Lilith.

What's your favorite thing about film as a whole, and the making of it?

My favorite thing about film as a whole is that it is an amalgamation of all facets of the humanities. It combines every artform that I want to pursue: music, painting, photography, performance, writing, and montage.

But perhaps the single greatest aspect of film, for me, is that it is a widespread social medium. I was introduced to the political power of cinema in college when I watched two films in particular. The first was La Haine (Hate) by Mattieu Kassovitz. It was a story of three young men in the Paris ghetto whose lives irrevocably change when, after a race riot, they find a police-issue gun. The film hit me in the face like a sledge hammer with its ability to focus on the politics of race without being preachy. It was electric, honest and of the moment, and it did not judge the characters for the audience. Every moral question was left for the viewer to answer. To this day it stands as my favorite film of all-time

The second film I saw took the political impact of film to the next level, and that film was The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo. At the time when I first saw the film I was a journalism major in undergrad, and I was just learning the basics of mass communications. Also during this time it was the first major steps of cable news media, and so there was ample fodder to study in terms of journalism’s ability to foster sentiment and policy alike. There was also the role that media played in the court of public opinion, where conflict and guilt was decided long before any kind of jurisprudence. Cable news had taken the role of deciding who was guilty long before any kind of trial, and the wide reach of the networks almost guaranteed a partial jury and a weighted trial. It is an epidemic that still rages today, with pundits like Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace making up the minds of the viewer long before the viewer has all the facts to make an informed decision.

The Battle of Algiers, however, is a model of what journalistic cinema is all about. Centered around the Algerian War in 1954, the film does not give us the luxury of information - it simply drops us right into the middle of the conflict and allows us to process the surroundings as if we were there, and thereby permits the viewer to come to their own conclusions about where justice and injustice are committed. Set to Ennio Morricone’s frantic and immediate score, the film delves into the conflict from two opposing perspectives - the radicalized insurgent Algerian rebel Ali La Pointe, and the cunning French paratroop commander Colonel Mathieu. What ensues is a cat-and-mouse chase with dire collateral damage, and it is a battle of wills and wit that encapsulates the greater conflict as a whole. The film informs and entertains without veering away from the truth of its subjects, which is something that cable news should strive for. The film is so accurate that it is used by the Pentagon as a model for fighting against guerrilla warfare.

As far as my favorite thing about making a film, without a doubt, is that it affords me the ability to meet and collaborate with so many talented people. Over the past six years I’ve been in the film business, I’ve had the chance to make friends with some of the most talented, generous and interesting people that have ever walked this Earth. The artist is a madman, a emotional vixen, a passionate lover of experience. To be able to share those experiences enriches my life a thousandfold. On a film set, all of our hearts bleed collectively, and we share our bodies, minds and spirits. It’s a feeling quite unlike any other. It is punishing and rewarding all at the same time, and at the end of the day, we all emerge more complete individuals from our shared experience.

In the end, I’d say film as a medium allows me to grow as a human, it opens a window to our experience, and it feeds an undying curiosity and desire to find the truth. And while that may sound like a lot of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, I stand by it wholeheartedly. There isn’t anything I’d rather be doing for a living than what I do now, and that is a true blessing.