the independent film Interkosmos by Jim Finn. The film is a pseudo-documentary/musical about a joint-East German/Soviet, secret plan in the 1970s to colonize a moon each of Jupiter and Saturn. It is also a love story. I provided the voice for Falcon, but that isn’t why I showed my students the film.
As they watched it, they had to fill out this worksheet (many thanks to Richard W. for the True/False questions!). The last question on the worksheet was “If you could ask the director of the film one (thoughtful) question, what would it be?”
Needless to say, the 14-18-year-old crowd isn’t as thoughtful as you might think. 47% of the responses were some variation of “Why did you make this movie?” Notable bits of phraseology in this section came from
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Phoebe B.: “What the heck were you thinking when you made this movie?!?!”
Katie N.: “What was your modivation [sic] to make this movie?”
Staysha A.: “What promoted [sic] you to make this film?”
Dylan S.: “Why did you make this lame movie (waste of money imo)?”
The next largest group (22%) asked about the purpose and/or meaning of the film, with notable questions from
- Tayler Y.: “What’s going on? What are we supposed to take from this movie?”
Andrew B.: “What is this movie really about?”
The third-largest, coherent group (a whopping 6%) was the group that left the question blank. 3% wanted to know why their teacher (me!) was in the film.
21% was comprised of those responses that were unlike the others, and which may have been “thoughtful.” For instance
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Carolyn C.: “Why did you put random things that had nothing to do with the movie in it?”
Heidi B.: “What was up with the girls with sticks and torches? Why was that girl in the tub with the Phithon [sic]?”
Calin S.: “What was up with the Field Hockey scenes?”
Colter B.: “one dumb question: Why have I not heard of this movie? one smart, thoughtful question: Do you think that someday we will be just like the Cosmonauts, trying to live on Saturn’s moons?”
Sam C.: “Was this an honest attempt at a serious space movie or was it just satiracal [sic] to make me laugh? What exactly was the move about? I’m confused. . . .”
Dustin S.: “Well I would like to ask him what he was smokin, or why he hates childeren [sic], and were [sic] he found those people and how he became a director while I’m at it.”
Brett K.: “Did you have fun makeing [sic] this film?”
Curtis S.: “Is there a book version of this film? I think it would be much easier to follow and understand because you can go back and read things again easier than rewinding the film. Also books seem to have more information in them than a movie. I think if you could read this in a book you may be able to find a purpose or goal in this film.”
Armondo C. created a 1% all to himself when he wrote this:
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“What inspired you to make this film? It’s interesting in a [sic] old fashion [sic] way, how did you think the film was ganna [sic] grab our attention. Why did you have all the music. Why did heir [sic] hulle [sic] in the movie?”
Regardless of their inability to spell or form “thoughtful” questions (for the most part), they were awfully good sports for entertaining both Jim’s film and my bullshit worksheet. And I thank them (even though they’ll probably never read this).
By the way, if you’d like to read all of answers to question #10 on the worksheet, you can get the PDF file here.
Phoebe B.: “What the heck were you thinking when you made this movie?!?!”
Phoebe, I come from an experimental video art background so even though there were a lot of oddball things in the film, to me it was actually more narrative than I usually am. I really wanted to make a sci-fi communist film where the heroes choose to die for their left-wing beliefs of building a great society where poor people do not have to struggle rather than live for their own private love.
Katie N.: “What was your modivation [sic] to make this movie?”
Katie, My motivation was to actually make the strange sci-fi movie I described to Phoebe. To make it without working for 20 years on other people’s films and coercing my friends and family to go into debt and then ultimately making a forgettable film, which is how 99.9% of films are made sadly.
Dylan S.: “Why did you make this lame movie (waste of money imo)?”
Dylan, I made this lame movie by pushing ahead with the idea and sucking all my friends dry and doing fundraisers and going into debt and working three lame jobs and not having health insurance because… hmmm…. I don’t know maybe I made a mistake. But Whitey Herzog who managed the St. Louis Cardinals to their 1982 World Series championship said you never know the value of a baseball trade until years later. So I’ll take that advice when contemplating my crappy movie.
Tayler Y.: “What’s going on? What are we supposed to take from this movie?”
Taylor, hard to say what you should take away from it. I think it’s supposed to look like a 16mm documentary from the 1970s, which were kind of left-wing and slow and annoying but charming. They make fun of them sometimes on the Simpsons if you watch that show. Also, there are some funny lines that are critical of capitalism. And in the United States, it’s fine to criticize TV, your parents, the church, school, government, corporations, friends, artists, annoying neighbors but it’s considered strange and confusing to criticize the economic system that we all live in. It’s like questioning why we walk or why we sleep.
Andrew B.: “What is this movie really about?”
Andrew, It’s about lots of things. There is no one hidden symbolic meaning to the film. There are lots of subplots like all the stuff about dolphins which I think of as socialistic animals like the guinea pig (unlike the gerbil, which I see as a capitalist animal, but that’s another movie of mine!). This movie is a unique movie, which is why some people and festivals love it. Others find it confusing or annoying, but since this is my first long film I thought I should make it the way I wanted to make it. That way, if it failed, I’d have no one to blame but myself.
Carolyn C.: “Why did you put random things that had nothing to do with the movie in it?”
Carolyn, the dolphin and guinea pig parts are really about the idea of analyzing animals for their political affiliations which seems insane but is actually not as insane as thinking your dog is “one of the [human] family.” Also the cartoon show is supposed to be a bit of nostalgia about the Interkosmos program. In normal films, every bit of it is explained at some point and in my movie I left out a lot of the explanations which is annoying but makes you think. Also, I didn’t want it to be like a normal American movie. After all, I was kind of trying to make an East German communist documentary about a communist space program.
Well there are some seemingly random things. see: Heidi B.: “What was up with the girls with sticks and torches? Why was that girl in the tub with the Phithon [sic]?”
Fire and torches are big communist symbols. I’m not sure why, but I wanted them to make a hammer and sickle in fire so the cosmonauts could see it and get inspired to love communism. I actually explained that in the film and a lot of other things but I edited it out because there was too much explaining. It bored me. The python in the tub was supposed to be part of the freaky exercises the cosmonauts would endure as experimental stress tests. The whole program was like an insane art school.
Calin S.: “What was up with the Field Hockey scenes?”
The field hockey scene was supposed to be where Falcon and Seagull met and fell in love, sort of. But also, I like the idea of politicizing sports and making certain sports like certain animals communist. It’s a kind of bizarre logic that I felt made sense for the movie. Incidentally they are forming a hammer and sickle, the symbol of communism. If I had 20 more girls and a crane or helicopter, you’d have seen that.
Colter B.: “one dumb question: Why have I not heard of this movie? one smart, thoughtful question: Do you think that someday we will be just like the Cosmonauts, trying to live on Saturn’s moons?”
Colter, you haven’t heard of the movie because it’s a weird no-budget experimental movie that played at film festivals in Europe and New York. If I can figure out a distribution deal for the dvd, I might get it on netflix which at least means people might see it. I doubt if anybody would live on Saturn’s moons. They are all dead and cold except Titan which has liquid methane. But it seems awesome to think about doesn’t it. I do think that it would boring at first though. Really boring!
Sam C.: “Was this an honest attempt at a serious space movie or was it just satiracal [sic] to make me laugh? What exactly was the move about? I’m confused. . . .”
It was both! I don’t believe in the difference between a comedy and drama. Great movies have all kinds of things in them. I’m not saying my film is great but I’m trying to make a great film, not crap. I’m happy if you laughed though. My nephew and niece find the radio traffic to be extremely annoying.
Dustin S.: “Well I would like to ask him what he was smokin, or why he hates childeren [sic], and were [sic] he found those people and how he became a director while I’m at it.”
I quit smoking cigarettes over 12 years ago and do not smoke anything else. I don’t actually hate children. I think you are referring to the line about “capitalism is like a kindergarten of boneless of children, it looks fine from the hallway but when you get up close you can see how fleshy and rotten it is.” It’s a simile with a seemingly non-sequitor (meaningless or disconnected) humor but it hides a real criticism of an economic system that pretends to work for everybody but in fact leaves a lot of people in dire circumstances. The people in the film are friends of mine or friends of Nandini who played Seagull. I became a director by making movies I wanted to make. If you make movies with your friends, you are doing the same thing I’m doing. It’s a community thing because you have to help each other to make it happen. I love it. It’s the best job in the world (though at this point it doesn’t pay well).
Brett K.: “Did you have fun makeing [sic] this film?”
I had a lot of fun making the film though I developed a slight rash during the field hockey scene, injured my knee in the snow scene, and got canker sores on my gums during other parts of the shoot. But mostly it was fun.
Hey Mr. Huelle!! How are you? German this year is so dull without you :( I wanted to say that Interkosmos was the best film i’ve seen in class! It’s way better than Logan’s, Michael’s and my films! LOL I was wondering how can I can become a member of this website or how I can help out? Thanks so much for all that you’ve done! ~Colter